My Passion & My Eduation

Did you know that the dropout rate is at 75 percent that’s the highest it has been in forty years? An estimated 1 million students will fail to graduate this year, a loss of 5,500 students for every day on the academic calendar. Many students do not realize just how important an education can be. 1.8 million Young adults have left school without a diploma. Of those 1.2 million of them -- 66 percent -- are not working. And 36% of drop out occur in the ninth grade. Kids do not see how important an education really is. The problem is that education helps you to pursue your passion and if all these students keep dropping out of high school, how will they ever pursue their passion? I talked about education, how kids should receive the best education possible regardless of where they live. I talked about how teacher’s job is not only to teach the class but also be free of judgment accept, encourage, and motivate students in and outside of the class room. I value my education because it allows me to live out my passion and make my dreams a reality. A second reason I value my education because it helps me to earn better wages for myself. The challenges I face in my education like bad teaching. Success to me is not in the amount of dollars but the little accomplishments in life. How passion is linked to privilege and being privileged makes it easier for you to purse your passion. In into the wild offers some insight to passion and how no amount of money in the world can stop a man from pursuing what he loves. And the Jeff Bliss YouTube video sheds light on the fact that education is a treasure and we should not be afraid to stand again anyone if it is what you truly believe. And how teachers should be more involved in their students and what they are teaching One view I have on education is kids should be given the best education regardless of where they live. Depending on where you live in a city determines what school you are allowed to go to. So if you live in a wealthier neighborhood your children are all set because those schools get proper funding. But if you live in a poor neighborhood your children have to go to the schools whose funding is not great. So the school cannot possibly get resources needed to help your children be successful. For example, Obama states that, “If we want America to lead in the 21st century, nothing is more important than giving everyone the best education possible from the day they start preschool to the day they start their career.” We as students should have the best education possible no matter the circumstances, no matter where we live. We should have the best education possible and how they determine who goes to what school by boundary lines is stupid to me. We should be able to attend whatever school we want to. This is important because everyone has the right to a great education for example UNESCO states that, “Education is a fundamental human right and essential for the exercise of all other human rights.” We as humans have the right to education and a great education at that. This is important because many people do not know how important an education is or that they deserve a great education at that. This makes me feel really bad because many people do not even realize that education is one of their rights as human beings. The solution to this problem is to make more people aware about education and how empowering it is. We can learn that the most important thing to youth is their education. A second view I have on education is that as a teacher your job is not only to teach the class about the material at hand but should also be free of judgment, accept, encourage and motivate students to perform well in and outside of the class room. Many teachers’ judge students do not take the time to really get to know their students and think that the student really does not care. Teachers are supposed to be there to help and give a hand when needed. How do you expect a student to be comfortable with a teacher if all the student feels in judgment and uncertainty and feels like the teacher does not care about them at all? It makes learning hard to do when you feel that way. For example a student by the name of Jeff Bliss stated that, “I want to see a teacher stand and interact with the students, get involved, discuss, talk, question and get deep into the subject.” If schools had more teachers like this I believe that the dropout rate would not be so high. This is a problem because there are not a lot of teachers like this, who can make a kid, feel at ease. This is important because in order to make kids want to go to school every morning and be excited to do so you have to have teachers that care and are interested in the subject and the students. Another thing that Jeff bliss stated was that, “…You want kids to come into your class you want them to get excited you got to come in here and you got to make them excited…” Teachers have to get kids off of their lazy butts and make them want to learn about subject make them interested because if the teacher just lectures or talks the whole time never exciting the kids never interacting with the students then the teacher has failed his/her students in my opinion. Because students deserve the best education and not stimulating the students with academic games and useful tools to grab their attention I do not think you did your job right. One reason I value my education because it allows me to live out my passion. Without me striving to get a degree in zoology or play with wild cats. I would not be able to live out my dreams. My education is everything to me at this point in my life. My education keeps me striving for greatness, without my education I would not go far in life. Many jobs at least require a high school diploma if not more. Education at this point is all I have to fall back on if things do not work themselves out right in my life. For example Jeff Bliss says that, “What I soon realized is that without that education, I’m not going to make any steps forward in my future.” It is incredibly hard to make it in this world without an education. This is important for people to know because it is your future that is a stake