Evelyn Gonzalez                                                  

Professor Williams

English 1A

22 December 2013

Student Loans and How They Keep us Down

     At the moment in need, Student loans may seem like a great helpful resource to help a student pay their debts off, however little do we know that these loans keep us from going up any financial ladder in the future. The reason for this being is that interests increase your amount to pay back the student loan, so you might borrow a certain amount but in the end you owe triple to four times the amount borrowed. Not only does this keep you from buying a new home or a new family car but it also keeps you from living a stress, debt free life. Alongside, there is a video called College Conspiracy by Cayle Rose, where it speaks of the harsh reality about going to college. There are many other resources to help pay off school debt like scholarships and grants. In order to be able to afford college you need money, and the easiest way to obtain money is by taking out a student loan.

     You borrow a certain amount of money in student loans in hopes of paying it all back before interests get too high, but you never know what can happen throughout the coarse of your lifetime. You may loose a family member, in which all funeral costs lay on you and therefore you might need to defer from paying back your student loans. Also you may loose your one entry of financial support or your job, just to name a few. By putting your student loan payments on hold, your interests continue to increase and payment bills become a horror movie to look at. You will eventually owe more than you can repay in a lifetime, leaving you with little to no extra money for other personal expenses. What is the point of studying an amazing career that will provide you with well paying wages when a percentage of your pay goes to student loans, and eventually your receiving the pay of having been a worker without an education? In the video, Gerald Celente, from Trends Research Institute, mentions, “The reality of a great depression will come in because people will realize that all that worthless money can’t buy you much of anything.” My concern is that people are already noticing this reality but they are not speaking up. It takes one to start but an army to go through and finish. Not only is this depression he speaks of going to create big changes in the school industry but also hopefully it will create better choices and better resources for students to really and truly be successful in life.

     Once graduating from college ready to take on the world with a degree and a major in a career you’ve spent a great amount of your time studying, you may want to splurge on a new home or a new car. Unfortunately in the most deepest and horrible of situations, the debt of paying back student loans may prevent you from doing so. You cannot buy a home or a new car without having finished paying off school debt, otherwise you add on more debt. “You’re going to see more and more people, as they’re already doing it, believing that by going to college that’s going to be their passport to the future. It’s not what it used to be,” says Gerald Celente. Things have changed in the way that we are no longer reassured of that passport. Its no longer a for sure thing. You are either successful in the future or not. I think that college sells itself way too much now a days and they may make promises that are risky to achieve. I myself am one of those believers that by going to college, I will be successful, but I am now more open minded. I continue going to college because I want to further on my education for myself and have more knowledge and be smarter about things. Yes, I do think that by not going to college I can achieve these things as well but not everyone is the same.

     We revolve around this idea when we are younger kids, where we want to do well in life and have a successful career.  We also dream about going to college or a university a.k.a “the key to success,” mentioned in the video, where we can study to be whomever we want. My concern is that students will think that if they don’t go to college they will end up at a dead end, meaning they wont have a successful future. Therefore I believe that college sets the alumni up, feeding them dreams and all the possible success they can get if they get good grades and attend the college. So there, a person decides to attend college, but then comes to their mind, how will they pay for it? And the answer is simple, borrowing money. It sounds and is easier to do within the first step but once you’re done with college, have graduated, and achieved your career goal its time to think about paying back those student loans that eventually turn into a nightmare. This draws my opinion into thinking that college brainwashes students with dreams and success. They offer all these “excellent” loans that can help you pay off school debt, but they don’t mention the debt itself to the loan itself, that increasing double to triple the trouble.

     In conclusion student loans can be a students savior to go to college, but we must keep in mind that student loans are like glue. They get stuck with you for a long time and it may be hard to remove forever. I think we all need to research thoroughly what we want and decide on whether or not college is for you and if your willing to go through with taking out a percentage of your paychecks for the rest of your life after you’ve completed your education in order to pay off what originally paid for your education.

