Jasmine's Essay 2

Separate But Equal

Malcolm X once said, "There can be no black-white unity until there is first some black unity.... We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves." Is this the same for our children and education? Is there true desegregation in the United States educational system or is there just the image and belief of it? Our minority students in America could be considered victims of a society that see something they believe in instead of the reality of the situation at hand. I was once told that we learn through our environment, our lifestyle, and our ability plus the opportunities at hand. In other words, different cultures learn different ways and depending on you, your household, and your school your future will be different. We all agree that each individual learns differently from the next just as well as each individual’s home lifestyle is different especially among different cultures. So why isn’t our learning environments treated the same? Society with the help of standardized test show that not only does the majority of minorities rank with some of the lowest test scores but the minorities within poverty level is among the most common. What does that say about our education and perhaps the problem with desegregation?

To learn the problem for the present and fix it for the future you must look at your past. There are many facts that cannot be ignored. Blacks were oppressed and slaved for hundreds of years. It was illegal to be educated or even to read. Once freed, African-Americans were left one our own to defend for ourselves in a world already established with a different culture and with the disadvantage of being racially subjected to inhuman treatment for anything other then being submissive to the superior white race. With accommodating to the racial environment of being obedient to whites, blacks established a community within them selves. In Louisiana, the area of South Baton Rouge was historically known a self-relying community within itself predominately black with the mix of some immigrants. Along with the civil rights movement and the Brown versus the Board of Education desegregation came which brought the transfer of income and education including funding, established black teachers integrating into white schools, and the removal of black income to white stores, the well established community of South Baton Rouge tumbled. It is now considered poor and worn down with still the majority of blacks but poverty stricken blacks and just so happens this neighborhood holds the school with education level so low that the government has had to invade to hopefully improve the situation.

A main argument of desegregation is to eliminate the feeling of superiority of one race to the other by eliminating the opportunity to have the choice of intending a school because of your race. The problem with that is the feeling of being superior is acknowledged when put in a situation of vulnerability because of the obvious difference between you and your peers. When putting a poverty stricken black student in a school or classroom with the majority of middle class white students the feeling of being different is automatically established which sometimes brings the feeling of being inferior. Then within conversation and interacting between one another the difference of lifestyles is brought to surface and the feeling of inferiority is again reestablished. Then standardized test, which includes words, or phrases that are not commonly used in the black students daily life is used to measure intelligence and the scores are lower than their fellow classmates. This could obviously discourage the student from education in general and the behavior changes from willingness to learn to just giving up. The difficulty in performing in domains where prevailing stereotypes indicate that one may be part of an inferior group carries the risk that any faltering of performance will confirm the stereotype as a self-characteristic thus the efforts are doubled in order to disprove stereotypes but then end up working too quickly or inefficiently.

The common phrases such as “you must love yourself before you can love someone else” or “you must be happy before you can make someone else happy” can also be used within education for blacks. We must bring ourselves up to our potential before merging into someone else’s world. Reestablishing yourself then involving your life with others is much easier then jumping head on. Minorities have prevailed in an unbelievable brief amount of time and only good things are to come. I think instead of having that constant reminder and comparison to one another we must look into ourselves and solve the problem from within. Oppression can be more then slavery and the ranking of minorities in success and education is one. Remember Malcolm X also said “Anytime you see someone more successful than you are, they are doing something you aren't."

kristi's essay #2

Kristi Tutt

Doubts about Learning Disabilities

The idea of allowing students with learning disabilities to have special accommodations during standardized testing such as extra testing time, the use of a calculator, or oral testing is an ongoing debate. Standardized testing is intended to test each student equally in order to create a bare minimum of knowledge needed to proceed to the next level of education. Special treatment of learning disabled youth disrupts the equilibrium that testing was meant to set and implicates truth in the controversial diagnosis of certain disabilities. Though there are multiple exceptions, I believe that until there is a more concrete and universal understanding of learning disabilities, an improved system of testing, and diagnosis is financially available to all (despite class and race), every student should be tested under the same conditions.

