“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” In the world of education, many believe it both starts and ends within the classroom; however, when breaking down the understanding of both student success and equitable education, we can better understand that this is not true. Education transcends beyond the walls of the classroom and within everything we do. Despite the characteristics of the home, school, and community for which an individual is raised, it is the interconnectedness of these systems for which an individual may see success. The collective influence of the home, school, and one’s community plays a significant role in shaping both a student’s success and overall equitable education for all. Throughout the entirety …show more content…
While schools of all types do teach students their subjects and test them on their abilities, there are many other roles, including a child’s personal identity. As mentioned throughout Mike Rose’s, “I Just Wanna Be Average,” we as readers were able to see many aspects of this argument. For one, throughout his story, he explained how being placed within the vocational learning tract allowed him to switch his mindset towards school and his behaviors as he mimicked his classmates. He was less passionate about learning and the courses seemed to lack a meaning to his bigger picture of life. While some may argue that this is only due to the educational system itself, he explains how it was more so the attitudes of his surrounding social environment. This example directly explains the concept of how a student’s educational environment may also shape their personal success. When thinking about one’s educational environment in a more positive way, we typically highlight the teaching styles, inclusivity of learning environments, supportive services, and other ranges of resources provided to students. While in a more optimistic mindset these aspects can aid one’s achievements and improve the probability of success, when there is a lack of equity or accommodation for individual cases that are impactful, there lays a problem. However, this does more accurately prove how the role, specifically of one’s school environment, may play a crucial role in a student’s success and how it is important to promote equitable educational outcomes for all
Too often, students are taught that their lives are defined by who they are and what they do, not by circumstances. But circumstances can be very crucial to determining how a person’s life is shaped. It’s no secret that not all schools and neighborhoods are created equal. Some schools offer advanced classes, and college prep, and opportunities, while some schools don’t even have textbooks. Even within the circumstances, there are circumstances. The students in the latter school that lacks textbooks may have parents who go the extra mile to ensure that they have more opportunities, or could have parents who don’t have the resources to do that. Environment and circumstance can make a huge difference, and Wes Moore’s The Other Wes Moore is a fantastic
Mike Rose shares his personal story to the public in “I just wanna be average”, as he reveals the many flaws within the educational system of a high school in an economically depressed neighborhood in Los Angeles.
In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, Mike Rose recounts his experiences in vocational program in high school, which known as bottom level. When he was a freshman, he accidently was placed in these classes but he decided to stay. Rose goes into details describing some of his teachers and classmates. Certain teachers he introduced were not enthusiastic about their jobs and they don’t believe their students can make good achievements, and sometime they even treat students violently, which also lead some students of the vocational program to slack off and not care about studying. Rose also focused on some of his classmates, who were seen as troublemakers. He found out that they actually were not always like fighting, being lazy and loafing, and they had some special skills showed their true personalities. There was one boy that very stuck out to Rose was Ken Harvey, who was asked by teacher to give an opinion of working hard to make achievements, stated that “ I just wanna be average” (Rose 335). I was pretty impressive about this quote because that I think being average might like some of students calm down and feel not so stressful to survive in educational system. Later in Rose’s life, he eventually moved out of vocational program and back to typical school system. At this time, his father passed away, which is not so relevant with the main plot. Later, Mr. MacFarland came into Rose’s life as his English teacher in senior year. Rose looked up Mr. MacFarland deeply because he sincerely cared of his students, told the importance of working hard to them and even encourage Rose to pursue further education in college. I can tell that Mr. MacFarland left positive impacts on Rose’s whole life, and helped him found his real potential.
Literacy, or the capability to comprehend, translate, utilize, make, process, assess, and speak information connected with fluctuating settings and displayed in differing organizations, assumes an essential part in molding a young's persons trajectory in life. The ability to read speaks to a key factor of scholarly, social, and financial success (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). These abilities likewise speak to a fundamental segment to having a satisfying life and turning into an effective worker and overall person (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1999). Interestingly, recent studies have demonstrated that low reading skills lead to critical hindrances in monetary and social achievement. As stated by the National Center for Education Statistics, adults with lower levels of reading skills and literacy have a lower average salary. Another study evaluated that 17 to 18 percent of adults with "below average" literacy aptitudes earned less than $300 a week, though just 3 to 6 percent of adults with "proficient" reading abilities earned less than $300 a week (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).
