The Education Process by Shauntai Smith So, it’s going on three years and I’ve been dedicating my precious time, hard work and patience to the most crappy school known to mankind, New Dawn High. If the beige prison walls weren’t enough to drive me insane my teachers definitely passed that test with flying colors. As you can probably guess this was not my favorite place to be. For starters, everyone began at 7AM and left at 4PM which is awfully long compared to the average school day and for some strange reason the fact that this didn’t bother anyone else bothered me even more. As I began to rest my legs on a chair that was laid out before me, I couldn’t help but think about my future, my life and what I wanted it to be like. My fellow classmates were “grown”, either they were in their early 20’s, the loudest babymothers you’ve ever heard, babyfathers trying to get their life together, pregnant girls, dropouts, drop back ins, thugs and so on the list goes. All the kids were either sleeping or sleeping, exactly. I hated it there. For three years I felt misunderstood like no one including the teachers got what my “problem” was. I had no intentions on coming to this school you know, my teachers could feel my uninterested aura every time class begun. How could learning things like how to perfectly dissect a pig or finding the circumference of a sphere be valuable to my life? I couldn’t focus because as they read from their over-sized textbooks that could barely fit into their hands my mind would fade out,blocking their words like it was nothing. I was the smartest, always thinking ahead of my classmates so I knew I wasn’t the problem. I then grew tired of what was expected of my education process. A little talk with my kind, loving and extremely supportive parents led me to really think about my next move. So, I dropped out going against everything society thought to be true about the learning system being “needed” for one to succeed I thought to myself “you gotta make ditching school count for something”. Every morning I got my ass up with only one thought in my mind, money. I had no idea that I was in for a rude awakening but let me get to that part. It’s Friday! I could feel my check already in my hands before it actually got to me. Shopping, Chipotle and even a bit of weed all circled continuously in my head as I stood in line to grab my envelope with the words “shauntai smith” on it. I’ve never seen my name on anything regarding to money, just turning 17 I had no idea what to expect but I knew whatever came out of that envelope was mine, all mine. I reach for my envelope and there it was staring at me and sadly to my surprise I stared back in disbelief. It wasn’t a very good number at all. A total of $296.75, more like a total of disappointment. My nose began to burn. I was fully aware that I was a few seconds from crying and thinking of how much the money did not match the pay nor the amount of energy that was expected at all times. How much could I expect from a job that let a high school dropout like myself come work for them at 17. I was a baby compared to my fellow coworkers. They had children, rent, mortgages and yet they were still were comfortable. They collected their money every week happily without a complaint in the world. At this point I began to question everything. Do I really want to be here, working my ass off for hours and hours to receive a shitty paycheck or do I want to feel good about the work I do along with a higher pay-grade? The one thing I knew is that I did not want to be like these women who were stuck under these circumstances because they couldn’t or didn’t want to commit to school as well as furthering their education. Being 17 definitely gave me an advantage in life, countless room for growth and promising opportunities. I still had a pretty good chance to get my life back on track, this pushed me to make another decision and this one might just be my best one yet! Trying to grow up too fast wasn’t in my best interest and this dreadful draining place was not where I was meant to be. The next morning I enrolled myself in a GED program. I’m aware that pursuing my GED wasn’t going to be an easy task, shit if anything it would be tougher to gather all the information i’d have to learn within 9 months in only 2 . This new school had everyone be registered to take the test in 2 months to eliminate the feel of high school (music to my ears). The school understood my concept, all I wanted was to get a diploma so I can study a subject of my choice for once in 12 years. Two teachers taught all four subjects and they got the job done! They made everything easier to memorize and took the complicity away from subjects. I sat in the front of every class, breathed in every technique and material my instructors had given us. I knew I could not play around with my future anymore. I couldn’t be the old lady at some job getting paid less for more. Day in and day out I studied my life away, attended each tutoring session I could get my foot in. At this point in my education process putting my inner feelings to the side to receive that diploma I was so ready to get was the top priority. The day for testing came quicker than the flash! My baggy sweats and furry sweater comforted me in my long hours of sitting down and answering questions. I received the news exactly 2 weeks from the day I took it and to my surprise I passed. I passed everything, all five subjects in one shot. I realized that it was not about me in particular, I didn’t have to be the best I just had to want it more than anything else and let fate take it’s toll.