Similarities

            Schools in the Bay Area and schools mentioned in the book have many similarities, except with the exclusion that the schools mentioned in the book have a far worse problem that accumulates to their School environment. Some Schools in the Bay Area have low graduation rates. Not only does this happen here in our area but in many other places around America. In Mississippi, a school by the name of East St. Louis is in high needs of a better School for their children. Due to its bad environment and the squeezing of numerous children in one classroom, not all students finish their education. Some may not make it to graduate from the lack of learning due to the lack of attention being paid to them, because not every teacher can get around to one hundred students in one day. Sometimes even students may drop out and miss on a graduation because they need to get a job in order to help support their families financially, and in the case of East St. Louis, that is what some students had to do.
            Our schools also suffer from not receiving funds. Funds which they deserve and need to get through a daily basis of teaching and learning.  There are Elementary teachers who cannot get the right tools and materials for their classes because of the lack of money and support that they receive from the government and the school board. Another problem is School size increasing. Classrooms can fit many students, however there is a limit when there is only one teacher taking on a big number of them. The most number of students in a class per teacher is, I think, around 30-40 students. It takes a lot of work and dedication with just the minimum, but with schools like East St. Louis that does not matter. Students are squished into classrooms to learn and teachers are stuck with them without a say, because they know they’re the student’s only hope to getting through an education under any circumstance. In this case, children living on this side of Mississippi cannot go anywhere else for school due to transportation issues or being financially unstable. That is why they stick to what they have and make do with it.
           The information that I found relates to my focus very well. My focus is on school resources. I feel that school resources are very important and sadly enough there are schools that don’t have enough funds or resources to provide the school materials needed on a day-to-day basis. The information I found elates to my paper focus in all and many ways. School resources are a big part of learning. They help you understand and learn things better by using them or seeing them. And example can be for kindergartners, how will they learn the colors without having crayons to test them out, the colors, and seeing what they really look like to visualize them.

Part 3

              This is our education and our country’s future depends on us. Our country’s unemployment rate will increase when students are not getting any careers from the lack of knowledge due to the lack of attention being paid to them from their teachers and their voices not being heard. These students are not getting the sufficient teachings in their life to be able to have a successful future.  They are confused and outcast in the way that they do not understand the material or they are not being understood themselves by their superiors in their education. Students may feel like they are not important and they feel left out, therefore their passion dies and they stop trying. Their pedestal: the school, teachers, etc., are no longer holding them up in their education. In fact, they are letting them down.

            The percentage of school dropouts will increase. What is there left in a student’s education when they’ve lost passion? At some point school staff and authority must realize that its not the students to blame for, but the teachers for their lack of attention and passion in a students voice. A student’s voice is like music to lyrics. They keep schools up and running. I mean that’s what it’s all about right? Student’s speak up and participate in debates and discussion and then teachers take that advice and weave it into a classroom’s environment, discussions, and lectures. Just like in Thoreau’s article called ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIANCE, he mentions, “Action from principle, - the perception and performance of right, - changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary,” (11). A student’s voice helps improve a teacher’s practice. Teacher’s become more involved and students do too. It is the revolution of students’ voice fighting to be heard. The percentage of school dropouts wouldn’t increase so much if students were to have a moment dedicated to their voices being heard.           

              Teacher practice will not improve. If a teacher will not honor their students’ voice then why should their students listen to what their teacher has to say? When a teacher does not take the time to listen to the opinions and thought of a student, you can’t expect them to change or improve their teachings. In relation to the quote from Thoreau’s article, where he mentions, “The standing army is only an arm of the standing government,” (3). I take it as a student’s voice being the body of schools and the education that goes in it. It is very important for a student’s voice to be honored and taken as an important piece of the puzzle, especially for a teacher's sake, because without this feedback from students, teachers will not know how to help students make a better choice or have them participate more in class. Students will lose interest in school and teachers’ practice will not improve.

