During this course I’ve done a lot of assignments but i fell as if these were the ones, I loved the most.
this essay is important to me as it is the first educational event that changed my life. this event changed my mind set and made me who i am today as it was one of the most destructive events that’s happen to me.
There are a lot of different views on education as everyone has different experiences and outcomes from it. However, I’ve seen, heard, and been through a lot with education so this is me story. . This first event that changed my educational life happened in 7th grade. I was in math class and as usual, I was goofing around as any other kid would. My friend at the time played a game where we hit each other with our ruler as a joke. So he randomly hit his ruler and me being ignorant was going to let him get away with it. So I waited a couple of seconds and I hit him back with the ruler. My teacher had looked back and since all the eyes were on me he knew I did it. He then called me out in the middle of class and screamed â WHY ARE YOU NEVER PAYING ATTENTIONâ, âTHIS IS WHY YOU ARE FAILING THE CLASS AND YOU WILL GO TO SUMMER SCHOOLâ. I was completely embarrassed and I stood quiet for the rest of class. Now what this man said to me will be words l will never forget, he walked out of the class and said âAbdul is a pitiful excuse of a manâ. These words have carried on in my mind ever since and they had a huge impact on me. A Lot of people would hear words like this and stop caring about school after hearing something like that but I used it as motivation. I did this because my mother always told me ânever fit the stereotype of a black manâ I knew that if I had let him win I would only be proving what he said wrong, I would be proving what a lot of people think of African Americans true as well. These words motivated me to do more, it made me feel as if I had to prove anyone who looked down on me and I will forever continue to. This also motivated me to do better in math as I used to find difficulties with it. These words changed my mindset and it changed for the better because I refused to let an ignorant math teacher make me feel lower than myself. Now I always feel as if there is someone or something I need to work hard to prove myself for and ever since I’ve had this mindset I’ve always been told I’m determined, I am a hard worker and so much more. Another educational setback I’ve had is growing up in my environment. I was born and raised in the south Bronx where crime is at its highest. However, not only was it the gangs, crime, and bad influence that harmed my education, it was also the lack of African Americans in my school. In my middle school going on to high school, it was dominated by Latinos and Hispanics. This might not seem like a problem as a lot of them support African Americans but also there was a strong amount who didn’t. During my middle school days, I began to notice how close the teachers were to the Spanish students compared to the African Americans. They also defended each other a lot when it came to anything competitive like sports, arguments, and even academics. It took me a while to realize that I was alone in my class as there were 40 students and only 5 including me were black. So throughout my educational life, I never felt as comfortable as I should due because of my environment but it only made me stronger. I knew some Hispanics and Latinos looked down upon African Americans as if we were uneducated, criminals, gangsters and so much more. I promised myself I would not fall into the stereotypes and I used this as motivation to keep pushing. Finally, the last factor that changed my educational career is my culture. I was born and raised in New York City however my parents were born and raised in Nigeria, Lagos. This changed my educational career as they always made sure school was a number one priority. This had is benefits as it made me who i am today but growing up there was alot of thing i loved to do but it wasn’t taken serious as they believed that school is the only way for success. As I said before, I grew up in the Bronx so I have seen a lot of people drop out of school and now they are struggling and my parents only use examples of that. My problem is that I don’t fully believe that. I’ve always told my parents that I will go to college and get my degree but I’ve always felt as if there was more happiness or even a different type of success out of school. Growing up I faced challenges like me being good at sports but my parents not believing I wasn’t good enough because I was supposed to focus on school. I believe that this part of my parents belief was a setback because I used to feel as if I need to do what makes them happy in school and it isn’t fair because it’s my life. Now that I’m older I now see what I need to do in life and all I’m waiting for is to get it done. After watching many friends and family drop out of school I know that I need to have an education and a degree so I can always fall back on that, but I will be pursuing other dreams like working on cars and I promise myself I will find success in doing something I love. My parents’ beliefs were pure intentions for me and i love them for it but as i told them we are in a newer generation. People can find success in anything they put there heart and mind to so I swear to myself I will do just that. These were the events that changed my academic career but not only that, they changed my life and mindset for many more years. I will continue to work hard for success and pray for the best even though people will look down at me or try to stop me I will prove them wrong.
The second one I am going to put is my educational narrative as I put a lot of thought and emotion into it as it was based off my environment and community.