here. How you will end up how your future will be is all based off of how well you do in school and how hard you work for it now. This scares me because I am a control freak and I have no power over what the future holds for me. The solution is to just keep pushing yourself to be a better person to try your hardest at school so you can get to where you want to be in life. A second reason why my education is really important to me is because it helps me to earn better wages when I get out of college. The more schooling you have under your belt the better you are off financially. The more knowledge you have the more you get paid. Being rich is not important but being well off is. For example franklin says that, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” If I invest in my future right now and sacrifice time with friends and family it will pay off in the end when I have a job that I love making good money. Going to college is a great investment for me, if I invest in my future today it will pay down the line. This makes me sad because I am investing so much time in to my future that I do not have any time to hang out with my family and that breaks my heart. I guess I need to find a happy balance between my family and school which is a hard task to accomplish. This is important because I am investing in myself to better myself. It might no pay off today or tomorrow but it will in the future. For example, “The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.” If you are smart enough to start your life off and go to school it is a good indicator of where you might end up later on in life. How much education you accrue will determine how bright your future will be or not. This is important because many kids only complete high school, not realizing that, that amount of education can only take you so far, and then comes college to take you that much further. We can learn to be more open minded about education and be willing to try new things even though they might scare us. This scares me because education is the only thing in between me and my passion, my love for animals and that’s scary because I have some control over my education but not by much. The only solution to that is to kick some serious but in college be successful and hope that I’m good enough to work at a zoo someday. Being successful in my education is hard to do when there are barriers in the way. One challenge that I face in my education is teacher that are just bad at teaching. I have had teachers lecture for three hours with their back to the class the whole time. I have had teachers that understand the subject at hand and they really know the subject but just were not born to teach. I have had impassionate teachers, lazy teachers, teachers that straight up just do not care. The second Jeff Bliss stood up to his high school teacher he became a hero to me. When Jeff felt that his teacher was not properly teaching the class he stood up and said something to his teacher so she kicked him out for doing so. Bliss states that, “I want to see a teacher stand up and interact with the students, get involved, discuss, talk, question and get deep in to the subject.” Teachers need to be more involved when they teach. Teachers complain that when students fail and the first person they blame is the student, they do not take a step back and ask themselves what am I doing wrong as a teacher? Most teachers think a student fails because they do not care about the class or their grade but sometimes they are just afraid to ask for help or do not want to get kicked out of class for standing up to an authority figure. Public education system makes me really angry because most teachers just do not care about the students or their teaching just stinks. We as kids deserve a great education whether you go to public or private school. A commenter by the screen name of ScreenMonkeyMan commented, “public school is terrible my senior year of history class they were teaching about Elvis. They also took down all maps and stopped geography class.” How can you expect kids to be successful and do well in school if you are teaching about Elvis in a history class? I know that Elvis’s music did play a role in history and was influential and what not, but in my US history class my Jr year we had an entire lecture on Elvis too. It just seems silly to me that we cannot pass state standardized tests but we have time to learn for a whole class period about Elvis. Teachers need to have a passion for what they are teaching because if they do not how can they possibly teach us well? And it is really hard to be successful in not just school but everyday life if no one believes that you can do well, it is hard to believe in yourself. Success is what you make of it you cannot let others define your success but having people believe in you makes a difference. Success to me is not defined by material objects or by wealth. Success is what you make of it. You can be homeless on the street and have a successful day and be successful. For example, a homeless person might not have home or food to eat but maybe that day somebody gave them a blanket and a pillow or some food. Success can mean getting the necessities you need to live Success can mean living another day, seeing another tomorrow. Living in a neighborhood that struggles with gang violence and hardship, you could walk out of your house one day being an innocent person and get shot and killed to death so living another day and not getting harmed is success to some people. Drug addict make it through the days, weeks, months even years sober which is success in my eyes. Success to me is the courage to wake up every morning and fight your demons. My community does not help me to succeed if anything it hinders me. Living in a poor community sucks, and it is extremely hard to be successful in a neighborhood that all your life you have seen unsuccessful people. People who are very well capable of going and getting a job but much rather beg for money for drugs and alcohol. People who dropped out of high school that had a chance at success but chose a different route. Living in a poor neighborhood means crappy public education. I have experienced poor