When I think about the value of education, I first begin to think about the connection it brings between that and it’s community. The strength of the education in a community is directly responsible for how strong a community will be in the present and future, as does the efforts parents make in the learning processes of
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class. Both Gatto and Rose give their opinions on how the educational system is falling apart. Today the government is only trying to get students to pass, making it hard for teachers to teach what they want. Students are affected everyday by the school system. They sit there - bored - and do not think that the teachers care, making the
I was placed into a school up to my educational standard, surrounded by students who were not better or worse than me. Yet Gatto might disagree by referring to point four of Inglis break down of the “actual purpose” of the school system: “…children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits—and not one step further. So much for making kids their personal best” (3). I need to disagree with the author’s view point on this statement because, it was the perfect environment for me to rebuild my confidents in my educational abilities. Furthermore, because of exceling in my classes, my teachers saw my capabilities and moved me up into higher level of education. If I wouldn’t have been placed in this educational environment, I’m pretty sure it would not have rekindled my desire to pursue onto a track into higher education, of being my personal best, and to allow myself to dream
Lacking the necessary support, many start to devalue the importance of doing well in school deciding that perhaps school isn’t part of their identity. In Susan’s case she’s eliciting multiple forms of subordination, and within each dimension she’s being subjective to different types of oppression; racial oppression, gender oppression, and class oppression, she’s experiencing cultural alienation and isolation and is not only based on her ethnicity as a Latina but is also influenced by how she is treated as a female, as a member of a certain socioeconomic class, and in relation to her English language proficiency, and even her perceived immigration status. In this sense, students like Susan experience different forms of discrimination or marginalization that stems from
In conclusion, the Academic Achievement has been fueled by society's presets, minority students' lack of effort, and the failures of the schooling system in America. There has been some challenging setbacks, but the Gap can be fixed to create a common ground for all prospective members of America's society to excel on equally. By realizing that change can be achieved, there are little to no limits for minority students to create a better mindset towards education. Students, parents, and teachers have to be willing to work together, as well as tackle obstacles upheld by society, and the economic deficiencies that effect schools across America. This will, in turn, take America one step closer to closing the Academic Achievement Gap in America.
Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s problems. Most importantly, money cannot influence student, parent, teacher, and administrator perceptions of class and race. Nor can money improve test scores and make education relevant and practical in the lives of minority students. School funding is systemically unequal, partially because the majority of school funding comes from the school district’s local property taxes, positioning the poorest communities at the bottom rung of the education playing field. A student’s socioeconomic status often defines her success in a classroom for a number of reasons.
Michael Oher was from an all-black neighborhood located in the third poorest zip code in the country. By the time he was a sophomore, he’d been to 11 different schools, he couldn’t read or write, and he had a GPA of 0.6. In his first-grade year alone, he missed 41 days of school and ended up repeating both the first and the second grade; he didn’t even go to the third grade. Oher was one of the thousands of children that have been identified as having four or more of the at-risk factors mentioned by the National Center of Education and Statistics (NCES). According to the NCES, poverty and race are high on the list of things that negatively affect students’ ability to succeed at school. Other risk factors include changing schools multiple times and being held back from one or more grades. Oher’s biography, The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, proves how socioeconomic status impacts a child’s academic success because placed in perspective, education is not as important as the hardships of reality.
When I was born, my family had just migrated to California from Mexico. In a new country, my father worked in landscaping earning less than $4 dollars an hour, while my mother relied on public transportation to take her newborn child to and from doctor visits. In the land of opportunity, my family struggled to put a roof over our heads. But never discouraged, my parents sought to achieve their goals and worked tirelessly to raise my younger brother and I. From a young age, I was taught the importance of education; this became a major catalyst in my life. My desire to excel academically was not for self-gain, but my way of contributing to my family’s goals and aspirations.
Have you ever had your boyfriend cheat on you? In the novel Maybe Someday, Sydney, who is musically talented, finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend. Sydney is not only left heartbroken, but she also has nowhere to go. One day, she notices her neighbor playing guitar on his balcony. Sydney finds out his name is Ridge, and he plays a beautiful sound on his guitar despite being deaf.
In today’s American society, quality education is important for one to succeed. Without proper education, a person will find it extremely difficult to apply for college, a job, or to pursue his or her dream. Typically when Americans think of education, public education is the first to come to mind. Public education has been around for centuries and is provided to most children throughout the United States. Due to this fact, public education has been the go to education source for years. Though, this trend is slowly changing with many parents deciding to home school their children instead. Many factors are the cause for this issue, but the common arguments arise from a certain few. For students, public school provides many opportunities ranging from social connections, school sports, and the exposure to teachers who are experts in their fields. But homeschooling is often superior because it offers additional time for students to participate in various extracurricular activities and community service, allows for more individual attention, personal character development, and it offers less exposure to discrimination that is received in the public school environment.
A student’s learning environment has a significant impact on their academic achievement. (Garas-York, 2010, p. 432) This section will discuss how the environment a student is placed in, whether at home or school, plays a large role in determining their academic success. It will include studies conducted with both homeschooled and non-homeschooled students, and will show how a traditional school setting is often not conducive to a student’s learning