EJ Mendoza
3rd
Paper
Eng 7 Mc Farland
TWTH 6:00 pm
The Passion for Education
Ever since childhood I was constantly advised by my grandma
in Nicaragua to “study so I wouldn’t grow up to be the slave of the tyrants”,
which is an old saying. Education is one of the most important goals in most
individual’s lives or at least in my case. Ever since I moved to the states,
shortly after I graduated from high school, I had to start working to be able
to support myself. Due to the high demand of my job, I couldn’t continue my
education and I had to drop out of my classes very regularly. Also, I was
discouraged by family members telling me that it was going to be very expensive
and I wasn’t going to be able to afford it. This really devastated me because I
loved going to school and learning. I didn’t really care to be honest how much
I was going to have to pay even if at the end I was going to end up taking just
one class. My education was my passion and goal. I then realized that I had to
do something about it, so I did. The first time that I was laid off, I took the
opportunity to go back to school.
Education
is the door to freedom. It is the means to an end. In order to obtain a better
quality of life, we need to acquire an education. We have to pursue it because
for most working class people, education won’t come to them. For example, in
the movie “Into the Wild”
Chris McCandless said to the young girl “If you want
something in life reach out and grab it”. This is a remarkable quote that stuck
to me the most because now, more than ever, have to fight for our education.
Every year we are facing more budget cuts, higher tuition, leaving us with
fewer class availabilities, more compact classrooms and a lot of debt.
As a result, we loose our ability to explore and end up
rushing into a major that we are not really passionate about. We end up
quitting half way through the major and starting over again or doing something
that we don’t really love which leaves us feeling unfulfilled in our lives.
Education is becoming more and more difficult to pursue. This
could leave us feeling hopeless and defeated. As a result, we are going to
loose our many freedoms like enjoying nature since many corporations are
destroying our forests or the freedom to express our opinions and fight for our
rights. We can’t afford to loose our many freedoms like the one of enjoying
nature. Nature and everything in it is one of the most beautiful things that
our mother earth offers like Chris McCandless once said “the Freedom and simple
beauty is just too good to pass up”. (Into the Wild). By getting educated we
can become aware and fight back the big corporations that are trying to take
this from us. It is extremely important that education is available to all of
us but we can’t let the elite defeat us because they control and are trying to
keep us in the hole, enslaved, and without freedom. It is a constant struggle
for power, greed and control. They want to keep us dumb and illiterate because
otherwise we could fight back when we are educated.
Education shouldn’t just be a means to
financial end. It should be viewed as a way to become best selves and realize
our potentials. It should change our point of view of how we see our society
and the world. For example: John F. Kennedy put it this way "Let us think
of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each
of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated
into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation" (1917-1963).
Without education, we can’t really take care of our families, ourselves, and
our nation. We become useless in improving our nation.
As a student, I consider myself a laser student because I
have a good sense of the culture of my college, I feel like I have a lot of
momentum of where I want to be. Academically, I have a good idea about what to
do, but I think I could solidify my plan a little better. I feel a little
suppressed when it comes to being a laser student because I want to be more of
an explorer or a seeker. I want to try new things, explore other subjects like
philosophy but I feel like it wouldn’t be a good idea at this moment because I am
already more than half way through my major and it would set me back. Another
reason is that I have a family and I feel like I don’t have the luxury of
exploring as I did when I was single because I could harm my family. Also, I am
not very young anymore, so I have to choose something that will provide food on
the table for my family. In addition, school is getting more and more expensive
every year so it is costing more to go to school. If I was younger I would try
knew subjects but more than likely I will try them when I’m done with my
major. I will take those classes that I’m curious about just for fun. I
remember the first time when I was an explorer student. I was so happy to be able
to go to college because everyone was telling me that I couldn't go to college.
I was just taking classes and exploring but I am glad that I have chosen a
career that I love and I feel like I am moving forward.
One
of the potential deal breakers that I constantly face is money. Ever since I
started school I had to take a very low paying job. I make four times less than
what I used to make. Also, I have a family and the pressure of having a family
while going to school and been a provider huge. My partner is making more than
me and usually she gets frustrated because pretty often I can’t afford the
activities that you would be able to do on decent salary. For example: going
out to restaurants that she enjoys so much, traveling, going to comedy shows, a
weekend get away, etc. I also get frustrated with myself because I earn so
little and I often blame it on school. Sometimes I feel like quitting and focus
on finding a job that will pay what I used to earn before but I love to learn
and go to school so much that I feel at the end it is going to be worth while.
I have to sacrifice so much for school. I hardly ever buy anything for myself
and that’s ok I really like not being materialistic but there is a limit. I
don’t usually treat myself to small things for extended periods of time like
having a Frappuccino. Working just makes ends meet. It is really suffocating.
It is a situation that would really affect the person and everybody else around
him/her. I am lucky that I don’t have kids yet because the pressure would be so
much more and I admire people that already have kids and go to school. Your
self esteem could be affected, and sometimes I criticize myself of how far away
I am from my goals, and where in life I should be right now. School just becomes
more difficult because you can’t fully put the best you got into it. It is
difficult to learn how to balance work, study time and family, especially after
you are getting off from work and feeling tired and drained from a full day.