There are some who believe that learning disabilities are just parents’ excuses for their child’s poor performance. I am not one of those people. All my life I have been surrounded by family members and friends that are extremely successful and intellectual. These are the people that motivate me because they struggle with disabilities such as dyslexia and ADHD everyday. Dyslexia is when a person has trouble reading, writing, and spelling because they cannot process letters and syllables as well as others. Victims of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) have trouble paying attention, thinking before their actions, and hyperactivity. Although psychiatrists have researched these two particular disorders for over one hundred years, the official diagnosis is a fairly recent development. After a long, expensive testing process a student can be given a “504,” which refers to a law that requires teaching modifications for disabled youth. Most cases remain undiagnosed because parents and teachers do not know a lot about learning disabilities, and they assume it is the child’s nature that cannot be fixed. Even if child is diagnosed, treatment varies from individual to individual. There is still uncertainty about what accommodations would help with which disorders. I know that when my elder sister was in school, she struggled immensely with tests because of her severe ADHD. But she was not given any accommodations because it was not allowed. Eventually she got her diploma, despite the long struggle. So until more evidence about treatments is found, it would not be fair to give accommodations that aren’t even proven to benefit.

Even though it is hard for some to apprehend the idea that standardized tests accurately measure an individual’s intellect, so far it is the best and only method. These tests keep poor performing students from moving on to a level of which they are not prepared. The debate is why some are failing. There is a difference between not knowing or understanding the material and knowing the material but not being able to pass the test. Rules need to be created in order for exceptions to be allowed. If guidelines aren’t followed, every failing student (and his or her parents) might blame it on a disability that the school isn’t even sure exists in the child. If accommodations are made for the truly disordered students, then why shouldn’t normal kids that just are not passing have special treatment as well?

As of today, there is no cheap way to diagnose and treat a learning disability. Therefore, students from poor backgrounds are much less likely to get accommodations because they cannot even afford an official diagnosis. In some states, only the bigger cities have disability testing sites and disability treating psychiatrists. The cost to travel in addition to the cost of the tests, diagnosis, and trial treatments makes it impossible for children from low income families to be helped. A hyperactive or dyslexic student in an inner city school needs accommodations just as much as the kid from a white middle class family, so until accommodations can be made for everyone, they should not be made for anyone.

As learning disability research continues, the world will eventually be ready to draw a line between which students should be given special treatment or not. Treatments will become more defined as well as the different diagnoses. Until then it is not fair to allow accommodations for students during standardized testing, and testing conditions should remain as they are.

