Category: Unit 2 Final Draft (Page 5 of 7)

Neil Duran

English 

Professor Hall

In these past few months I’ve involved myself heavily in a newfound endeavor; being a mentor. My mentoring consisted of me pushing for the academic and social success of my mentee, this transition from being someone who’s taught to the teacher helped me reach a realization. It shouldn’t be the responsibility of the students to motivate each other to succeed. The responsibility lies on the educational system to provide the incentive to achieve academic greatness. I noticed that the positive affirmations that I gave my mentee were ultimately more rewarding than the grades she received for doing her work. Instead of searching for what the educational system could do better, I became more enthralled with the effects of positive reinforcement and active mentoring. Mentoring has shown me firsthand the strength of positive reinforcement, it proved that taking a teacher role is beneficial for both the mentor and mentee.

Students will go through their entire academic careers motivating themselves to get through the school year. This poses a problem since how can students maintain the optimal mentality for getting their work done. This was the problem for me especially, as I started to realize that all the studious habits I picked up in high school became quite obsolete. This led to a lot of personal struggle for me when it came to school, especially when it came to memorizing material. A lot of students don’t realize that reading a concept multiple times over isn’t the only way to remember material covered in class. Actively teaching, in the form of tutoring or this case mentoring has proven to be an effective study method. The learning center for the University of North Carolina had this to say about teaching being used as a study method “Try to explain the material in your own words as if you are the teacher. You can do this in a study group, with a study partner, or on your own. Saying the material aloud will point out where you are confused and need more information and will help you retain the information.” This demonstrates that when you take the material into your own hands then you’re able to internalize the information more effectively, also introducing your peers into your study group will improve your ability to retain the information. This is a tactic that I used as a mentor to help my mentee when our work intersected, it was beneficial for me as well since I was able to gain a lot of information by simply reiterating the information to my mentee. When I put my mentee in the position of a teacher, she could more accurately recall the information later when we went through it for a second time. Instead of us going over psychology together, I made her the psychology teacher, not only did this improve her confidence but it helped her value and retain the information. The article goes on to state that “Creating a quiz for yourself will help you to think like your professor. What does your professor want you to know? Quizzing yourself is a highly effective study technique. Make a study guide and carry it with you so you can review the questions and answers periodically throughout the day and across several days.” Standardized testing has proven to be the bane of all students’ existence; a widespread criticism against standardized testing is that the education system doesn’t prepare students properly. A lot of schools will provide you with strategies on how to succeed under the stresses of the test, but the student is expected to endure these pressures on their own. In my endeavors to help my mentee prepare for the ACT I set up a mock exam for her, this helped her internalize more of this information. This method makes the test-taking strategies complementary instead of necessary. The education system should take a more active role in pushing students into teaching each other, this helps students grow from each other and become better in their respective academic settings.

This second part of my mentoring journey did not come as organically as most of my experience did. I definitely started to struggle to motivate my mentee, and after trying a couple of motivational speeches that did not affect me, I was stumped. One of the most important aspects of mentoring that I happened to overlook was the fact that I didn’t know my mentee that well. I met her through a mutual friend and tried to dive right into the mentorship instead of getting to know her first. This definitely gave me a lot of issues in the beginning since there was a divide that I couldn’t bridge, one being her lack of motivation, as well me being a new person in her life.  I ended up hearing about positive reinforcement from another close friend. He talked about how he used it to motivate his sibling into doing his chores for him, this piqued my interest. So  I searched around on the internet and eventually stumbled upon an article detailing positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is defined as “Positive reinforcement means giving something to the subject when they perform the desired action so they associate the action with the reward and do it more often. The reward is a reinforcing stimulus.” As students one of our biggest struggles is developing our autonomy and becoming competent on our own, positive reinforcement can help develop these skills. St Peter’s Preparatory School states this about the relationship between autonomy and positive reinforcement “If you reinforce a behavior that is a strength of a child’s, then you are doing them a great service. Focusing on a child’s strengths and rewarding that particular behavior enables them to practice their strengths and skills. Meddling or repeated negative discipline can result in a child feeling incompetent, and also stifle any creativity they might have.” Positive reinforcement can be a powerful tool that can foster the repetition of desired actions in students, this is a very useful skill. At the end of the day, a grade on a paper is not enough satisfaction for the student, making sure that their work is appreciated and giving them a feeling of accomplishment is essential to conditioning that student to continue striving for greatness. Positive reinforcement also helps you establish a close and personal relationship with the individual you’re supporting, allowing you to help positively influence them, I implored this tactic myself when it came to my mentee making sure I gave her positive reinforcement even for the little things she was doing. If she took the time out of her day to do even half of her work I’d congratulate her, even if she didn’t finish the work. The benefit is letting the person know that they’re on the right path, small affirmations like this can have a big impact in the future. The Saint Peter’s Preparatory School said it best when they said “Children want to be seen and acknowledged for making good choices. When we praise these good choices, it encourages children to repeat them.” When exposed to these positive affirmations students will be able to develop patterns, these patterns will help become useful tools. These tools will help students become more organized and build structure when it comes to their academic endeavors, if a student feels as if the countless hours they put into studying is worth their time they will be more inclined to repeat that behavior. Giving students the recognition they deserve will make school seem like a rewarding experience instead of an obstacle in their daily life.

