On the Uses of Liberal Education

This reading like most readings we do in this class really peeked my interest. Education is something that I hope to use as my platform when I run for a seat in the Senate one day. This reading related to all of the negatives in life such as: isolation, racism and crime to poverty. Now I do agree that there are a lot of obstacles in front of you when you are growing up in a poor neighborhood. However I don't agree that racism is one of them simply because I can't think of any poor communities in which there are multiple races in one community. I also didn't understand how politics have anything to do with poor communities and why this article thinks it to be so important.

That paragraph about the teacher meeting his class intrigued me because I always wondered why kids grow up wanting to be teachers definitely a high school teacher.We all have been in those classes and felt sorry for the teacher that has to deal with the attitude and difficulties that come with an unruly class. Then you add a not so great pay check and well I guess all you have to go on is you passion for the students. I feel as if there are a lot of professions that I can't see why someone would want to pursue but I am glad that they are being filled because someone has to do it. In class we discussed a reading that claimed that schools prepare students for a career similar to those in the community in which the school resides. This reading backs up that argument from the point that the humanities which rich people greatly understand are not taught in all schools specifically those schools in poor communities. Add that with the fact that not all students go to college to get those humanity classes. In the ghettos and not-so glamorous neighborhoods schools are not institutes of educations instead they are day cares for teenagers, a social playground with false hopes of educating students enough to get out of those neighborhoods. I feel as if all teachers saw their careers as an opportunity to better students in their class and not as a job then they would actually make the extra effort to properly educate their students rather than do the bare minimum. 

The third thing that I took away from this article was that in school I believe that most adults for get that at home you still have responsibilities and juggling those along with getting an education is not easy. In poor neighborhoods similar to my own which most of my friends also come from I have witnessed kids needing to take care of their younger siblings because mom has to work, or every two weeks going to the prison to see your dad. Those things not only stress the body but the mind as well and if the schools are not willing to help these kids on a more personal level then they cannot truly educate or better the students that they are trying to impact.