The Free Birds

Society's Role in Education

No one can deny the fact that our inner city schools are in need of reform. Since Brown vs The Board of Education integrated schools a gap between suburban and inner-city schools has been growing. Drop out and failure rates are significantly higher for schools in impoverished neighborhoods than for suburban schools. Some will say this is a result of lack of funding and racially bias standardized tests. I disagree, problems in the community create an unencouraging educational environment. If minority students are to succeed they need to see themselves as intellectual and efficiently competent enough to achieve academic success.
The problems facing inner-city schools cannot be solved simply by increasing their funding. From what I have seen since I have been tutoring at Polk Elementary, the school provides students with everything I had in suburban schools. They have a library full of children’s books, TVs in the classrooms, and a computer lab. Also available for urban students are the seemingly limitless resources at the public libraries. In fact, on average urban schools receive roughly equal government funding as more efficient public schools in suburbs. For instance, Washington D.C., which has some of the worst schools in the nation, spends $10,000 per student in public school; while a near by suburb, Montgomery County, M.D., spends less than $9,000 and has top notch schools. The school system provides urban students with the opportunities and resources they need for success, but the problem lies in the outside community. We often look at urban schools and ask questions like “What have we given to upper-class schools that we have not given to you?” or “What do they have that you don’t?”
The answer is a simple one. Upper-class society gives its students the presumption of intelligence and an expectation of success. Their environment encourages aspiration while guardians and peers provide direction. Communities surrounding struggling urban schools have far higher poverty, crime, and teenage pregnancy rates. In this environment the importance of education is often overlooked and students have low expectations about their education. Students entering schools in these neighborhoods are at an immediate disadvantage. Families of single parents and poverty cause children to miss early learning opportunities. For example urban families have far fewer children’s books in their homes than wealthier families. Minority parents are more likely to view education as a job for the teachers. Incoming kindergartners entering urban schools start slightly behind average in language and number skills. This gap only widens as their education their education continues. Students begin to feel oppressed, like they don’t have chance to break the cycle. In a report assessing the results No Child Left Behind Act 11 urban districts were analyzed. The report showed that less than 16% (as low as 1% in some cases) of eligible students applied to receive supplemental educational services such as tutors. Few students took the opportunities they were given. Minority students do not believe in themselves academically and do not see education as a path to success.
To overcome this hurdle we must strive to help students help themselves. Cities should work to promote the value of a good education outside of schools in the community. Steps should be taken to get parents more involved in their children’s education. Study skills should be taught at an early age and schools need to stress the importance of learning on young students. Focus should be on inspiration and motivation of students; they will succeed if they believe in themselves. Highland Academy in Charlotte, NC is perfect example of this principle. A new principal installed new policies at the school, which focused on achieving success. In the morning students say a pledge for success everyday. Teachers set individual goals for students and reward them for completion. After only one year of the schools new policies, the amount of nine year olds at grade reading level increased from 29%-75%. Confident students will flourish when provided with challenging and interesting material; students who want to learn will excel in their studies. To build confidence in students programs like LSU’s service learning provides students with positive role models. When I read with my kids at Polk I try to select harder books each week. When the children read a difficult new word with out my help, I can see they get a proud sense of accomplishment. Words of praise keep them wanting to go on and keep trying. The promotion of good education should be for students at all grade levels. At a high school level focus should be to aim students toward higher education. Students should be taken on more visits to college campuses. Students need to see that unlimited opportunity available at colleges and universities. Although it won’t be easy, reforms like these are necessary. Students, teachers, and entire communities must work together to raise the expectations of their schools. If students feel they can succeed they will. As the education system improves communities will follow. With the right outlook urban communities can rise to the challenge and break the viscous cycle unemployment and poverty. Soon we may look at urban schools with admiration in our eyes.

Editorializing About Education- Unifying Together

Unifying Together

If you are colored you are prohibited to read this paper any further because this was written for whites only. You probably felt a little uncomfortable in what you just read; however, minority groups have heard comments like this in the past. Fortunately, those statements cease to exist because of civil right movements such as Brown vs. Board of Education. Brown vs. Board of Education stated that segregation in public schools was a violation of the fourteenth amendment and was unconstitutional. This marked the end of the “separate but equal” precedent and forced white children to attend schools with colored children. Unfortunately, desegregation has decreased in our school systems. Some say that Brown was pushing for an idea that is not possible. Others say the “separate but equal” act should still be in effect today. Schools should be desegregated because children should not be forced to attend certain schools, “separate but equal” is not equal, and diversity can be a positive educational experience.

In 1950, black third grader Linda Brown was forced to walk a mile to her all-black school even though an all-white school was only seven blocks away. After her father, Oliver Brown, tried to get her into the all-white school and was denied, he began to fight for desegregation between the schools. Thus, the Brown vs. Board of Education Act was passed. This is a good example of how segregation of schools is not a fair solution. It is not fair that a parent is forced to send their child to a certain school if there is a better one they could attend. It sends a message to the minority students that they are inferior to the white children and this can cause the minority children to lack motivation in learning and achieving knowledge. For example, say an eighteen year old male was forced to attend an all black college that is not as prosperous as the all white one down the road. The message that he would receive would probably not be a positive one. He would feel unqualified and inferior to the other school. Some may argue that the solution would be to equalize the schools; however, this idea is not so easy to reach.

Equal can be defined as something having the same quantity, measure, or value as another. When there is a minority and a majority, the minority is not treated the same as the majority. For example, a state court decision to direct equality among education has been difficult to enforce because the legislatures often refuse to provide the money (Patterson 1). When schools were separated, but considered equal, the colored schools were in poverty. In some cases, it is still this way today. Poverty has resulted in many colored schools not having qualified teachers. This is an issue because this causes test scores to be lower and drop out rates to be higher. The gap between these social classes is increasing greatly. The issue should not be about separating our children, but more if we can find a better way to educate them properly. Although the answer to proper education is not easy, a small step would be to let children educate each other. Desegregation would allow children to gain education through socializing with people of other races and ethnicities.

