Motivation is Knowledge, Knowledge is Empowerment (Paper 2)

The American population is a very diverse group of people. To say that our educational system empowers or disempowers them is too broad of a statement. The fact is, when I first read the assignment, I was going to write about income and bad neighborhoods, but after talking to a few wise people and thinking about it, I think it’s much more than that. Empowerment through knowledge is about individuals themselves, their surroundings and, most of all, their motivation.
My immediate reaction to the topic was to go to the source; luckily my aunt and my mother are both teachers. My aunt teaches at a disadvantaged high school where minority feuds and colored bandanas are seen more than textbooks and laughter. My mother teaches at a less dangerous but still very poor elementary school dominated by Hispanic students. I asked my aunt the topic question, and her response was very blunt. She said, “It depends on who you run into.” I didn’t understand at first. She continued to explain, “If students from this neighborhood are lucky, they’ll run into someone that will positively guide them towards an education rather than violence or crime. If they run into the opposite, well, the opposite will happen!” This makes perfect sense to me. No matter what kind of background or neighborhood you live in, there will always be some sort of temptation to distract you from learning, but if you find some sort of motivation or inspiration, an education can empower you by giving you an unimaginable amount of opportunities. I do realize that in the more underprivileged neighborhoods there are more temptations, but if students find the motivation to move forward in those types of environments, they will have more will and drive than anyone else.
When I read the question now, “In what ways does compulsory education empower or disempower the American population?” I don’t think of it as a matter of income like I did at first. I see the question as a matter of where does the motivation lie. Some may say that where you liveor your ethnicity is the criteria of what kind of an education you will be getting. I disagree with this statement.
I truly believe that it is the motivation of those around you and the motivation that lies within you that determines your success. I can’t think of a better example to prove this to you than myself. My parents are very young. My mother had me when she was a senior in High School and my dad was a freshman at a community college in El Paso. I’m not saying this because they are bad parents-- in fact it’s just the opposite, they are amazing parents -- but growing up as the oldest of four, I had many responsibilities children my age usually didn’t have. I have 2 younger sisters, a younger brother, and a younger cousin who lives with us, and since I was old enough to do house chores and cook, they’ve have been under my care while the adults were busy working. When I advanced to Junior High, I met some people who had similar situations. My school was predominately Hispanic so it was easy to relate to people there. Most had big families and a few of my “best” friends, at the time, had very similar situations as me. Instead of dealing with it, they dropped it, meaning they stopped caring about the family and all their responsibilities to the family. When I first learned about this, I was in shock, not because of how irresponsible and selfish they were, but because, for all those years, I had been looking for a way out and never thought to just stop caring. School, family, authority, morals, manners, my priorities, everything I had been taught was non-existent. I got involved with some Hispanic gangs, skipped school, was getting arrested, and not coming home on weekends. All of this went on for 3 ½ years, the worst and most reckless three years of my life to date.
Barely making it to High School, I came in as a freshman with the same reckless,
“I’m above all authority” mentality. Then I got an invite to a presentation some Hispanic organization was putting on. As a rebellious 14 year old, I thought of it as an excuse to get out of class. I wasn’t planning on going, but three years of a bad reputation and a bad start in High School, my very familiar Assistant Principal escorted me to the presentation. I watched the presentation as other High School students talked about their experiences with the National Hispanic Institute (NHI). I was reluctant to join but my parents forced me. From my freshman to my sophomore year, I cannot tell you how drastically I changed. My appearance, my confidence, my friends, and my home life all changed, but most dramatically, my grades changed. Through the course of four years, NHI saved my life. I’ve written about NHI before and will probably again; I owe everything to this program: my inspiration, motivation, best friends, community servitude, leadership abilities, and success all came from it. Coming from a low income household, low income community, and even lower income school, I can honestly say that it was too easy to be constantly looking for and finding easy ways out because everything around you seems so hard. I think the education system in America is fine. The problem lies in the lack of concern for underprivileged youth and the lack of motivation for them. Our education does empower, it empowers the ones who give enough to take advantage of it. Anyone in the American population, no matter their race, sex, or income, has the resources to be empowered by knowledge, but not everyone has the motivation to strive for it. That is where the problem lies.