Growing up in New York City I’ve seen a lot and learned a lot. New York is wonderful place to be in however it has its faults. One of them is the high school dropout rate. In the city, we have been placed in bad environments and I truly feel that this has a huge impact on teens and dropout rates. So, in this essay, we will be answering my question: What are the role of (home)environment and school system in NYC high school dropout rates? In NYC we have 5 different boroughs and each has a different percentage of dropouts. In this post, mayor De Blasio says in 2018 the Bronx has a dropout percentage of 12.1%, Brooklyn with a 6.7%, Queens with a 5.9%, Manhattan with a 7%, and Staten Island with a 5.5%. The genre of this article would be a genre report as it is giving information about a problem in NYC. This shows us the dropout percentage from all the boroughs in the city and the Bronx (my hometown) has the highest. From the percentages I’ve seen, I am not surprised at the Bronx being having the highest rate as this also supports my argument of environments having an impact on dropouts. Right now, in the city, the Bronx has a high crime rate, and it is only getting worse. This supports my argument that environments can impact teens’ decisions in school. Gang influence plays a huge role in the city’s high schools as well and it’s showing in these percentages. I also believe the school system can take part in this as well because they don’t think of the students who live in these environments yet in school pretending as if everyone in the school doesn’t have different mindsets, strengths, and weaknesses. This also can put stress on teens due to the fact of them having to make life choices every step of the way but are yet punished for making a mistake. I believe this source is credible because the first thing that grabbed my attention was an NYC.gov post showing the reliability of the post. Another reason I know this site is credible is that this was said by our Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza. the purpose of this post was to show how the graduation rate went up in 2018 however I still used the dropout percentages to prove my argument. I believe the intentions of this post were good because as a mayor your job is to keep the city safe and calm and that’s what he did in this article as he was telling us how the graduation rates are going up. However, I do feel there is a little bias because he told us all the good even though he could have spoken on. I also feel like this is another problem we have with teens dropping out, they are not getting the attention they need to stay in school. Living in NYC and having a lot of friends who live in higher-income states does show me how the school systems don’t try As hard in low-income cities. The video I am about to show you is a motivating and mind-changing video as it does show the fault in the school system. The genre for this video is inspirational non-fiction, the reason why I believe this is because he motivates and awakens the mindsets of teens and adults. The person who made this video was Prince Ea and he starts with this powerful quote saying, âAlbert Einstein once said: Everybody’s a genius But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupidâ. The reason why this quote is so powerful is because this relates to teens not only in NYC but teens all over the world feeling this. I’ll explain this to you for a better understanding, teenagers now feel like they are the fish yet we live in a society where the school system acts as if they are like any other animal for them to question its ability to climb a tree. If that fish (student) does not climb a tree (obstacles in life) it would live the rest of its life being considered stupid. This is what the school system doesn’t understand, not every teen comes from the same neighborhood, same family, same income nor same specialties that every teen has. Another way the School system plays a role in high school dropouts is by trying to teach every student in the same way. Now when I say this I don’t mean students should learn different topics but the way students should be taught should be different. The reason why I believe this is because every student learns differently. Every student has their strengths and weaknesses but that’s what makes them unique. It challenges teens to stay motivated and thrive in school if when they do try they are considered stupid or slow when the reality is that they just need to be taught a different way. Another example from Prince Ea is âif a doctor prescribed the same medicine to all of his patients The results would be tragic; so many people would get sick Yet when it comes to school this is exactly what happensâ. This is true because a doctor could never give every single patient the same medicine as everyone has different problems, bodies, or blood types. It’s the same problem we have in school: we are expected to succeed by being forced to keep up with expectations that the teen doesn’t want or need to succeed in life. I believe the author chose critique as his genre as inspirational non-fiction because this would be a way to make a change in the school system and the reason why he made it non-fiction is because all of the words he said can come true if we step to make a change.his main purpose was to reach out to teens and parents and the way he did this was by music. This video isn’t a song but it did have music playing in the back as he spoke his mind lyrically and rhythmically. He did this on purpose knowing it would grab the audience’s attention but also make them understand him. This video is inspiring and my personal opinion on it is that more parents and teachers should watch this. This video shows the faults in our school system and nobody is doing anything about it. The saddest part is these teens are our future doctors, nurses, electrician and so much more. This video does open a lot of eyes and we need to take some of his words into action. Another way to see how the environment and school system impact school dropouts are to look at the dropout rates amongst different races. The reason why I feel like this is an important factor is that I want to show how the races with lower-income environments are the ones with higher dropout rates. in this data log, it shows that “The status dropout rate for Asian 16- to 24-year-olds (1.8 percent) was lower than those who were White (4.1 percent), and both were lower than the rates for those who were of Two or more races (5.1 percent), Black (5.6 percent), Hispanic (7.7 percent)â. This data log shows us the percentage of dropouts between races. The data shows African Americans with 5.6% and Hispanics with the highest at 7.7%. In New York the city is racially dominated by Hispanics and black, this shows that in lower income environments the dropout percentages will still be high. The intentions of this data log were not bad nor good; it was just