Week 3- The Element

After reading chapters five and six, I found many quotes that the author made that I wanted to share in the blog, but I am going to focus on one. "It is difficult to feel accomplished when you're not accomplishing something that matters to you" (pg 139). This was very eye opening, especially when I picture the students at our school. A problem we are facing is that a lot of these students don't get to see what an education can do for you. They see it as a waste of time, just like their parents probably felt when they were here. A majority of our students don't get to see the benefits of an education. They see people who went to college, but it doesn't seem attainable to them because they are living in a home where education failied. It's a vicious cycle, the parents see their parents not caring, so they don't care, then they pass it on to our students. We are trying to fight against a battle that has been building up force for generations. A student who has a family member who went to college is a lot more likely to go to college. Now think of the students who have parents who come from generations of the welfare program. They are a lot less likely to see college as an opportunity, therefore, accomplishing our goal of giving them an education is almost meaningless to them.