Final essay

Gilbert,1

Sarah Gilbert

ENG 1A

Ms. Williams

22, December, 2013

The Truth of Student Loans

Students going into college are like clueless parents bring their first newborn child home from the

hospital.  These parents don't have a lot of experience as being parents and are not sure what is the right

actions are keep their child happy. This is exactly the position a student is in, as they are on their journey for

what they want to do for the rest of their lives. They must take risks and trails to see what is best for them

and to get the experience to make the right decisions in their education. Taking out a student loan is a major

component of a decision that a student makes so that they are able to strive financially and only worry about

their education. Student loans are now a difficult decision to overlook by how it can deliver many

disadvantages that will  not keep financial success for a students future after they graduate. Students that

want to further there education, in any way, are practically forced to take out loans because of the ridiculous

tuition to attend a high quality school. It's unfair that students have to take out loans to support their financial

needs for school then are forced to pay it back when there's no available jobs that they had majored in. This

has been an ongoing issue that had been researched in the book The Rich and the Rest of Us written by

Cornel West and Travis Smiley and the movie The Passion Project . Pursuing student loans automatically

puts students in debt and have the consequences of not being able to pay it back from lack of job pay.

        Student loans are bring society down by how it positions students into debt after they graduate college.

Even though these people are trying to contribute and put back into society, it backlashes on them since they

go straight into debt. There is no other choice but to take out these loans out since there is no way to pay it

independently with such a high rate to pay to get in. In the book The Rich and the Rest of Us written by

Cornel West and Travis Smiley it stated in the Poverty Timeline in the year 2009 the poverty percent was

14.3 which meant the 6.3 million more in poverty since 2007 (17). The number had risen in such a dramatic

rate because a large amount of this statistic is these students coming out of college with these loans that

cannot be paid off; then they are put into the category of poverty since their loans are impossible to pay

back. With having this constant cycle is it bringing students into a category that they shouldn't be in since they

pushed themselves so hard in college to come out a financially successful citizen. It is part of the American

Dream, go to grade school, then to college, and become successful; but with having these loans hanging over

these people it's producing the opposite of it. Graduates are being stuck with debt from student loans which

is bring our poverty class up and bring down society.

        Student loans are bring society down by how these students are coming out of college to pay back their

debt but there isn't any financially stable jobs available. Going to college has practically become a burden

rather then something that's valuable since the payment of loans are taking over their future rather then

displaying the education students have gotten. Students try to invest in getting a better education when reality

is they come out as graduates and their are no jobs available or the jobs that are give low pay. In the book

The Rich and the Rest of Us written by Cornel West and Travis Smiley it explains," In 2010, close to 9

million people were working part-time only because they could not find full-time employment,"(65).Students

are putting thousand of dollars to invest into their education and yet they are not given the fair opportunities

that they should from all their hard work. In this generation, young adults are told it's important to go to

college because high companies won't hire any staff that doesn't have a college degree. The outcome that is

produced is there is not an advantage for college students, they are treated the same way as anyone else,and

their is not enough work for the students that come out of college. These students are lucky to find a job that

will help them to survive from each paycheck, but it is most likely it will take them a life time to pay off the

thousands of dollars they put into their education loans; since their is no money to put into anything else but

the monthly bills from their low paid jobs. It is difficult for students to pay back their loans.

         A solution to decrease debt from student loans is to make all colleges public, so that all students can

have the opportunity to strive in their passions and not having to worry about money. Students that come into

college now are trying to find what what will make them happy for the rest of their life; if college was public,

every student coming out of high school would attend college to get the advantages of a degree. In the movie

The Passion Project it states" Because you gotta take it right now or you're gunna miss out on life"(14). All

students going into college are serious about what they want with their future, and they have the right to get

into college without regretting or having any doubt of why they came. More people will come to school since

the wouldn't have the stress of worrying about coming up with the money; especially those people who are

struggling but do not qualify for financial aid. If more people came to school within a public college we would

increase our middle class since they are not stuck with thousand of student loans; they could just focus on

their job and the opportunities they do have to succeeded. If the colleges become public, students would

have the choice to go and nothing would be force upon them like public schooling K-12. To fund public

college, American's would make another tax so that it could be working in the same way it currently is now.

Making college public this a solution to help students find passions without having to worry about money and

decrease student loan debt.since their are not jobs available to significantly help pay back their debt.

             In conclusion, student loans are becoming tremendously difficult for college graduates to pay off.

