Paper 2 Revised

Rachel Williams
Micah Robbins
ENG1310.115

Mandatory Education: Privilege or Exclusory?

One of the most controversial topics of today's society in the United States is education; and whether the funds that are currently provided are efficient or lack competence. Some believe that the government needs to spread funds around more evenly. They say that inner city schools are underfunded and weak while upper class schools have so much money that they don't even know what to do with it. Others disagree with this statement and conclude that the government should grant funds to those schools that have succeeded, regardless of who attends there. My belief is that the success lies within the students, not the supplied finances, or lack there of.

Growing up, I went to a private school where everything came way too for us for our own good. I assumed that once I went to junior high at a public school, I'd lose all the things that were once available to me. In some ways, I was right. I'd lose the ability to pray with my classmates in the morning because, according to the law, we were only allowed to pray quietly and individually. I'd lose the chance to be on the cheerleading squad because I wasn't in gymnastics. I'd lose having teachers be at my every call because the ratio of students to faculty was much greater. What I didn't lose was my chance to still succeed in anything I deemed important. Granted, we didn't have the technology that my Christian private school did. We didn't have quite the funds. We didn't have the parental involvement I was once accustomed to. But what we did have was ourselves. We relied on our own hope and motivation when times got tough. For example, my 8th grade year the Student Council needed more money to help send a little girl we were sponsoring into surgery because she had a tumor. We had to raise all the money ourselves because our faculty member sponsor gave up. She even contacted the parents to tell them that our school wouldn't be able to help because of "insufficient funds this year." We were determined to help that little five year old girl. I can't even tell you her name now, but I remember her face when we presented her and her parents with the check. All I remember thinking was that we were told we couldn't do it, and we did. I ran that money drive, and I've never felt more useful in my entire life than when I proved the adults wrong and helped the girl that they had given up on.

I think that people used the term "insufficient funds" and lack of… whatever it is you want to blame it on: technology/help/faculty/motivation… as a reason to compensate for the children “slacking off.” Why should we give money to the schools that don't try? All you need is motivation. Wasting money on schools that will continue to fail, regardless of how much money they attain, seems ludicrous, and appears to me like a waste of my tax dollars. Plus, it's not like those schools can't change for the better.

Take the movie "Stand and Deliver" (Menendez & Musca, 1988) for example. This moving film took place at an inner city high school, Garfield High, where the students were barely taking Algebra as upper classmen. The administrators had given up all hope because if there was no money, there was no technology, supplies, or willing, qualified teachers. If there was no technology or supplies, the kids couldn't learn. If the kids couldn't learn, their grades were low. If their grades were low, the school didn't get money. It was a snowball effect that had everyone feeling hopeless and defeated. When all their hope had been lost, a teacher came in who had faith in the students and pushed them to use what they had to the highest degree. He strongly believed that if they pushed themselves hard enough, those students that everyone deemed as "worthless" could achieve anything that they set their minds to. He took them from Algebra to Calculus in the matter of a year or so. The majority of them ended up passing the AP test twice because the government thought they were cheating. No one accepted that those students would ever honestly amount to anything. This movie (that's based on a true story) is just an illustration and a perfect example of my point. You can only accomplish what's in front of you, and if that's very little then that just means you must work harder and push yourself further. So many scholarships are out there for minorities like those students, and I'm sure they could've gotten them with a little effort, despite what kind of condition their school is in. In fact, I’m confident that being from an inner city school would only help them get that scholarship or grant.

All you need in school is motivation, which comes from yourself if no one else will support you with it. To succeed in the classroom, you need a brain, which everyone has. You need a reason to go, even if it's just because you have to. You can only conquer what's in front of you. If that is very little, do the best you can. Eventually you will reach the top, it just may take a little longer than it does for some. Hard work pays off in the end because you'll know you earned it. No handouts, no pity, no charity- it was all you... and that's worth it in the long run.

Menendez, R. (Writer/Director), & Musca, T. (Writer). (1988). Stand and Deliver [Motion picture]. United States.