Question #2: Something you feel strongly about?
Hmmm...this one is a very easy one. I feel that every child in the United States should have equal access to good education. There is a big difference between the quality of education in a suburban district compared to that of an inner-city district. Students in urban areas are way more likely to dropout of school because they do not value education. Most of these "would-be dropouts" see local drug dealers making more money than everyone else in the community. What's worse is that several educated people grew up in these neighborhoods but they don't often return. This causes kids to label them as "fake", "bougie", etc. Since they see the drug dealers "servicing" the community that they were raised in, kids are more apt to emulate them.
I encounter students everyday that would rather listen to the newest rap song than listen to the history of their own race. Students value rappers over educators. Example: You hear a student rapping some lyrics to a popular song. You decide to print out these lyrics and give them to the student to read (Student doesn't know the origin of the foreign poetry on the page). You then ask them to read the "poetry" aloud. I did this once with one of my students. Not only did they have difficulty reading the "poetry", they also called the whole thing stupid. Once I told him that I found a rap version of the song, he instantly wanted me to play it. He was embarrassed when he found out that it was his favorite song. Why is it that our students can memorize rap lyrics on a dime, but have difficulty reading simple sentences?! If they could only learn to harness that energy and apply it more towards their education, there is no telling what they can accomplish!
In order to increase the total number of high school graduates from the inner-city, we first have to get the community involved. There are too many times where I see parents smoking and drinking with their children. The community needs to step up and nurture their children. We need to give these kids something positive to look up too, instead of rappers, drug dealers and video vixens.
Yes, I know that this was a lot to write for this post, but I feel very strongly about education and its reform. :)
Peace,
nNb :)
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