Year: 2019
Instagram page
Feighbe, Tisha, Santi, Brandon, Waleed
Education essay (revised)
Brandon Ma
2/7/2019
Dr. Hall
English Composition 2
Ethnicity overwhelming grip
There are many factors that we as an individual can not change if we wanted to. Such as our religion, gender, ethnicity, or the choice to live out the life that we wanted to. Coming from an Asian background, it has been difficult for me to be happy with myself because of family pressure and expectations. I was not a higher achiever compared to relatives in my family or was I a hard worker. However, everyone should not be treated indifferently because of their lack of academic performance.
Every individual in their society will face different hardships. For a stereotypical Asian, we are expected to go to school and work hard to earn a good respective job that is acceptable in the family. However, individuals that put pressure on themselves to achieve their parent’s expectations often lead them to be constantly stressed and depression. It can be shameful to the family if the child did not study hard in school and turns out to be a dropout. Such as the quote from Mother’s Tongue, “Well, these are broad sociological questions I can’t begin to answer. But I have noticed in surveys — in fact, just last week — that Asian students, as a whole, always do significantly better on math achievement tests than in English”(Tan). Going to school everyday and my depression made me give up trying to achieve high grades in school to show my family for recognition. I was not particularly good in any subjects before college and failed a vast majority of the subjects such as english, science, and even math. I wasn’t able to reach that academic success that is perceived by the social norms. Throughout my elementary and middle school, I struggled in academics to the extent I was in probation in my 8th grade year. I was never a bookworm and my lack of passion in learning made it more depressing. Being yelled at by my family, especially my father, for doing terrible in school had changed my perspective in many ways. I was sent to these after/summer programs that are suppose to provide extra learning called “Kumon” that was located next to my elementary school in Chinatown. I would always remember being put under a lot of stress to the point I had many mental breakdowns at the center. It felt like hell to stay when i was pushed to my limit, that I was told this “you are unable to leave until you get a 100% on this quiz”. I was there from 4pm to 6pm, constantly repeating the same quiz, It was just me and a few others after their closing hours still answering questions on their booklet. I felt trapped and what had became of me was in agony, I felt so frustrated that my tears wouldn’t stop leading to my booklet covered in tears. If you were to lift up the booklet, there would be a stream of water flowing to the bottom and off the booklet. In the end, I revolted against my parents for taking me to this program, I never felt that I learned anything at the program and it became unbearable to commit. In our world, having an higher education is the key to success, getting better paying jobs and respect.
When High school came along, it has opened a new doorway to me to appreciate the things around me. Changing my environment from middle school, I had experienced a vast diversity that I wouldn’t have in elementary or middle school. As time went along, I adapted and appreciated the friends that I made. I haven’t been very distressed about my grades too much because the teachers weren’t grade heavy. They do not give a bunch of assignments and the school wanted the students to appreciate more than just work hard and study in school. Many things that happened in my education, was around the time that I arrived in high school, that everything has shifted. Students were encouraged to learn at their own pace because everyone learns differently. Because of that classes had to slow down, thus some units in the year has been removed by the teacher. I appreciated with what I had in high school because students are not too competitive and students are supported more to achieve their high school diploma even if they didn’t want to. The teachers wanted students to appreciate life and not constantly going home and doing homework all night long before tomorrow’s deadline. While my school is a trade specifically, we also worked towards something that is more hands-on work if we are not academically successful. So I had a lot of free time to hang out with my friends and wasn’t bound to my school.
In conclusion the school education system, where students would cram everything for a semester and afterward neglect it. There should be a system for students to learn something that they are passionate in before they reach college instead of learning the common core. Also, the grades shouldn’t be the only reason why people sacrifice their mental and physical health to achieve high standards to be acknowledged by their peers and teachers.
Noise Pollution
Giuseppe Biondi
English 1121
Dr. Hall
Final Draft
Noise Pollution
Dear New Yorkers,
Nowadays with advanced technologies in the world, cities are evolving to bigger and bigger cities everyday coming, but they also bring disadvantages. New York on of the biggest cities of the United States, has many problems that big cities encounter during their evolution like noise pollution, but that with the technologies that we have today can be solved with the right amount of founding. What many people experience in big cities can affect them for the rest of their life.
