Words: 1004
The American Dream of Education Have you ever wondered how far your education can take you? Everyone wants to live The American Dream, and with that dream comes The American Dream of Education. Society expects us to do well in school and graduate with the highest degree in college. This does not come easy to most Americans. John Taylor Agate the author of “Against School” says “help kids take an education rather than merely receive a schooling. ” (143).
What Agate means by saying that is that even though we re given the opportunity for a free education we still must choose between Just receiving the education, because it’s the law, or being focused and motivated and take the education given to us and make something of it. As humans, our minds are very adaptable to our environment and will mimic the ways of the people surrounding us in some circumstances. We may not always be aware of what we are learning ours, 7 days a week, but our minds are always growing to adapt to our surroundings.
We must be given the right educational support from early childhood from the first year of elementary to our high school graduation day. Failure to do so will damage the ability for our minds to focus on the importance of education and even wanting to continue pursuing the path of furthering our education in college. This is even more difficult for foreign students. Coming from a different country and receiving something new like free education is a big life changer and sometimes it takes a long time for us to realize what we are given. My family and I moved to America when I was at the age of 4 so we too can live the American Dream.
It was already too late for my parents to learn the new language UT they wanted the best education for me, and moving to America has given me a better opportunity to engage with my education and made me want to do something with my life. I want to pursue my dreams of making something out of my life to show my parents what I am capable of with the education I am given. All throughout elementary and middle school, I was always getting in trouble and never really took my education seriously. I always sat in the back of the class and goofed around with my friends.
All I really cared about was fitting in and being the alpha of the pack. Education was always there for me and I did pretty okay for a student that never gave much effort in class assignments. As long as I was passing my classes, there was nothing that really gave me any reason to want to strive to do any better. I didn’t quite grasp the aspect of why I am there. Up until I went to high school, it was then when I was always being told about how I need to take my education seriously and to not fool around because I needed to build up the right mentality for getting into the right college.
I knew that getting into college meant I needed to take my education ND making something out of our lives is the purpose of continuing our education in college. This made me take a big step back and look at how far I have come and how much further I need to go. This was Just the beginning. I was getting signs of red flags everywhere. My grades were dropping fast and I needed to bring them up before graduation. My friends were pulling themselves together, why couldn’t I? I knew the criteria well enough; I Just needed to invest my time wiser. I needed to put my social life aside and focus on the importance of school.
This isn’t the kind of tuned I want to be. I would want to be the kind of student that is always persistent to my goals in each class and doing so takes a lot of dedication and responsibility. I must be committed. Soon after, I started to take action. I asked to move to the front of the class and from then on I always stayed focused in class and took notes of important lessons being taught during class time. I had help from all of my teachers on the side and even stayed after class to ask questions about anything I didn’t quite understand. This was guiding me to the right path that I wanted to be on.
I was earning more efficiently and using my time wisely. This was preparing me for the future and narrowed down my mind to focus on one thing, and one thing only; My education. I was becoming the student I have always wanted to be. Even my friends and family were taking notice in my changes. My teachers knew I needed to graduate high school and saw that I was not stopping at Just getting the minimal passing grades. I was striving to receive the best grades I could possibly earn to prepare myself for college. The schools that I have attended were very helpful to me and always wanted to help me grow and succeed.
This has affected me to do better in school eventually because I didn’t want to be looked down upon. I definitely changed from a student that was only receiving education to a student that wanted to take an education. I want to do well in college to meet my goals of living the American Dream with the right education. I believe I am capable to achieve my goals because my education has enabled me to move forward in my life and peruse The American Dream of Education. Works Cited Page Agate, John Taylor. “Against School” Rereading America 9th Deed. Gary Colombo. Boston: Bedford/SST. Martins, 2013. 141-149.