Research Blog II

I have decided to do my research on the Educational System in the United States. It seems that we have fell off the map in the rankings(as we have in many other aspects of life) in education. But I have also decided that with every question that I present I hope to have a solution to accompany the problem. I also want to take a hands on approach and see what people of my generation think of education. Is it something that is done because it needs to be or are people actually excited about the perks that learning gives. Maybe the systems aren't working anymore because the people don't appreciate what it has to offer. This topic stands out because of the question that the preview staffer proposed about what happened to the peace-loving yet rebellious students that wanted nothing more than dual rights and a good education. It amazes me at the numbers of students that drop out or don't further their education, especially within the African American community. With all that our ancestors have done to afford us these rights we don't even use them. In my neighborhood we have a saying "Rosa Parks went to jail just for us and ya'll still sitting in the back." it's like we have the opportunity we just don't take them. Why not? How have things changed since our parents were in school? Grandparents? Is it a cultural thing within America? There are 3 main questions that arise when I think of this research:
1) What is the Educational System about(government aspects)
2) what makes American values of education different from other countries(government and cultural)
3) is there a cultural difference within America that causes a problem for education.
One source that I find extremely intriguing is an article from Huffington Post titled "Education in America: Our Broken Escalator." This article talks about what is actually happening to the education "tools"--as I like to call them and how all we're doing is cutting the tools that we need in order to succeed. For instance education budget cuts. This article acknowledges that there is something wrong with te education system and I hope to use this source as a way to find the problems within the system. Another article from ABC News entitled Stupid America. With this article I hope to find possible solution as to what can be done about the failing education system here. My last source I'd like to use would be the UF population. It has a huge amount of culturally different people who have different backgrounds. And the people are part of the generation in question. It helps to get first hand experiences when trying to answer/solve questions that relate to reality math not included.

"Education in America: Our Broken Escalator"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/opinion/sunday/17kristof.html?_r=1

"Stupid America"
http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=1500338

The Achievement of Desire

Richard Rodriguez's The Achievement of Desire barely makes any connection to my life. I was always the golden child. My parents are working class but it didn't take their wants of better lives for their children for me to want better for myself. Growing up I've been to 3 different elementary schools all witting 3 years. I went from a poor lower class to an elite upper class back down to middle class. I knew from there what I wanted. And I knew what it took to get there. My parents loved me and did what they could to help me but instead of having the inability to help me at a certain point it was more of certain areas. My mom was always a genius in the English department and my daddy has always loved anything medical so his help came more so in high school when I was introduced to a course called HOPE. Back to my academic career, my dad had instilled in me and all of his children that we were here to do great things. But he also let me know that there was a ladder that I needed to climb and at the moment I was at the very bottom. I was/am a peasant. And I understood this concept very well. I took this concept and ran with it. I knew I would have to work harder than my parents had. However unlike the "Scholarship boy" that Robert Hoggart describes; I knew how to differentiate between my life at home and my life at school. I can partially say that part of the reason that I could was because I attended majority African American students with a faculty of African Americans who truly believed in us. That was all I needed. Even though my family was working class we all understood the importance of reading and learning. Unlike Rodriguez's brother who even though he excelled in school himself still taunted his younger brother with names like "Hey, Four Eyes!" or jokes being made within the family that I was "hiding under my bed with a book." I was the kid who could balance both lives.

"Why Bother?" Summary

"Why Bother?" is an article written by Michael Pollan an environmentalist journalist that argues the point of why individuals should bother to make changes in the way they live, to help climate change. It was published in New York Times Magazine. Pollan gives a very distinct list of reason why actual bothering would really just be a waste of time and space. However as one reads deeper into the article you will see his reasons of how "bothering can actually help. His biggest factor is gardening. "...growing even a little of your own food...instead of begetting a new set of problems-the way "solutions like ethanol and nuclear power inevitably do- actually beget other solutions."(94) Gardening presents more solutions than problems as the other "solutions" would have us to think. What we should realize, according to Pollan, is that us bothering to make a change in our own lives can in fact help to create other changes. Pollan called it "viral social change"(94)

Pollan, Michael. "Why Bother" New York Times Magazine 20 Apr. 2008: 19+. Rpt. in The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing. John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 6th ed. New York: Pearson, 2012. 88-94. Print.

Possible Ideas for Research

When I was in high school I had a spanish teacher that I had managed to get all four years of my high school career. He was always "talking" about how kids in America were underprivileged. He always told us that "back home en Puerto Rico tomo Ingles desde el nivel elemental" I roll my eyes every time I think about it. But I can't help but think that he has a point somewhere in his stories he would always tell. What has become of American education? Where are we as a generation going to be when it is our time to step up to the plate? Will we be able to cope or even better, have the courage to stand up and do something. Why have we as college students stopped being the rebellious people that our predecessors once were? I think I'd like to do my research on the education system and the values of young americans. Do we watch the news? I mean real news. Not the local news. I mean BBC or CNN. What happened to voicing our opinions? Is it authority that has caused this drastic change in the young people? I want to attempt to answer these questions in my paper.