The TED talk

            I was very caught on this TED talk. It was so interesting that I kept rewinding a few parts to hear what Sir Ken Robinson had to say, because it really caught my ears. what struck me the most was how he pointed out the two different types of global warnings, one being natural resources and the other being a crisis of human resources. He said, "Humans make very poor use of their talents." I was very surprised to hear him speak of this issue going on around the world, not only that but it occurs mostly with minorities and the reason being education. our education now a days is like a routine, its not something that relates to a pleasure we have or something we enjoy doing, which is why we lose interest and many minorities go unknown of their talents. After watching this video and hearing him speak about having a passion for something, which is where it brings out your talents, I felt i could finally make my life decision of who I want to be. I have always had an immense love for animals. This past summer I went to a rodeo in Mexico and I got to ride a horse. Horses are my favorite animal aside from dogs, but what i love most is the feeling I get when i ride them. I had been riding this horse for about and hour when my whole family went to eat and they asked me if i wanted to eat, I was very hungry,  but I didn't want to get off the horse so I told them that I would eat later on. Eventually my cousin asked me if I wanted, I could eat on the horse and immediately I said yes. Soon enough what turned into 4 hours of riding seemed to me like 10 minutes. I have a big passion for animals and since the moment I realized it I became interested in being a veterinarian or a vet technician. Its something I have always put a lot of thought in, but I think I'm sure of what I want to be now. Thank you Sir Ken Robinson.

Reeling in Reasearch

            I feel that the article I chose and my focus on the “Writing Assignment: Rule of Three” relate in a very simple way. The name of the article I chose is calledGiving Students Voice As a Strategy For Improving Teacher Practice by Dianne L. Ferguson,  Amy Hanreddy, and Shawna Draxton. I am arguing the fact of a student’s voice not being heard in schools, which is very important because the students are the ones who create the schools and make it what it is to this day. It is an educational environment where teachers learn from students as students learn from teachers. The article explains how students are interviewed on their thoughts about participation in classrooms and how to create a conversation with their teachers that will then lead into more participation. “Students […] were asked to comment on their participation in their classroom and their perception of the classroom climate in order to begin a dialogue with their teachers that would lead to more participation in decision-making,” (1). I am sure the students interviewed for this study had a lot to say about a teachers work. Just the fact of even asking a student what they think shows that you care and it makes a student believe for change. It makes a student feel like they’re being heard. It also discusses how the teachers then take that feedback and incorporates it into their classrooms as well as their teaching practices to improve the classroom’s environment and help students participate more. I would like to think that this article represents a solution to my argument in the writing assignment we did in class. I value and believe that all students have something different to say as well as a student’s voice being important. Also that if we students are not being heard then we lose interest in learning. This article can very well explain how listening to a student and their thoughts on participation, can very well help improve the way a teacher works and how students learn from being heard. “They used the Information from their students to make changes in the classroom climate, in their own teaching practices, and in the content of what they were teaching,” (1). Clearly a students voice had an impact in a teacher and in general the whole classroom, because thanks to the students’ voice, a teacher can better the climate of a classroom to help mold the students in their education. I think its beautiful how a teacher takes the advice and puts it to use instead of ignoring it.

Ferguson, Dianne L., Amy Hanreddy, and Shawna Draxton. "Giving Students Voice As a Strategy For Improving Teacher Practice." London Review Of Education 9.1 (2011): 55-70. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Sept. 2013.

My Introduction

            My blog space reflects me by showing you what I love and a little of who I am. One may look at me and judge on appearance, but then they see my pictures and posts and then they may think differently.

What is most important to me now at this point in my life is my education. I feel it is very important for me to continue my education into getting a career I love and being successful. It is important for me to show my parents what I am capable of and to make them proud of the person I’m becoming, the daughter they have raised. I am passionate to reach my goals and be happy with who I am.

The reason I am in school is to learn and to become a wiser person. I don’t just want to get a job or study something that is going to make me lots of money. No, I want to work in an area that I know I will enjoy. For example, the Veterinarian field, I love animals so much and I know that studying to be a veterinarian is worth a try. In the end if it does not work out for me I do have other interests. Marine Biology is one of them.

What I hope to get out of this class is more knowledge on reading and writing. I know I’m not the best writer out there and I want to better myself in language and vocabulary. Also reading has been a bit hard for me sometimes, if a book does not grab my attention in the beginning it is hard for me to even continue or finish the book.

What I value most will help me in my college career because it will motivate me and help me strive for my goals in achieving what I want to be.