Most people who attend racially diverse high schools will agree that the experience made them more open-minded and comfortable with people of other races. Coming from a diverse high school, I can fight that it does shape students into more understanding and open individuals. I am proud to have gone to a diverse school because I feel it has made me more aware of the facts and truths of minority groups. I have learned not to judge someone by their appearance and rather to look at them from within. I feel it is important for everyone to learn this method because if the public was only subjected to their own race, they could never learn from one another. They could never see the other side of things and this would cause more prejudice and stereotypes. When a person has more exposure to a greater range of other races, they are more likely to become better educated in cultural issues. They will develop academically more mature and have a better outlook on racial understanding. In a way, unifying with different groups is an educational experience in itself.

Although there are negatives to desegregation there are even more negatives to the “separate but equal” act. Oliver Brown fought for desegregation because like many others, Oliver Brown saw the benefits of diverse schools. He knew it was against his rights when he was forced to send his daughter to the all-black school a mile away. He understood that the minority schools where not being treated equally. Most importantly, he understood that desegregation could show people how to interact with different cultures. I believe that all school should be desegregated because of these reasons. If everyone could see the importance of desegregation, then we could approach the issues of racism starting with children. If we came together and united as a culture, our problems could become opportunities because like Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is a progress. Working together is a success.”

PEER RESPONSE GUIDE

Your job, between now and the time we come to class on Tuesday, is to thoughtfully read and respond to the peers in your group, helping them to see how they can improve their essays.

How you’ll go about that:
1. Post your draft to your group’s blog (IF YOU DON'T SEE YOUR DRAFT HERE, YOU NEED TO REMEDY THAT IMMEDIATELY!)
2. Read through the drafts your group members have posted, and post comments for each draft.
3. Read the drafts of the members of the Favorites' group, pay particular attention to the ones you've been assigned.

Guide to Responding
Use these questions to guide the comments you make (you don’t have to answer them question by question; just use them as you write to each writer):

• What do you think the specific focus is that the writer is trying to communicate? What suggestions can you make to help the writer sharpen that focus or make it clearer? Are there ideas that don’t fit into that focus?
• Do the events of the essay come to life for you? Point out places where you’d like more details. Do you want to know what the teacher looks like? What the smells, sounds, sights are in any particular part? Etc.
• Do you understand the “so what” part of the essay? Is the writer drawing you to understand the significance of these events on who they are? Where does the significance need to be clarified?
• Does the organization make sense to you? Are there places you could suggest to have stronger transitions or a more logical order of ideas?
• Finally, you don’t need to focus on grammar and style, but if there are common mistakes you see (the writer is consistently misspelling a word, for instance), feel free to point them out.
• Make some final suggestions for the writer about your overall impressions.

DUE: Your responses are to be posted by the time you come to class on Tuesday, September 26. Don’t put this off until the last minute: these responses are your primary responsibility this week. Half-hearted attempts won’t be helpful to your group (and consequently, won’t earn you the points for participating either). If it's useful to you to think of the comments you and the other members of your group are making as a conversation, feel free to refer to the comments others have made, agreeing or disagreeing (of course, "I agree with everything she said" and nothing more won't be helpful, but "I agree with this point, but I wonder if maybe you need more details instead of..." might be a useful way to dialogue). The point is to help the writer see her or his essay in a new way.

