Thursday, February 18, 2010

What would happen to me if I were born in a different setting

I am very priviledged. I was born in suburban Minneapolis and attended a nice elementary school in an upper-middle class neighborhood. I attended a small parochial school for middle school and one of the most prestigious private schools in the Twin Cities for high school. My family has always extremely supportive and helpful with my education. There is no way that I would have been as successful in school as I was if it were not for the influence of my parents and the more well-off schools that I attended. Now I attend Luther College and the support here is even more impressive. I struggle with ADHD and some other learning differences. Lately, I have spent a lot of time working with Luther's Student Academic Support Center (SASC). We have worked on numerous skills including time management and reading as well as discussed using audio books and tutors to ensure that my performance meets my potential. The support I have received from SASC has been very beneficial already and I look forward to it ensuring more success for me in the future. I also hope that I will learn some valuable skills that I can recommend to my future students who may have similar needs to me. In class on Wednesday, we watched a video that highlighted America's current problems with unequal schools. Schools in impoverished communities receive substantially less money per student and therefore are not able to provide even close to the same opportunities as the more wealthy schools. The differences illustrated in this video were outlandish. I am very fortunate to be in the same situation that I am now and was born into because I feel that if I were born to a different family in a poor community, I would not be at Luther today. The support I have received by my parents and past teachers has been crucial to my success thus far. For all of these I am grateful but also deeply bothered because ideally all students would be given these same opportunities in America. Something needs to change and it may start with funding.

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