Fifth Blog

Fifth Blog Prompt: Addressing specific aspects of your service experience, how has that experience related to this writing course’s content and purpose? How might this experience and course content be applied to your personal or professional life?

I feel that working in the field with these students wakes one up from a lot of the ideologies about the education system. That if you put students teachers and books together the outcome is not always a successful student. My experience didn’t surprise me really. I knew that these kids where coming from bad homes and from parents who had made some big mistakes in their lives. Working with those often seen at the bottom of society, I have gotten to know how resilient people can be; this is often not a product of their spirit but of circumstance. That if one doesn’t know of anything better, how can one really expect anything more? The kids I worked with were not the brightest, but they did have one outstanding characteristic, they appreciated you, every kind word, smile, gesture, anything. I knew I was a glimpse into another world for them, which is why they watched me so closely. They ask where I went to school I told them American University most replied with a “where’s that”? Although in the main hall reads a banner “We are college bound at Potomac Lighthouse”. I really do wonder what will be the outcome of these kids. Will Tikjuan go to college, will he even graduate high school or will he end up in jail like his father. What will Mice’l do? His mother is so irresponsible. He knows more about the street than he does about literature, art math or science; can he rise above it This is why I put forward the idea of the school board being a powerful entity, to ensure that students are taken care of. The charter schools did influence my writing some on learns the lingo quickly. What I am going to take away from this semester is that we can’t hide from the problems of the world from behind our ivory curtains. People become numb to the struggle of the poor because they don’t understand what it means. We cant look at those at the bottom with distain , we should feel apathy.