College is supposed to be a mental and financial gain that should be distributed back into society. These

students that are pushing themselves so hard are the future of America, so if this cycle keeping happening

future students are just going to give up. What will happen if their is not enough doctors, policeman, or

lawyers to protect us in time of need? If there is no change within this system, what will happen to the future

of America?

Prison Problems in the U.S.

Money given to fund prisons is at a ridiculous amount and the money should be given to something in society that is more valuable. I was never aware of how much our citizens have to pay taxes for a place that was so negative in our communities. With this high amount of money going to a system that isn't working why would we continue to willing give out our money? In the article "U.S. Prisons: Myth Vs. Mayhem" he states, "American governments, from the federal level down, spend some $4 billion a year operating 4,700 penal institutions of all kinds. The cost of housing an inmate runs from less than $7,000 a year in Arkansas through $13,000 in California to more than $26,000 in the jail system of New York City,"(Frank Trippett). With giving all this money to contain harmful people there should be a result coming out of it; then our money would actually be worth spending. Money like this should be given to our public schools to give these children a healthy start to strive and become a good citizen. Young children in poverty has a high change to become the people that go into prisons since they never had a strong foundation growing up. If citizens gave this amount of money to public schooling then the problem of all these people going into jail from gang violence, drugs or abuse would actually have a chance to learn what is right from wrong and not go into jail. The high amounts to money that go into prisons should go to something more important like education to stop the process.

Compassion Or Anger

           Communities shouldn't have any compassion for a person that puts themselves into the gang life. Everyone follows their own path for what they want to become in their lives; no one should give support to a gang member when they could put positive contributes into society. I knew a person when I was in high school that had successful parents and made the choice to be in the gang life. His parents kept pushing him to become something that would give him a good life just like his parents had did for him. Instead, he stayed in that life and ignored his parents; he had passed away in 2012 from a drug deal gone bad. Choosing this type of life is just like choosing a job; you have to commit your whole being to this type of life. A person shouldn't get any compassion by not doing any good in a community because there's is nothing "better" to do or it's the "only way to survive". We need to have admirable citizens in our society for children to look up to and not have any people involved in gang to affect innocent children. People that put themselves into the gang life should not get any compassion from communities. 

          People should have compassion if a person is born into the gang lifestyle. As a child if you are only around this type of environment, it's the only way of life that you are familiar with. A person's morals are made from only knowing this nature and they could be good or bad in our eyes. In the book Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle he states," In Africa they say a person becomes a person through other people,"(xiv). Being around this type of nature and seeing examples of how it's ok, it will make a child grow up to think they could do the same and nothing is wrong with it. Other options won't seem like the right path to take since all of their lives they have seen something else. For people that aren't in relation with gangs, their path is to get an education and to get a successful career; as for people that only been around gangs their goals are different like stay alive and keep their territory. People should have compassion for gang members that have been born into the gang life since that is all they have known. 

           People should have empathy for a gang member that is trying to get out of the gang life. If a person is trying to better themselves people should support them; they should set aside their past and support them for their future. I had a friend that was involved in a gang in high school, and our Junior year he decided that he wanted to change. Even though it was extremely hard for him to get out, he pushed himself out of it and graduated from high school. He went through college and he now has his own practice as a chiropractor. This shows that people can change in any type of situation if they put their minds to it. In order to do this, they need support from others so that they know that what their doing is the right thing; especially when trying something completely new that will change their life. When a person is trying to get out of the gang life, people should give them empathy and support them for what they want to become.