Educational Autobiography

Erin Mikulak
English 1002 Sect. 3
Rough Draft: Essay 1
September 19, 2006
Educational Autobiography
Knowledge is the most important aspect to every person’s life. In school, children grow from naive youth to mature adults. Educational institutes teach facts and ideas as well as shape social behavior and creativity. While attending public school in Atlanta, Georgia, I was given many great opportunities to expand my intelligence. Through these opportunities I discovered the outrageous creativity harnessed in my mind. The ingenuity to express my ideas through writing, drawing, sculpting, painting, and advertising was embraced by my teachers and peers thrusting me to continue with my adventure of life as an inspired resourceful woman.
My first encounter with my creativity came in third grade when I was chosen to help act out a short story we read in class about Cinderella. From kindergarten to third grade, we did not have a real understanding about responsibility; we really did not even understand why or what we were trying to accomplish. We sat and did a daily routine of centers, reading time, and calendar activities where we mocked the teacher’s actions and learned the basic principals of being a student. In third grade we apprehensively welcomed when the teacher split us into groups and our task was to recreate the classic Cinderella story with a twist. I was named group president and the juices started flowing, so to speak. Within a few minutes my idea was born. My older sister had been dancing around the house for weeks listening to a new group called the Spice Girls and I knew it would be the perfect twist to a boring old story. While some groups came dressed as pilgrim Cinderella or sport inspired Cinderella, my group came dressed to kill as the Spice Girls and blew the class away with our corky lyrics to the tone-def song we sang about the slave girl turning into a beautiful princess. Rewarded with a good grade and a pat on the back from most of my classmates, I ran home and exclaimed to my mother that I was a genius. With the choices and freedoms of my public school’s innovative new age teaching, students were not only inspired to create ideas but somewhat forced to think outside the box. We were impelled to make connections between the knowledge of the past and the opportunity of the present and the future. My third grade teacher showed movies, operas, newspaper clippings, and games from each era we learned about in history. With the amazing parental contribution and involvement in the school, our classes were provided with wonderful tools to make learning entertaining and not mind-numbing. The performance from my third grade year released a fiend in my body. I devoted the rest of my year to art projects and clubs at school to convey my love for any art. I joined art club, chorus, cheerleading, and many other exciting things to get involved in my unorthodox thinking. I was rewarded with eight medals that year from a program called Kaleidoscope for the art work I created.
Now, in Atlanta, during my fourth grade year in elementary school, a huge event was occurring. The 1996 Olympics were coming to town and schools all over Atlanta were squeezing everything about the Olympics into our minds. The principal announced that each classroom in the building was to be assigned a country that was represented in the games and we would have a festival to learn about each country. My class was assigned Australia. I was assigned the art project of a huge poster to display behind our booth at the festival. We looked through books and magazines and the one signature picture of all Australia was the Sydney Opera House in the capital of the country. I worked for days sketching out each inch of the four foot by six foot poster. When it was complete I showed my teacher and my class and a silence slashed through the room like a sword. I had constructed a masterpiece and at that moment I felt so amazingly confident and convinced that I was meant to create.
With optimistic influences like my teachers, art teachers, counselors, and even principals in my life, I went on to create wonderful essays, sculptures, meals, paintings, and drawings; if it was creative, I could do it. I once even arranged the furniture and repainted my basement all in one day in middle school because I was simply bored with the atmosphere. Through middle and high school I continued to win awards and have positive reinforcement to keep creativity in my life. With the shaping of my mind in the early ages of my youth, I have come to realize that how a child is taught and rewarded throughout their educational odyssey contours the person they will become. I am so blessed to have the miraculous luck of being born to a family that lived in a celebrated public school district with compassionate teachers and staff members who were animated everyday with the power of knowledge and the know-how to make learning fascinating.

educational autobio

Nigger- a vulgar derision or depreciation. It is usually intended and interpreted as highly insulting and vulgar.