To summarize everything that was said, being a mentor has been one of the most humbling experiences I’ve had the pleasure of doing. Taking a position as a teacher/mentor has made me a better student, and the use of positive reinforcement is something that will stick with me indefinitely. Mentoring has proven to be a useful tool in the development of myself and my mentee, and combined with positive reinforcement it’s clear that it helps improve academic success. The strengths of positive reinforcement are apparent as I was able to help my mentee gain the confidence and motivation to want to work towards her goals. Everyone should try to take a chance at mentoring, it’s an extremely rewarding experience that helps not only the mentee but the mentor develop and grow as an individual.

Have you ever wondered what it is to live in a cage with other people? Well, imagine that you are forced into a metal cage with other people and having to share what you sleep on with a stranger. Imagine not seeing your family for a long time, not having anyone to comfort you when you need it. Things would be a lot more difficult if you had a baby to try and keep warm. What if you or your baby got sick from one of those people with cold nights and denied health care. You might think that the situation you live in is bad but at least you can assure that you have a warm bed to sleep in. You know that you have enough food that goes in your stomach, clean clothes on your back, and a shower to use every day. One other thing you know that you can do is leave your house or apartment to go outside. Well, you might have food on your table, clean clothes, access to health care, a warm bed to sleep in, but that is not the case for migrant kids who can’t leave these places.

According to sources, there are “Over 3000 children were separated from their parents at the border.” Migrant kids who cross the U.S. border get separated from their parents and spend months in U.S. facilities locked in cages. These kids range from all ages from months old to the age of teenagers, some of these teenagers have babies they have to look after as well as themselves. We do know that these kids are kept in facilities for shelter purposes until their cases get solved or allowed to return home to their families after months. There are so many things that happen behind the doors of these facilities that we have no idea about. These kids go through so much every day in these places and we know nothing about it.  The kids in these places are forced to sleep in cold cages. Some of the things these kids go through have not been spoken about as much as they should. In these camps, kids are “being forced to take care of one another after being separated from their parents; and being laughed at when they cry.”. These kids instead of being comforted in any kind of way get laughed at by the guards of these places. Kids from these places have stated in a letter sent signed by Rebecca Marton that, “The guards have started spraying this chemical everywhere, all over everything, all the time. It causes a terrible reaction on our skin. When we ask for medical assistance, they just give us some cream to put over it. The spray also hurts our airways. When I blow my nose, blood comes out. They are treating us like animals. One person fainted and was taken out, I don’t know what happened to them. There is no fresh air.”. Things like this should not be happening to anyone because they should get the care that they need. You would not like to be denied the care that you need when you are sick.

Kids that have experience with living in the camps where they are kept in cages have their own stories about what happens. An anonymous 16-year-old girl from one of these camps says “We are in a metal cage with 20 other teenagers with babies and young children. We have one mat we need to share with each other. It is very cold.”, written in a Newsweek article. This girl tells us that they have to sleep on a shared mat where it’s cold, inside of metal cages with 20 other teens and babies. What this girl says brings my attention because it is wrong and inhuman that they have to lie in these conditions for such a long time. These kids do not deserve to be cold at night and have to share a floor mat. These kids should be at home with their parents in a warm bed with food in their stomachs and not in a crowded metal cage. These are treatments that kids have to go through without a choice but we can change that by getting informed of what’s happening. We need to inform ourselves first to make actions happen because these kids should be at home with their families.

The statements that come from these kids that have no choice but to live through this awful experience can be heartbreaking. The kids in these cages are alone with no one by their side to care for them, sometimes the only family they have by their side is a sibling that they have to look after. In an article where Clara Long has a collection of statements that come directly from these kids she writes. “On my first day at Clint, I spoke with an 11-year-old boy who was caring for his 3-year-old brother. Both were fending for themselves in cinder-block cells with dozens of other children for three weeks.”. Kids at a young age should not have to worry about taking care of their siblings all alone when they should be with their parents. Kids should not have to be sleeping in a cinder-block cell because if we can be at home in our warm beds they should too. How would you like to be forced to sleep in a cinder-block cell just like these kids?