showing information needed to be seen. I don’t believe the intentions were bad because these percentages are not something that should be hidden, it should be shown to the public. However, I can’t say it is good because it only showed the dropout percentages meaning they had no intentions of showing a little light on this data log. My opinion on this information is not surprising. The reason why I say that is because of the environment and society we live in. Being black or Hispanic already disadvantages us, especially in the wrong environment. I also blame the school system for this as they should provide teens with more than a lunch but more programs or sports to keep these teens at least focused on something. The reliability of this source is strong and that is another reason why I believe that it is a good factor for my argument. The reason being is that this source was properly made and detailed. It gave you all the information you needed and also had graphs with percentages. Also if you check it was sourced by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2021). The Condition of Education 2021. It also gives us other resources and tables to statistics and percentages to the dropout rates. Overall I feel like this was a really helpful source as I needed a reliable and accurate percentage. This site gave me exactly what I was looking for. Finally, for my last reason, the environment and school system play a role in teens dropping out. This article gives us a little back story on how the school’s funding system was supposed to run and how it never happened. The genre of this site would be a critique as the writer Monica Disare gives us all the information we know about the school funding and the school system in New york. In this article Disare says âLast year, only 23 percent of city schools received funding at or above the level to which the formula says theyâre entitledâ. This was an important quote as it shows that the funding in New York isn’t taken as seriously as it should be. Only 23% of schools received the funding while the other schools are trying to run on a budget. This leads to a lack of academic programs, after-school programs, or even sports and teams. All of this can contribute to a teen dropping out. If a teen isn’t provided with the resources he or she needs then how can you expect them to stay in school. This problem is at the fault of the school system. The school system should be making sure this lack of funding doesn’t happen and yet it does, the school system should make sure every student and every school is financially fit to where they can have a fair chance at school and forward on. Another problem we have is that even though New York tried to help funding by creating the fair student funding formula, in Disareâs words she says âthe formula has never been fully funded â and some poorer schools have never quite caught up to wealthier onesâ. Since this formula never played it this made more of an imbalance with school funding and a deeper gap between schools being somewhat even. Simple mistakes like this show the school systems’ lack of acknowledgment in new york cities schools. From everything that was said by Disare I agree. The reason I agree with what she said is that living in the city I’ve seen schools with way better funding compared to others and it shows on the students as students won’t be able to get a full high school experience due to the schools’ budgeting. The information from this source I used was very reliable as she gave us interesting facts about New York and its funding. However, one problem that did occur with the site was that she didn’t have any citations or resources. This was also another reason why I believed her genre was critique. Overall she expressed her mind on the site and gave good accurate information about new york and its funding system. In conclusion, my argument still stands on our environments and school systems needing to change. The problem I will personally discuss is my environment. Growing up in the Bronx now is harder than ever. There is so much bad influence, peer pressure, and gang activities it is unbelievable. It’s hard for a teen to want to grow up wanting to finish high school and go to college because they are so used to seeing their friends, older brothers, or the âcool kids’ ‘ doing everything but that. The problem teens face now is not being sheltered enough. If these schools tried harder on keeping young teens safe in school activities or school programs there would be a better difference in the dropout rate. This is also a problem that the school system can step in. The school system should be able to give students more solutions to their rough everyday lives. Growing up in the Bronx I have a lot of friends who used to play basketball and had the potential for turning it into a career, but due to lack of recruiting and school team funding, they weren’t able to fulfill those dreams. Now some of them have fallen into the streets and others have gotten worse and problems like these could be resolved with a simple change. Another fact I want to bring up is that two of my previous schools were shut down due to a lack of funding. My elementary and junior high school was taken down due to lack of funding and even before that the school had its financial problems. I understand conflicts happen but if we have an active school system it shouldn’t happen often. To finalize everything I shared with you, we need to make a change to save our schools not only in New York but in the world and we can only do that by fighting for what’s right. WORKS CITED â âThe NCES Fast Facts Tool Provides Quick Answers to Many Education Questions (National Center for Education Statistics).â National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education, https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16. â Disare, Monica. âHere’s How New York City Divvies UP School Funding – and Why Critics Say the System Is Flawed.â Chalkbeat New York, Chalkbeat New York, 29 Jan. 2018, https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2018/1/29/21104222/here-s-how-new-york-city-divvies-up-schoo l-funding-and-why-critics-say-the-system-is-flawed. â âMayor De Blasio and Chancellor Carranza Announce Record High Graduation Rate.â The Official Website of the City of New York, 30 Jan. 2019, https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/064-19/mayor-de-blasio-chancellor-carr anza-record-high-graduation-rate/#/0. â âPrince Ea (Ft. Prince EA) â I Just Sued the School System !!!â Genius, https://genius.com/Prince-ea-i-just-sued-the-school-system-lyrics
for this project i had to write a time capsule to myself and reply to it months after and here is is
Before-Hey Abdul, i hope you are catching up with schoolwork as we both know we need to. Also, how’s the car?? I hope you started the build I know it’s going to be top 5. Don’t forget the plan bro suffer now and live better later.