All you want to do is to come home to relax and decompress, and the last thing
that you want to do is study. It takes a lot of discipline to be able to make a
conscious effort to redirect and refocus on a new task.
The Second potential deal breaker
that I face is socializing. Now that I am married I don’t socialize as much. I
find it very difficult to find the time to socialize with my peers in and out
of school. When you are seeking your education it is extremely important to
build relationship and bridges that will help you to accomplish your goals at
the end. Having relationships can open doors and opportunities to potential
jobs, promotions and scholarships. Once you develop connections in school it
could make the difference between succeeding and failing. Socializing is really
important because by socializing you discovered who you are and you feel alive.
Also, most of my jobs come from connections and relationships that I develop.
Another potential deal breaker that
I face is age. I am not as young as I used to be and I realized that the older
you get, the more you get discriminated. A couple of years ago, I remember
applying to a scholarship, but then I realized that a lot of them awarded only
within a certain age limit, which I couldn’t qualify for, due to my age. It was
really disappointing to find that out. I felt really discriminated due to my
age. A person should not be disqualified for a scholarship just for their age
if they have most of the credentials. We shouldn’t get financial help denied
just because we are not as young as other students, we are all sacrificing
something, and some of us are earning less in order to pursue education in our
lives like I am. This is an important issue that we all need to address because
it is not fair and we shouldn’t stand for discrimination for employment because
of age. We all should have the right to an education regardless of our age,
race, color or ethnicity.
And last but not least, another
potential deal breaker that I face is social pressure. I constantly feel
pressured by my family to earn more money, and to find another job that pays
more. Also, they constantly pressure me to finish school faster because it is
taking twice as long to transfer and graduate since I am attending part time. On
the other hand, my family back home is really poor and I feel really pressured
to help them financially. I feel it is my responsibility to help them because
living here presents an abundance of opportunities not available to them unless
they obtain a visa to leave, which is very difficult. Also, they sent me here
hoping that I could help bring them out of poverty.
The book “Into the Wild” is the
story of a young man named Chris McCandless. It is a story that we can learn
from or critique how he very cleverly got his education before following his
true passion. Before heading north to Alaska he gave $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car
and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a
new life for himself. He survived for four months and his decomposed body was
found by a moose hunter. He came from a well-to-do family and he was trying to
run away from societal and parental expectations. He wanted freedom from the
material world and societal norms and in the wild he felt free. In his journey
when he came back from Mexico , and he was in the city, he saw superficial things. He saw
buildings and high rises, where mountains and open skies should have been. He
felt claustrophobic with the noises of the city, honking of cars and machines,
people sitting outside of cafes, etc. Instead, he enjoyed the freedom of living
in the wilderness. He soon found out that through his education, he was able to
realize his passion.
I loved this book and the movie is
even better. I've heard of the book Into the Wild before but this is the first
time I read and watched the movie. The way this book intersects with the
direction of the class in regards to education is that we have been trying to
discussing and encouraging the class to follow our passions for education no
matter what race and class we find ourselves in. In order to execute passion we
will often have to face the reality that we might have to live in poverty and
it is a privilege to follow our passion because not everyone is able to.
Also, it is easier to get an
education and to follow your passions when you come from a middle class family
and have plenty of resources but to follow your desire for education while you
lack resources is truly respectable. It takes true passion and desire which it
is so much more credible due to all the obstacles that you have to encounter on
the way. Chris was willing to leave everything he owned which took great courage;
however, it was a smart move to have a backup plan to get his education first
in case he gets tired of living in the wilderness without all the comforts the
city offers.
In addition, in order for us to
accomplished and acquired a good education we need to stand up against the
leaders that are not trying to teach you or are trying to discourage you from
pursuing an education. For example: Jeff is a high school student who did a
great job on standing up to his teacher. He got so much attention from the
media and the community that he started bringing the issue of passionless
teachers going through the motion who show no real care of the knowledge they
are trying to impart by overwhelming students with work and not really helping
them. It is really rare to find an individual that will stand up to a teacher in
what they believe, especially in front of the class. She seems pretty lazy as
well, sitting on the chair and just handing big packages of work. She
definitely shouldn't make those comments about her page check. This is not how
students learn to have passion about a subject, but instead it turns them off.
The teacher has the responsibility to show leadership and passion for their
job, Student and most of us learn by example not by lack of leadership and
motivation. How can we please and get the most out of future students in
the education system? We could form meetings in each district and do a study
where we interview students and their favorite teachers for help. We could
study what they like about their favorite teachers, what motivates them to do
the work in class and actually take an interest in difficult subjects, what
qualities do students want in our teachers? All these kind of questions will
help if we really dig deep into the matter and study more closely.
In conclusion, education is a privilege that most people in
the world don’t get to fully experience. We are very lucky that we live in a
country where we have so many resources to education that makes education not
impossible to reach. However, we are loosing our privilege and freedom to
education. The gap between the elite class and the working class is becoming
wider and wider as they try to raise the tuition and cut classes within the
community colleges, making it very difficult for the underprivileged to attain
and education. We can’t afford to loose these privileges. We have to start
acting and protesting within our communities. We have to start educating our
communities of the impact that this leaves to our future generations. Without
education there is no future for our families and our nation. The more we
educate others and our communities of the issues of lack of education, the
better of we will be in the long run for a brighter future.