Some people might think that these kids should not have crossed the border to the United States without papers. Yes, these kids should not have crossed the border but that doesn’t give any reason to treat them the way they are in these cages. These kids have gone through so much in their journey of crossing over to the U.S. In an article by Salil Shetty “Health professionals report that as many as six in ten migrant women and girls are raped on the journey.”. This goes to say that 6 out of 10 females that go on this journey end up getting raped. Getting raped is not something that anyone should experience. To make things worse some females do not have the same luck of just being left there after being raped. In the same article by Shetty, they state, “And activists repeatedly raise concerns that abducted women and girls are vulnerable to trafficking.”. Females not only get raped but some get taken against their will with no escape and fear of death. These women get sold for sex to some disgusting humans. So having to go through such a journey where females are abducted, where people do not make it through the whole journey, and having to get locked is something that we should adjust to as normal? No person should deserve to sleep on the floor with many other people where they get all types of illnesses. These same people say that these kids and grown adults who cross the border make the country look bad. The previous president is one of those people who believe this. As said by Kusi News, “President Trump slammed the Biden Administration on Fox News for their immigration policies saying, “people are just pouring into our country and they will destroy our country. They will destroy our country.”. Ex-President Trump is saying that immigrants are what make this country look bad.

Those who are against having kids in cages wonder what the country is doing to change this system. This is because it makes the country look bad. After all, innocent kids are being mistreated and separated from their families. Some may ask, what is being done against this? Or, how is this happening today with the new president? Well, President  Joe Biden has been doing things to fix what the previous president, Donald Trump did not do to change things dealing with immigration.  It is said by Aljazeera that, “United States President Joe Biden has signed three executive orders aimed at undoing some of his predecessor Donald Trump’s most divisive and hardline immigration policies related to family separation, border security and legal immigration.”. This is great that one of the first things that our new President is doing is to change things for the country. This means that with these orders immigrant families can not be separated from their kids at the border. This is only the beginning to solving this issue, there is still more to be done. Words quoted from the president by the author of this article are, “We are going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families,”. President Biden wants to change this that will relieve the shame that was put upon by President Trump. the issue of kids in cages and the President from before and now really make the country look bad with what they do or say. Although Biden has been doing things to fix the issue against kids in cages there has been said that he still keeps kids in cages. As said by Kusi News,  President Joe Biden’s administration has tried for weeks to keep the public from seeing images from the border like those released Monday.” Biden’s administrations have been hiding the fact that there are still kids living in cages.

So now that you know about some of the awful things that migrant kids have to deal with when living in a cage. There are many other articles and stories based around kids in cages with statements that come from kids. After finding out about the things that happen to these kids at these places and the treatment that they get, one may question themselves. How can someone have the heart and guts to treat these kids like this? It is a good thing that our new president has been doing things to change the system but that is not enough. There is more that needs to be done against kids being in cages and immigration as a whole. The acts that this new President takes will change things for the better and we as the people can make that happen too. If we as the people who are against the “kids in cages” system continue to get informed changes will happen sooner. We can use any sort of platform to share information with others whether you have a large/small social media platform or even in a group of friends. Actions we can take are protesting, making signs, writing articles, and even more so that these kids can go back home safe.

Citations 

Shetty, Salil. “Most Dangerous Journey: What Central American Migrants Face When They Try to Cross the Border.” Amnesty International USA, 20 Feb. 2014, www.amnestyusa.org/most-dangerous-journey-what-central-american-migrants-face-when-they-try-to-cross-the-border/ 

Long, Clara. “Written Testimony: ‘Kids in Cages: Inhumane Treatment at the Border.’” Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch, 16 Feb. 2021, www.hrw.org/news/2019/07/11/written-testimony-kids-cages-inhumane-treatment-border 

 “Biden Signs Immigration Orders in Push to Undo Trump Policies.” Donald Trump News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 3 Feb. 2021, www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/2/biden-furthers-move-to-end-trump-migration-policies.

 Newsroom, KUSI. “Photos of Biden’s Migrant Detention Facility Show Children in Cages -.” McKinnon Broadcasting, McKinnon Broadcasting, 22 Mar. 2021, www.kusi.com/photos-of-bidens-migrant-detention-facility-show-children-in-cages/.