public education first hand and it is hard to get the help and resources the things that I need to be successful when the teachers do not care you can’t get tutoring because the school does not have enough money for those kinds of things. When you have people who care and the resources to help and the money for tutoring of course it is easier to thrive and be successful. The teachers at Chabot are like robots they come in to class teach you and try to instill knowledge into you. But like the other day in my math class I asked for further explanation because I did not understand, my professor continued to just repeat himself he went on a rant and at the end of him talking I was still confused if not more. My professor is supposed to help me not confuse me even more. I would say that I am one of my biggest issues I face in college is myself. I have this incredible ability to get inside of my own head which put a lot of stress on me. Thinking the worst of everything makes it damn near impossible to thrive and do my best in college. I am my biggest demon; I'm my own worst enemy. I can tear myself to pieces with just my own thoughts and it’s not like what I'm thinking is a reality or the truth I just beat myself down with these thoughts. I'm just like every other college student I'm afraid. I'm afraid to fail at school and at life. I want to be someone who matters I want to make a difference in this world. So to think the worst possible thing is easy for me because there is so much in my life that could go wrong. I make it impossible to be a successful thriving person here at Chabot College. Money is another issue that I find makes it hard to thrive at Chabot college. If you do not have money for classes books supplies etc. How can you thrive? It is impossible to be the best you; you can be if you don't have the tools necessary. I had to get a part time job so I can afford school and the things I need to get to school on time. So my parents wouldn't have to struggle to help me out. It makes life more stressful a part time job and a full time student. It is hard to be successful. But to be successful you have to find your passion whatever it may be and take action and pursue it. Success will come much easier when you find something that you are passionate about. Passion has its perks and it is much easier to pursue your passion when you are privileged. The relationship between passion and privilege in my opinion is that people who are privileged can easily pursue their passion, and make their passion not a dream but their reality. It is a lot harder to pursue your passion when you are not as privileged as others. When people stereotype you because of the color of your skin or the way you look or dress it is a lot harder to be successful, and do all the right things in your life to make your passion a reality. For example I live in a crappy neighborhood, so my education wasn't the best and the people that live around me aren't successful. There were little girls in my neighborhood both shot and one killed the other left mentally challenged for the rest of her life. It is hard to pursue your passion when you are busy worrying about other things like the safety of not only yourself but your family. So when all you know and all you've been raised around are unsuccessful people violence and hardship how can you possibly pursue your passion into making it a reality? you can’t and that's were privilege comes in to play, when you are white and live in a great neighborhood and the school you go to is top of the line and you children and family do not have to worry about shootings and when you feel safe in your perfect little community, it’s easy to have passion it’s easy to pursue what you want to because all you have to do is worry about being a kid and not grown up business. In the passion project they talk about how their parents want them to be doctors, lawyers and cops, but that is not what they are passionate about. I find it hard to relate to these people because my mom dad and step mother have all encouraged me to be and do whatever my heart desired. They have supported me in everything I do and have done. They want me to go to school and have a career in something that I am passionate about, whether it makes me a lot of money or not. All three of my parents want what is best for me and for me to be happy so if that means making $50,000 dollars being a zoologist versus a doctor who makes well over double that, they are completely happy. For example Chris Mccandless said that, “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. My family has always pushed me to do what I love not what they though was going to make me the most money. They knew that in order for me to be happy in what I wanted to do with the rest of my life they had to let me be who I wanted to be. I feel really blessed because I know that not many people have parents like this that accept their point of view and want them to be truly happy. The problem with this is that too many parents still have a say in their child’s lives and the kids do not want to disappoint their parents so they just follow what they say. The solution to this problem is that kids need to stand up to their parents and purse their passion because at the end of the day it’s their happiness on the line. For example Chris Candles says that, “My days were more exciting when I was penniless and had to forage around for my next meal.” Chris loved foraging and being out into the wild that was his passion. I wish one day I can live out my passion like Chris did. This is important because in order to find a career that you want to pursue you have to be passionate about something. The solution is to try as many different things as you can to find out what you love in order to pursue it. We can learn to be open minded to all possibilities and situations. Passion makes you the person that you are; it shapes the person that you will be in the world. Passion makes me hopeful for my future because if I can find something that I am passionate about I can do anything if I set my mind to it. People should care about their passion because it helps you become a better person; it helps you strive for better.