9 paragraphs

When students have resources within their classrooms they become more motivated in their education. With more materials in a classroom, it gives the student the opportunity to find what interests them, then further get a better understanding of how it works. When students are able to find this, they become more curious, then become motivated to learn more about the subject.  For example, if a student wants to find out how a volcano explodes, with resources such as computers, they would be able to find how they could pursue the experiment. Having this type of passion to find what is happening in a subject is going to benefit students to want to keep learning or exploring new principles in their lives. There needs to be resources available for students to achieve their interests so they can keep having that drive to want to learn; this will keep the feeling of motivation and give students a better education. Students that have resources within their classroom will stay motivated to want to learn different facts in their education.
Students that have resources become thankful from the advantages they get to have from their education. Having the correct amount resources could be as simple as having enough paper, books, or new desks in a classroom; a more crucial tool to have is a teacher in the classroom. In the book Salvage Inequalities the author Jonathan Kolzo explains, " On a average morning in Chicago, 5,700 children in a 190 classrooms come to school to find they have no teacher," (63). Having a teacher in a classroom is one of the most important necessities a classroom needs for it to function. With having a teacher that comes in everyday, to teach as much knowledge as possible to his/her students, they cannot help but feel blessed that they have a person so willing to help them for their futures. With having that strong bond of student and teacher, it will just keep a positive cycle in the classroom.With having enough resources, student become thankful from what the receive in their education.
Having enough resources makes students feel accomplished from what they learned in the classroom. Students feel proud when they are able to learn something knew and are able to keep that knowledge for getting a successful grade. At the end of a school day, parents ask how their child test went and if they had gotten a high score; when children show their parents what the have achieved, they could tell how happy their parents are and feel proud of themselves. To have this high self-esteem as a student, it makes you want to keep learning something knew to master it; having this quality a student can just keep learning different material. The only way a student can have this feeling is having enough materials to be able to learn new material; such as a updated book or a working computer.Without the materials equally distributed, students can not personally have their own materials to learn correctly. Students feel accomplished when the learned something valuable by having enough resources in the classrooms.
The circumstances in which materials in a school do matter is when the effects start to become physically harmful to students. A school is supposed to be a safe place for children, but without the correct resources this safe place can become a unsanitary environment. In the book Salvage Inequalities the author Kolzo states," Sewage flowed into the basement, through the floor, then up into the kitchen and the students' bathrooms. The backup, we read "occurred in the food preparation areas," (29). In this school, the circumstances had gotten so badly that students were in danger and couldn't attend school until it was fixed. With students being around this type of conditions, they could easily become very ill; even may catch something serious such as mono or a bacteria disease. With students being within this type of environment and becoming sick they will miss long periods of school and fall way behind in their classes. If there was the correct resources in these type of harmful school, they could have prevent this type of flood from the source and not have it spread to the whole school; then the school could have been kept open and not have to be closed down. It's important for schools to have the needed amount of resources so that it won't become physically harmful to students.
A circumstance when materials do matter in a school is when it starts to effect the students ability to learn properly. Without having the correct materials in the classrooms, students aren't able to learn the lesson to the full extent as it would be with the right resources. In the book Salvage Inequalities the author Kolzo says," Instead, as a cost-saving measure, the school system has supplied them with cheap cocktail glasses. There is so little water surface that there is no room for the waves to form," (169). With even this simple science experiment, students aren't able to get the full understanding of the lesson. How are students supposed to further their education if they can't understand what's happening in their classrooms? To learn new material students need to learn it in all different ways and forms to understand how it works. If they are able to understand the small idea of it, they could move to a higher level of the certain subject to learn more about it; this can only happen if materials are available for them to learn it correctly. Students need the correct amount of materials so it does not compromise their education.
The conditions in which a school would not need materials is if they were greedy to get a new renovation of something that was already in tacked. It's important to have a schools to be updated that is safe for students, but there is a point when trying to be safe becomes more of just wanting to spend the money that is available. Usually this situation would happen to more wealthy schools that have high funds to be able to have all the newest/modern technology. A example if a wealthy school wanted to get the newest apple computers for their students to have in their computer labs. They would already have functioning computers that work just fine, but yet the would want to have that newest one since the money is available to buy them. With this type of mindset, the people making these decisions start to become more demanding of materials that would not need any type of upgrading such as the computers. There is some type of circumstances were materials are not always needed in a school.
The type of citizens that are produced from the lack of materials are clueless to how much education is important for their future. Many students in poorly funded public schools give up in their education, but they never realize how crucial it is to have a diploma to get a successful career. Now in our society, we need a high school and college diploma to get a job that will give is a steady income. This type of job could be as high as a doctor or simple as a florist. Not having this type of further education could result in a person having a minimum wage job such as a fast food restaurant. Being young like a middle or high school student, they don't realize how much it money it makes to support themselves without struggling. These type of students that end up dropping out and getting a minimum wage job are unaware of how difficult it will be to find a job that will support them in a  non stressful manner; if they stayed in school they would not have to deal with these type of issues. Clueless citizens are produced from the poorly funded schools with lack of materials.
Another type of citizens that are produced from the lack of materials are ones who take the jobs that no one else wants to do. Without have the correct education, people care forced to take jobs that will give them some type of money to support them self to survive. A type of job like this could be a janitor, farmer, or house keeper. There is nothing wrong to have a type of job like these, but not a lot of people strive to have this type of career from all the options they would have if they were able to have any career choice. The reason people would be forced to pick this job is by how it is so available since people don't want to have this type of physically demanding job. With these type of jobs, they are basically getting a cheated pay for all that they have to physically do. Citizens are forced to pick jobs that no one else wants to do since they gave up in their education by the lack of materials in their poorly funded schools.
A positive effect that can come out of a citizen with the lack of materials in their school would to become determined to successful do anything they want to become. When a person is in a tough environment for such a long time, it could give them motivation to want to move on to a better place. Seeing how in other towns there's such wonderful schools and resources, it makes them push through all of the hardships to want to have that education and advantages too. These people understand that with the type of resources they have, it won't let them get the full potential of what an education would be like at a better school. With having this type of mind set, it could make citizens that will push through any obstacle in their lives to become what ever they want to become. A determined citizen can be the product of a poorly funded school with lack of materials.