Noise pollution is one of the main problems that me and all New Yorker are experiencing every moment of our life. All of us can act differently of what the problem is, like people can install noise cancelling windows and doors, which are very expensive, or they just have to deal with it. All New Yorkers that do take the train have to deal with the enormous sound that the train makes while moving in the railroad. All of this can seem trivial, but can bring to sides effects. As a matter of fact, noise pollution can damage physiological and psychological health. high blood pressure, stress related illness, sleep disruption, hearing loss, and productivity loss are the problems related to noise pollution. It can also cause memory loss, severe depression, and panic attacks.
Through the years there are been many experiment on the effect that noise pollution has on people. Exposure to prolonged or excessive noise has been shown to cause a range of health problems ranging from stress, poor concentration, productivity losses in the workplace, and communication difficulties and fatigue from lack of sleep, to more serious issues such as cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, tinnitus and hearing loss. In 2011 the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report titled ‘Burden of disease from environmental noise’. This study collated data from various large-scale epidemiological studies of environmental noise in Western Europe, collected over a 10-year period. The studies analyzed environmental noise from planes, trains and vehicles, as well as other city sources, and then looked at links to health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, sleep disturbance, tinnitus, cognitive impairment in children, and annoyance. As we can see from the result gathered by the experiments Noise Pollution can really affect people in a bad way.
Today there are many ways which can help us reduce noise pollution. Many of them are simple and others a little more complicated but with the right approach all of them can be applied in our daily lives. A list of methods to help reduce Noise Pollution are: Turn off Appliances at Home and offices, Shut the Door when using noisy Machines, Use Earplugs, Lower the volume, Stay away from Noisy area, Follow the Limits of Noise level, Control Noise level near sensitive areas, Go Green by planning trees, Create Healthy noise to eliminate unwanted noise, Use Noise absorbents in noisy machineries, Use Proper Lubrication and Better maintenance, Notify Authorities about Disobedience of Noise Rules, Regularly check noise levels. The first two that I would recommend to our city Mayor are installing traffic signs that prohibits people that are driving to horn, and they can only use it in case of emergency. The second method that I would recommend is to plant trees which help to reduce sound. According to studies it can reduce noise by 5 to 10 decibels Db around them, and also to make look the city greener, because what I see when I walk in the streets are just buildings, so it’s a good way to make the city look like not a big city I guess. All these methods are simple to apply to our daily lives so why not? They can reduce a lot of problems so there are no reasons why we shouldn’t.
Almost everyone in New York doesn’t seem like to understand why they are mad to everyone that pass their way, and maybe the answer is Noise Pollution. Now why aren’t out there a lot of articles by New York journalist’s appealing to this problem? Well I have the answer, because many of us just deal with it. This is what brings everything to a bad end, because the fact that we don’t care, never brings us to a happy ending and I get it, maybe people do not have the money to solve the problem, but when people are unable to solve problems we can always appeal to our Mayor or the Government and who knows maybe we’ll have a happy ending, but if we don’t get our voice heard then no one will care about what we think the problem is. So I’m appealing to the New Yorkers to help me get this message to the Mayor and if of course we do show him a lot of interest on the problem I’m sure that he will help us solve it, and by reducing Noise Pollution the environment and the people will only benefit from it.
Sincerely, Giuseppe Biondi
Flyer
Laisha De Jesus
ENG 1121
Professor Hall
Research Memo
In my research, I found different resources that can help victims of rape. There is National Sexual assault Hotline and chat. They are open to calls and to talk 24/7. The number is 800-656-HOPE(4673). Calling this number gives you access to a trained staff that will help you find a local health facility that is trained to care for survivors of sexual assault. They also help you talk through what happend and speak about your next step towards healing and recovery. They also give you information about the laws in your community and basic information about medical concerns. Everything you say through the phone is confidential.