A student in a passion class should critique education because it is their education. They should question every aspect of it because as a student I want the best education possible and just because teachers have authority doesn't always mean that they are right in every way. teachers are human too and they make mistakes. My education is very important to me and I pay a lot of money to go to college so if I feel like something is not right I am going to stand up and say something to anyone about anything. A student in the passion class should look in to themselves how else will they find out what they love to do in this life if they do not truly know themselves. In order to have a passion you have to know how you are as a person know what you like and do not like in order to truly love for something

Chris McCandless - Alexander Supertramp

LASER

I consider myself a laser student because I know what I want to do with my future and career. I am very secure with why I am here at Chabot college. I am here to turn my dreams into a reality. Having a good sense of the culture here at Chabot college, I feel like I fit in, not feeling like an outkast at all. I feel like I can relate to some of the students here on campus. My pathway to a zoology major is in full affect. Nothing and no one will stop me from achieving my goal. It feels good to be a Laser student because college is scary I could not imagine being a Wanderer or an explorer because they are very unsure of their future or what they want to be the classes they are taking. There is nothing wrong with not knowing but I am a control freak so being unsure and not having control on where my future is heading scares me to death. So the fact that I have my act together is very stress relieving to me. I am really lucky in the fact that I got accepted in to program called Aspire here at Chabot college. They helped me a lot, I got to see counselor with in reasonable time and they planned out my whole class schedule for my time here at Chabot college which is three years. They also give me registration priority which was very helpful because I got to register for classes two weeks before everyone else. I do not want to change categories because I love being sure of myself and my career. At an early age I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up so that also made it easier for be a laser, when I have been sure of who I and what I wanted to be all my life. I would not want to change my category for anything else.

The Boy In The Red Shoes...

Jeff Bliss became a hero the second he stood up to his high school teacher, when he felt he wasn’t being properly taught in class and gets kicked out for doing so.  There need to be more kids like Jeff Bliss, kids that are not afraid to stand up for what they believe is right, to stand against anyone who they believe is not doing right.  Bliss states that, “I want to see a teacher stand up and interact with the students, get involved, discuss, talk, question and get deep into the subject.”  Teachers need to be more involved when they teach. Teachers complain that when students fail and the first person they blame is the student, they do not take a step back and ask themselves what am I doing wrong as a teacher?  Most teachers think a student fails because they do not care about the class or their grade but sometimes they are just afraid to ask for help or do not want to get kicked out of class for standing up to an authority figure.  Public education system makes me really angry because most teachers just do not care about the students or their teaching just stinks.  We as kids deserve a great education whether you go to public or private school.  A commenter by the screen name of ScreenMonkeyMan commented, “public school is terrible my senior year of history class they were teaching about Elvis.  They also took down all maps and stopped geography class.”  How can you expect kids to be successful and do well in school if you are teaching about Elvis in a history class?  I know that Elvis’s music did play a role in history and was influential and what not, but in my US history class my Jr year we had an entire lecture on Elvis too.  It just seems silly to me that we cannot pass state standardized tests but we have time to learn for a whole class period about Elvis.

               Another thing I found interesting and that stood out to me is when Jeff Bliss went on his rampage he says that, “If you would just get up and teach instead of handing them a packet.  There are kids in here that don’t learn like that, they need to learn face to face. You want kids to come into your class; you want them to get excited?  You gotta make them excited! You want a kid to change and start doing better you gotta touch his freaking heart.  Can’t expect a kid to change if all you do is tell him.”  It just reminded me a lot of Dunken Andrade. Dunken Andare talks about schools and public education how the way teachers teach will leave an everlasting impression on kids.  And how education is the most important possession we have at a young age. 