After- Hey me, I’m catching up as we speak right now, and the car is still in the same condition. trust me this is going to be a great winter as I will be installing tints, muffler and resonator delete and those acanii headlights. I will make you proud like I always do
For this final project i made it was about me. this short reflection showed my growth in not only college but in life and becoming a man.
During this semester I learned a couple of things that I will be explaining. One thing I learned was in college and soon in life, you need to prioritize. You need to make hard decisions every day and if you don’t it could harm you. Another experience I learned from college is that I need to stay on track. When you let yourself fall behind you only put more stress on yourself and even though it gets stressful at least you got what you needed to be done. Also, the main lesson I learned from this college experience is you need to stay motivated, if you don’t stay focused then you won’t be able to see past the hard week’s ad long nights of college. Something I learned about from being a scholar in this term is prioritizing. The reason why I believe this is because when you don’t prioritize you let small things get in the way of your schoolwork. An example of this is deciding to play the game for a few more hours or going out with friends knowing you have an assignment due soon. I’ve done this to myself many times and I’m sure everyone has done it before, however, doing this constantly can start a bad habit. Also, this could lead to you having late work to make up for and this could get stressful when it’s piling up on you all at once. I feel like if I wanted to transfer my knowledge to others I would tell people who are coming into college or who go to school, in general, to stay on track as it could lead to more stress in the long run. I also feel if I was to tell them my experience of letting work pile up and trying to do it all at once. I know this will transfer over to my next semester as I will be the outcome of delaying school work. Something I noticed about me being a writer is when I write about a topic that is interesting to me. When I write about a topic that I relate to, my work is so much better as I show more effort and heart. I feel like the reason why is because I am a deep thinker. When I think deeply I feel like I am learning more about not only myself but I’m developing unique ideas about my ideas. I also feel like writing about a topic I relate to makes me feel more like an author. The reason why I feel this way is because when I do this I feel like I can implicate better and different writing styles and I can also give the readers more of a visual of my work. This is good motivation for myself as I can push myself more as a writer and even write as a therapy. I would tell upcoming or current English students to write more when they are sad or stressed out as it can help their reading skills and also relieve some stress. Finally, something else I learned by being a writer is that you can never be wrong. I read this in my mother’s tongue by Amy tan and she says âmath is precise, there is only one correct answerâ. This made me think about English as well. When we write about a topic everyone will give a different answer because everyone has a different mindset, life, and story to tell. Now there are a couple of things I’ve learned being a reader. One thing I realized is that I have a bad habit of skimming over books. I used to skim through books trying to look for answers instead of trying to understand the actual book and the author’s purpose. I feel like this wasn’t necessarily bad for me but it wasn’t as beneficial as actually reading the book. I also noticed how when I read about something that interests me or I can relate to, I read it word for word and understand the context. An example of this is James Baldwins a talk to teachers, first of all as a reader the title is what grabs the most attention. James titled his speech âA talk to teachersâ. As the reader, I am before I just read a book. I need the title and introduction to grab my attention. That is advice I could give to students, when they are writing make sure you have an attention-grabbing title and introduction as it could give a reader curiosity into your book. Also, I feel like this is a problem in my community, a lot of schools would make children or teens read books that they wouldn’t be able to relate to or fantasize which causes teens to lose interest. I feel like if we had schools give teens more books options to write about we would have better and stronger readers. Finally, the last thing I learned about being a scholar is that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. The reason why I say this is because I believe that students need to work more together and now that I have been doing this I’ve improved so much since I can get help and help others. I believe sometimes it’s easier for a student to show another how to do the work so they could feel less intimidated and more comfortable. Since I see how beneficial having students help you on the way, I now know to do the same for next semester as it will benefit me and also the other students I’m helping. This reminds me of a quote I’ve heard before which is âif you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to go far go togetherâ I also recommend this for not only students but also in everyday situations. Working together gets you farther than going alone so why not do it. In conclusion, I learned a lot about myself not only in an academic way but in ways I will know to carry on for the rest of my life. I also feel more prepared for next semester as I know more tricks and tips which I could start from the jump of the semester. I also know my bad habits and how to stop them, so I won’t be in the same position I was before. Also, to all upcoming students please take my advice as I learned my lesson and I don’t want you to make the same mistake.