School Resources

Lack of School Resources

http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2011/10/13/01metlife.h05.html

This article " Teachers: Schools Lack of Resources for Diverse-Need Students" explains how there was a survey given out to the students and faculty. It turned out that both student and teacher were portraying through the survey, that they weren't giving out the best they could with there lack of funding. The results had been shocking to the schools since this has been a cycle that was happening for a excessive amount of time. What had been found was the teachers were pleased when people came to to assess what their problems were in the classroom; it made the teachers feel like what they were doing in the classroom wasn't good enough for these assessors. The survey found that, among students with diverse learning needs and low-income students, had been told by a teacher or other adult that they have a learning problem or disability were the least likely to say their needs are being well-served by their schools. This effected students that made them give out less effort and not use the resources that were available for them.
Materials matter within a classroom by how it helps children learn new material. How is a student supposed to learn if for example there isn't a textbook available for them to learn by? The process of learning is to read it, write it, and repeat it; this is how new material sticks into our minds so that we memorize it efficiently. This is why students are given homework, so that they can keep being reminded of what is going on in the classroom. Especially at a young age it crucial to understand what is going on; such as adding and subtracting or even the ABC's. These skills are the basics of what we do in a everyday basis and what we will need to know to further education.With having materials in the classrooms it gives students the opportunity to learn more efficiently and fully understand what is happening to master the material.
When a child that does not have the advantage of having resources they feel upset/disappointed and cause them to give less effort. When a child is trying to learn and becomes older they will observe what a student should really have in a classroom and notice how they don't  have the same ability. Maybe as a young student starting out in the system, such as K-2 grade, won't understand since they are younger and new at being in a classroom; but as they get older they start to understand the reality of what is happening in the school. Just like in the book Salvage Inequalities, the drop out rate in the poor city schools are close to half or slightly more. In addition, students at the rich parts of town have a 1% drop out rate; the reason is by how these students have the funds and resources to actually get what the students need. With students having everything available, it gives them encouragement to thrive in their work and do the best they can. Students having the lack of materials does effect their work and they should be given all what they need to have the best education.
The schools that have this type of trouble with lack of materials, should have fundraisers on their own in there communities to raise money for the schools. The schools would be able to set up everything themselves and would use what they have to make money; they could do car washes, carnivals, or even a sport event with the students. If the school was able to set this up, they would earn money and not have to give anything back to the state. In addition, this will give some sense of community within the town, and bring all of the parents together to realize what is happening in their children's schools. These events may not fix a heater system or the rotting ceilings, but it will give children the advantage to get color pencils, paper, new books and materials for a lab experiment. These little components would matter at first, with more events and people to help out the school will get more money for renovations or plumbing to be fixed. If a poor school needed money to help students with materials they should set up a fundraiser to raise money for the school.

Inequality

The schools are unequal by how they are unable to provide heathly nutrition for their students. To have this quality in a school is important because it keeps students healthy to stay in school to get a well education. Jonathan Kozol writes, "This time the entire system is affected, since the meals distributed to every students in the city are prepared in the two school that have been flooded,"(29). This means that while there was a flood of sewage in the schools cafeteria, the workers still made food in those conditions; there had been some of this sewage in the food that was made and it took days for it to be shut down. The first day it was known there should have been no food distributed since students could get sick instantly from its contamination. When students become sick, of course they are going to stay home, miss days of school, and run behind in class. If this were to happen in the richer parts of town, the school would have more money to fund the problem and fix it instantly. With more money that the richer schools receive they would get more tasteful food that would never have any feces to make the children sick. For all students to have good nutrition in their schools is important so they can stay in school and get a better education like the more wealthy students.