Growing Roses in Concrete

Tupac does poetic justice in this poem A Rose That Grew From Concrete.  he describes the situation of millions of kids and young adults that live in unreliable neighborhoods.  where growing up means surviving another day not getting shot at.  When it feels like  everything is against you, and it might be but it is extremely hard to be that rose that is growing from the concrete when every time you turn around  something else has gone wrong in your life, you feel like the world is against you but you rise above all that you make it and u are the rose that even when all the odds where against you, you were able to rise above all the obstacles in your live and make it.  Jeff Dunken Andrade talks about how impressionable kids are.  children teachers anybody can imprint on them.  If you can change a kid when they are young enough you can change their whole life... essentially forever.  McFarland brought up a good point the other day he said that, you are safer in Iraq than living Oakland right now.  how sad is that the death rate is so high in Oakland that a war doesn't even measure up to the death toll.  Andrade also talks about a key to children's success in school pyramid and on the bottom of that pyramid was children need clothes, food, safety, if these kids are worried about things food and clothes do you really think they are going to do good in school? 
Another concept that Andrade talks about is Maya Agelou and how Maya broke up a fight that Tupac was about to get into and she tells him do you understand how important you are?  and Tupac  cried people want to know that they matter to somebody even if it is a complete stranger.  we want to know we matter.
(Question 1)How do you get teachers to care as much as Dunken Andrade? (Question 2)And when you do find teachers like Dunken Andrade how you make your students thrive and want to learn? (Question 3)How can you change the heart of a child that is so use to seeing negative actions?

Me, Success & My Community!

Success to me is not defined by material objects or by wealth. Success is what you make of it. You can be homeless on the street and have a

successful day and be successful. For example, a homeless person might not have home or food to eat but maybe that day somebody gave them a blanket and a pillow or some food. Success can mean getting the necessities you need to live Success can mean living another day, seeing another tomorrow.  Living in a neighborhood that struggles with gang violence and hardship, you could walk out of your house one day being a innocent person and get shot and killed to death so living another day and not getting harmed is success to some people.  Drug addict make it threw the days, weeks, months even years sober which is success in my eyes. Success to me is the courage  to wake up every morning and fight your demons. My community does not help me to succeed if anything it hinders me.  Living in a poor community sucks, and it is extremely hard to be successful in a neighborhood that all your life you have seen unsuccessful people.  People who are very well capable of going and getting a job but much rather beg for money for drugs and alcohol.People who dropped out of high school that had a chance at success but chose a different route. Living in a poor neighborhood means crappy public education.  I have experienced poor public education first hand and it is hard to get the help and resources the things that I need to be successful when the teachers do not care you cant get tutoring because the school does not have enough money for those kinds of things. When you have people who care and the resources to help and the money for tutoring of course it is easier to thrive and be successful. the teachers at Chabot are like robots they come in to class teach you and try to instill knowledge into you.  But like the other day in my math class I asked for further explanation because I did not understand, my professor continued to just repeat himself he went on a rant and at the end of him talking I was still confused if not more.  My professor is supposed to help me not confuse me even more.   I would say that I am one of my biggest issues I face in college is myself.  I have this incredible ability to get inside of my own head which put a lot of stress on myself. Thinking the worst of everything makes it damn near impossible to thrive and do my best in college. I am my biggest demon, I'm my own worst enemy. I can tear my self to pieces with just my own thoughts and its not like what I'm thinking is a reality or the truth I just beat myself down with these thoughts.  I'm just like every other college student I'm afraid.  I'm afraid to fail at school and at life. I want to be someone who matters I want to make a difference in this world.  So to think the worst possible thing is easy for me because there is so much in my life that could go wrong.  I make it impossible to be a successful thriving person here at Chabot college. Money is another issue that I find makes it hard to thrive at Chabot college.  If you do not have money for classes books supplies etc.  How can you thrive? It is impossible to be the best you, you can be if you don't have the tools necessary.  I had to get a part time job so I can afford school and the things I need to get to school on time.  So my parents wouldn't have to struggle to help me out. It makes life more stressful a part time job and a full time student.  it is hard to be successful.