I also found out what the different that there are is sexual assault forensic exam also called Rape kit. This exam can only be performed by some who is trained to do this exam and it can help the police if you report the incident. The length of exam can take a few hours depending on you condition. The rape kit consist of bags paper sheet for evidence, comb, documentation forms, envelops, instructions, materials for blood samples, and swabs. If you were to go get this exam it should be done within 72 hours in order for it to be analyzed by a crime lab. Also make sure you do not bath, shower, use the restroom, change of clothes, comb hair, and clean up the area because it can damage the evidence. When doing the exam the first check and take care of any injuries the need immediate attention. They then ask about what medications you take if you taking any and your health history. They then do a head-to-toe examination. If you a minor the doctor or who is perform the examination may be obligated to report the law enforcement. After that there a follow up care like prevention treatment of STIs. If you don’t feel comfortable do all these you can stop or skips step it all depends on you and don’t cost any money to do.
I also found different trauma-focused therapies that can help you cope or move in life. For instance Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged-Exposure therapy ,and Eye-movement desensitization reprocessing. These help you calm and soothe yourself and increase your awareness of your inner strengths and outside resources. Also, process your memories and challenge yourself to reconnect an ddo non-dangerous things you have been avoiding since the traumatic events. You also challenge your thinking so you mentally be healthy. It reduces symptoms of depression, anxiety and PTSD. It also helps you to able to push relationships with others, go out and be social, and be more positive and be in a stable mood. Also making meaning to what happened and come to terms with how it affect you and your family.
On My Block
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iaCqUO8SEyGT2VXS0OmJhilEEXjRVH7eVRAhpwf9I3I/edit?usp=sharing
By: Karina, Amani, and Minhaj
Group name: Homelessness
class: English 1121
name : Tohuratun Chowdhury, Brandon Ma
We made a flyer for a homeless soup kitchen event. We post it on instagram to promote this event.
Family homelessness brochure
Dear Mayor De Blasio,
First and foremost, we would like to say thank you for taking time off from your schedule to listen to what we have to say. As concerned citizens of New York City, one of the many issues and I can’t stress this enough is HIGH RENT. As citizens of New York City, rent prices are extremely ridiculous. We can’t get a decent apartment for an affordable price and the apartments that are affordable are not sanitary or big enough for families. A lot of these buildings are heavy populated with rodents such as rats, mice and roaches. Not to mention that the ceiling is broken, there’s no heat or any hot water. All of these factors included, and we still have to pay close to $2000 in rent and that’s just Queens, which is the cheaper price. In other boroughs like Brooklyn and Manhattan the same apartment goes for $2500 which is the Brooklyn and the Manhattan which is completely a different story: rent is already over $3000. This is Ludicrous. For a one-bedroom apartment it’s $2100 and for a two bedroom it’s $2500. The reason why this is an issue is because citizens aren’t paid enough to keep up with the rapid increase each year. I earn $15 an hour and after my check 25% goes to taxes. Also, did you know that depending on your lease your rent increases by a certain percent. For one year leases your rent will increase by 1.5% while two year leases increase by 2.5%, that means that each year or two that rent goes up more and more and moving is a hassle because it’s nearly impossible to find a much more affordable apartment with enough space to hold our families. When my parents first came here from Haiti, the rent in our apartment was $500. Now it’s 2100. Some families double up in a small apartment, meaning that there’s 3-4 people sleeping on one bed. Some families work more than one job just so that they can pay rent and not to mention have enough money to pay bills. Statistics show that rent rates are increasing twice as fast as the income of workers. In other words, the rent rates are increasing so fast that citizens aren’t able to keep up with it since their income isn’t increasing as a fast which could result in homelessness or moving to another state. Another issue that affects the rent rates is gentrification. There are areas that used to be majority African American but due to high construction costs which apparently affects the amount of Rent you pay in New York are causing them to move out the high-class citizens to move in and take over and make changes within the neighborhood. Gentrification brings a lot of social problems and discomfort to communities. Residents move into populated areas without knowing the community and then begin to make changes that other do not agree with. That is not the only problem with gentrification; it has been a constant issue which builds a lot of financial conflict within urban communities. One example is the Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush. According to other citizens it’s is dramatically gentrified. Residents shouldn’t have to leave their neighborhood just because the government feel they can “recycle” the neighborhood. Currently we are at the point where rent is almost tripled compared to the old days and it is only impacting all the communities in a negative way. We do not know what can be done to resolve this issue, but we do hope that you are able to come up with something to lessen the burden on the citizens of New York.
Thank you,
Sincerely the citizens of New York City.
Essay Orchestrated By Jay and Stanley