3 paragraphs for essay

With having students explore their passions it gives them a better education on that subject. When finding a passion it gives more motivation to actually learn more about that passion. When a person is in a learning environment and learns about something they want to give more effort into learning. A student would want to get a better understanding of what their passion consist of to get a deeper view of what it could be. In addition, a lot of students wonder what they are learning why the material is important for them to know or how it will ever relate to their life. Some students feel that what they learn in the classroom is only to sit there to learn and pass a class to get a passing grade then move on. This could be an example for many subjects such as math; why would we have to master what is the square root of a triangle. As a student would think, why is this important for my future? So if they get to explore more of what interest or passion they have, it will get their attention and help relate to their lives. If students know that what they are learning is valuable it will let them focus and want to learn. Having a lack of passion is what is now happening in our classrooms; not every student may like the same subject, but if majority of students are relating to something that gets them excited and mre focused it will make students to get a better education.

If the student community observes that other students are finding there passions it will give them personal motivation to find theirs. To have this effect, it will make students more open to new ideas of what they themselves would be interested in and connect to other students that have a same passion. This will make a cycle to make students want to find what they are interested in and have a positive effect to want to try new passions. Not only will it make a postive cycle but help students that don't know what they want have guidence to view a good influence. There are many students that come to college that are clueless to what they want to do with their careers. There is nothing wrong with that, but with having the atmoshpere of trying new things and pushing to do passions will make those students want to contribute and eventually find a passion that will realte to other students. Having students find their passions will put a postive influence on the student body to want to also find their own.

Not only does finding passions help students but they also help teachers within education. With students knowing what their passions are it will help the teacher connect with students to have material that they can relate to. The way a teacher could purse this plan is to early in the semester write down what all the students like to do or what makes them happy to determine what their passions could be. This could help both student and teacher by how it gives clear communication of what they want to learn about or at least what teachers could add in their lessons to make the students interested. Communication is important within the classroom because without it, student can become insecure to approach a teacher when they need help or guidence to further learn the lesson. With a teacher knowing what their students passions/interests are, it will help them teach materials the students will be interested in.With having students explore their passions it gives them a better education on that subject. When finding a passion it gives more motivation to actually learn more about that passion. When a person is in a learning environment and learns about something they want to give more effort into learning. A student would want to get a better understanding of what their passion consist of to get a deeper view of what it could be. In addition, a lot of students wonder what they are learning why the material is important for them to know or how it will ever relate to their life. Some students feel that what they learn in the classroom is only to sit there to learn and pass a class to get a passing grade then move on. This could be an example for many subjects such as math; why would we have to master what is the square root of a triangle. As a student would think, why is this important for my future? So if they get to explore more of what interest or passion they have, it will get their attention and help relate to their lives. If students know that what they are learning is valuable it will let them focus and want to learn. Having a lack of passion is what is now happening in our classrooms; not every student may like the same subject, but if majority of students are relating to something that gets them excited and mre focused it will make students to get a better education.

If the student community observes that other students are finding there passions it will give them personal motivation to find theirs. To have this effect, it will make students more open to new ideas of what they themselves would be interested in and connect to other students that have a same passion. This will make a cycle to make students want to find what they are interested in and have a positive effect to want to try new passions. Not only will it make a postive cycle but help students that don't know what they want have guidence to view a good influence. There are many students that come to college that are clueless to what they want to do with their careers. There is nothing wrong with that, but with having the atmoshpere of trying new things and pushing to do passions will make those students want to contribute and eventually find a passion that will realte to other students. Having students find their passions will put a postive influence on the student body to want to also find their own.

Not only does finding passions help students but they also help teachers within education. With students knowing what their passions are it will help the teacher connect with students to have material that they can relate to. The way a teacher could purse this plan is to early in the semester write down what all the students like to do or what makes them happy to determine what their passions could be. This could help both student and teacher by how it gives clear communication of what they want to learn about or at least what teachers could add in their lessons to make the students interested. Communication is important within the classroom because without it, student can become insecure to approach a teacher when they need help or guidence to further learn the lesson. With a teacher knowing what their students passions/interests are, it will help them teach materials the students will be interested in.