“You nigger girl.” The words still to this day echo in my mind. I was called a nigger and everything that went behind it. It was like a flash of pictures of my ancestors being lynched, crosses being burned, and the KKK marching with the confederate flag went through my mind as if a link of chains were being put together. Don’t get me wrong it’s not like I’ve never heard it before but there comes a point when you can hear a difference in how it’s said. I know I’m black, I am for equality, I hate the confederate flag, I know I’m one of the few black on campus and I feel it everyday. I’ve seen the pictures of people being lynched right here in Louisiana and watch the movies on civil rights and Malcolm X and I know some aspect of racism still exists. The thing is you don’t really hear about it so heartlessly and maliciously now a day. Most people don’t know exactly what it feels like to be called something intentionally hateful. You can’t help but to think more into it. You start to wonder how people on an everyday bases look at you and how you are treated. You began to look at your past and wonder if things that happen to you before were because of the color of your skin. Significant incidents you notice such as not getting a certain job or being watched suspiciously in a store but what about the other things such as being a black student at LSU and the problems that comes with it. Those are things that cross through your mind. I realized that I’ve known this since my first semester at LSU.
My first class at LSU was intro to animal science at 8:30 in the morning. At my first class at LSU I was the only black person in about fifty plus people. That was my first impression of LSU and as time went on I realized that not only was I the only black person but the only one that grew up in inner city Baton Rouge. That can be intimidating when the class and the teacher are primarily focused on farm animals and rural life, something I was never exposed to. It made me feel like even more of an outcast and fitting the stereotypical inner city black child. It was discouraging to even go to class and so I began not to. I became so behind not only in that class but many others with the same setting that I began to flunk out. Instead of flunking out I dropped out. At that time I wasn’t thinking that race was the problem. I blamed it on all types of other things. It was more because of shame that I didn’t want to admit to it. I was ashamed that I let that get to me and let it stop me from getting my education. At the same time it made me question my education and whether I was really smart enough to be there or was it some stroke of luck that I was admitted. Was I really smart enough to be at LSU? For a year in a half I stayed out of school and I missed it like crazy. I was scared to come back, flunk out and truly know that I was not smart enough to be there or become, what I was going to school for, a Veterinarian. It’s amazing how something like race and intimidation can keep you from doing something that means the world to you.
In spring of 2005 I came back and was determined. I took that same class and aced it. I got involved and joined several different clubs. I took African American studies and still to this day think about becoming a teacher after I pursue my other goals. I moved out of my parent’s house and leaved with some roommates in a house not far from campus. I was working hard and then I got into a fight with my roommate over bills and foolish little roommate stuff; who paid what and who didn’t. Then she called me a nigger. That was something that I never thought would come out of her mouth. She was a practicing lawyer who graduated from LSU, someone who I lived with for over a year. I couldn’t help but think this is what she must have thought about me the entire time.
I began to wonder what was it about me that would make her think of me like that. Was it my friends or the way I lived? Was it the way I acted toward her? Then I realized that with one word I was second guessing who I am and what I have overcome. Not many people like to think this way but race or the color of your skin has a lot to do with who you are. It can affect your life in a way that can change it forever. The problem is when you let it be the only thing that makes you. My roommate doesn’t know and probably won’t ever know since we don’t live together anymore, that by her looking at only my race and calling me that word it changed me forever and my outlook on the world. I haven’t let it overcome me to the point where I can’t see anything else but I am aware of how some people see me.

Kristi's Educational Essay

Kristi Tutt

When I was eleven years old, my parents would not let me go to the neighborhood middle school where all my friends from grade school were going. Instead they made me attend a school that was better academically and otherwise known as ‘geeky’. Today I am extremely thankful they made that decision for me because that middle school along with the linking high school are what made me so passionate about learning and such a extroverted, free-thinking individual. The school I attended was different from regular public schools in the class organization and size, the real life preparation, and the encouragement of individuality.

Back in grade school, my mother noticed that I made poorer grades in classes that I found easier. This is one of the reasons she felt it was necessary to send me to a harder school. The classes were challenging and tedious but in a good way. Most of my teachers were dedicated to helping students understand the material rather than just memorizing it in order to pass. Classes only had five to fifteen people which allowed for more one-on-one time with the instructor. This was important for me because I could get help with what I was having trouble with versus the whole class’s struggles. Within a grade, there was a division into three different sections based on enrollment test results. Gateway students (that had also been tested by the state) were the Questers. Below them were the Explorers, and then there were the Discoverers. The divisions were taught the same required material but in different approaches based on critical thinking. This permitted students that understood each other to work together.

My school had an activity period once a week in which club meetings took place. Each student was able to become involved in a particular interest group ranging from theatre or writing to ultimate Frisbee or sewing. I used to be shy around unfamiliar people; therefore joining clubs was what eventually got me out of my shell. Every year, there are several carnivals in which clubs and grade sections have to work together in order to organize booths and games. This required planning ahead and working in groups for months with people that would not usually be found in the same social groups. One reason I am highly driven today is the intense competition that took place between students. At some schools, good grades are not encouraged among peers but at Magnet it was socially acceptable to be smart. This competitiveness made students (especially myself) work harder and not ashamed to do well in school.

My school encouraged individuality by being less strict about issues such as dress code and more stringent about schoolwork. The first year there was separation into cliques but as we grew together, the superficial boundaries were broken down. If a person was to walk on campus at lunchtime, he or she would see the most diverse conversing. Students from Magnet learned to not be quick to judge and that a best friend could be found in somebody completely opposite in looks whether it’s race, gender, or clothes. One of the best compliments I received was from my Bulgarian best friend’s family. I went to Europe with them for a month sophomore year, and they told me I was the most adaptable teenager they had ever met. I credit this to the open-mindedness emboldened in the environment of my education.

My school would not be ideal for everyone, but I know that I learned more because I had more leniency than I would not have had at a regular public school. I still talk to peers from grade school, and some say they wish they could have gone to my school while the rest were perfectly content with the neighborhood school. It is a fact that if I had gotten an education at any other school, I would have a completely different outlook on the future than I do at present time.

Allison's Educational AutoBiography

Allison Stuart
English 1002- Section 003
September 14, 2006

Experiences of Life

I am someone who loves and hates people and I discovered this one day walking from class while I was angry. I am creative and I learned this today when my art project was picked as one of the best top five. I am strong and know this because of the conflicts I have faced. I am independent and realized this when I cooked dinner for my working mother. I am understanding and learn this by the fights I have been through. I am a listener and I see this because of my friends who come to me when they need someone. I am a thrill seeker and knew this after I went bungee jumping for the third time. I am open-minded and my views on life have shown me this. I am determined and my third grade class taught me this. I did not wake up one day and realize these things about myself. It has taken me nineteen years of trials, tribulations, and educational experiences.

Determination is a quality I thought I was born with. Knowing that it is more than just genetic, I slowly realized I picked up on it through my years of childhood. On the first day of third grade, I was one of twenty students picked to form a new class. This was because the number of students in each class where too great. I would like to say that I settled in nicely and had a great year; however, it was not so pleasant. Actually, it was the opposite of pleasant. The children were disrespectful, mean, and the future dropouts of high school. It was as if learning was something they did not want. Even now, I am aware of how much I was behind because of that year. Mostly, I sat in class and drew and perhaps that is when I found my love for art.
I could say that it was the worst experience, but there is one main detail I left out. Mr. Growl was his name and he made me realize determination. He took me outside the classroom and told me how thankful he was of my respect. He said that I was a great listener and very determined. As he sat there telling me these things, I remember looking into the classroom. I remember seeing my classmates run around, laugh, and throw spit balls. It was at that moment when I decided what I did not want to be. I did not want to lack knowledge. I did not want to settle for less. I wanted to learn as much as I could and do all that I am capable of doing.

Independence is not gained while sitting at home watching television. I come from a single house hold or as some sociologist may call it, a “broken” home. I am proud to say that my home was no such thing, and my mother could not have been a better parent. There where times when she had to work causing my sister, brother, and I to eat snack and do homework on our own. I remember one night my mother took me into the dark kitchen and told me to pick and not tell my sister or brother. She was holding a candy bar and a pack of M&Ms. She told me that because I had helped her by cleaning the house and starting dinner she was going to reward me. She told me how much she appreciated my willingness and thoughtfulness to help. It was when I realized my independence. I really felt like I had matured. In a way, I felt like I was my mom, a determined independent hard worker.

Fortunately, there are many more times I can recall when I realized a quality about myself. I feel that it is important to know who Allison Stuart is. I did not stumble upon her while flipping through a magazine or by clicking away on the internet. I found her while living life. They say that knowledge is a basic essential of life. I agree and it is because of my knowledge that I have been able to live the life that I have. I am who I am through happy times. I am who I am through rough times. I am who I am because of education, knowledge, and most of all, experience.

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