Students in Need (of a Change)
Ever since high school, all students are told about the many different financial options available to them to help pay for their college education. However, there are also students who are told that they are available for additional aid because they are considered to be underprivileged. For students like me, the term “underprivileged” is placed on them early on in schools and will continue to follow them for most of their undergraduate career. I am able to relate to this article because I am considered to be an underprivileged student. For as long as I can remember, I have been identified as such and for a while I got made fun of because I was labeled as being underprivileged. I know what it feels like as a child to be ostracized just and having to deal with the label as a college student can be just as embarrassing at times. While the additional funds that are available may be helpful for an already struggling college student to pay for courses; the term “underprivileged” itself can be damaging to the students emotionally. As the Phoenix newspaper editor, Natasha Rodriguez, expresses in her article “Who Are You Calling Underprivileged,” (p. 206) colleges often label students as being “underprivileged” based off of their lower income, their backgrounds, or even their ethnicity. Rodriguez points out that though the assistance is appreciated, being called underprivileged or told that you have lived an “underprivileged” life could invoke a lot of different emotions in a student. Rodriguez then goes on to question the use of the term “underprivileged” by colleges and why another word should be adopted to identify students in need. She argues that colleges should adopt a phrase similar to “students in n...
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...nally. She takes the time to explain to readers, “What had angered [her] the most about the label was why colleges would ever sue such terms”. Rodriguez also explains to readers her own emotions of dealing with being identified as an underprivileged student, by using keywords such as “confusion,” and “anger”. These words help to ignite the reader’s own feelings about the label and invites them to think of ways they can take action to change it.
Natasha Rodriguez’s, “Who Are You Calling Underprivileged,” is relatable to students all around and helps to shine light on a potentially damaging label that colleges place on their students. As stated in her article, “Misfortune, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and by making a simple change from calling students “underprivileged,” to “a student in need,” can make a world of a difference in a student’s life.
In Tokarczyk’s essay, “Promises to Keep: Working Class Students and Higher Education,” she claims that working class students face both academic and institutional barriers in getting college degrees. According to Tokarczyk, working class students usually lack preparation for post-secondary education, which she categorizes as an “academic barrier” (85). Problems such as school policies that are not designed for working class students, peers who are not able to understand the situations that they have, and faculty m...
In Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton’s Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality, Midwestern University’s structure is discussed in regard to its composition that fosters class structure. Both authors claim that incoming college classes are very diverse in social class structure, however, by the time they graduate they’re social mobility has not shown a difference. Using an ethnographic approach, Armstrong and Hamilton argue that student experiences are fundamentally shaped by their educational institution.
In Schooltalk: Rethinking What We Say About - and to - Students Every Day, Mica Pollock provides readers with fact-based information to “flip the script” of the misrepresentation of students in the education setting. Pollock demonstrates how race, gender, and ethnic labels can be detrimental to student achievement. She, then, dives in to 600 years of myths regarding social race labels and how they continue to affect humans today. By correcting race, gender, and ethnicity label myths in our minds, we can effectively advocate for these students. To conclude the book, Pollock focuses on how to devise a plan to correct our own misconceptions and foster a supportive environment for diverse students. Throughout
In the essay "The Danger of Telling Poor Kids That College Is the Key to Social Mobility" written by Andrew Simmons, he states that poor and wealthy college students should both be "sold" the same motivational idea. His idea is that rather than poor people focusing of making money, they should focus on an intellectual awakening similar to what wealthier students are able to focus on. Although Simmons raises a strong argument, I do not believe it is effective when trying to motivate poor students such as the black and Latino kids that live in Inglewood and West Adams in Los Angeles. Throughout my essay I will discuss why poor students and wealthy students motivational factors differ greatly.
Laura McKenna’s article reports on Sara Goldrick-Rab’s research on community college students that struggle with food security. Goldrick-Rab’s survey of ten community colleges nationwide “suggest[s] that more than half of all community-college students struggle with food insecurity” (McKenna). The article explains the two types of food insecurity the research found within the students: poverty before going into college and poverty caused by higher education cost. The study also shows that many of these community college students are not the typical young adults fresh from high school, and that many are individuals with families and jobs and could be part of the factor of food insecurity. McKenna points out how hunger can affect these students’
Natasha Rodriguez clearly proves that she is angry in her article “Who Are You Calling Underprivileged?” The quote provided from the article “What angered me most about the label was why college would ever use such a term. Who wants to be called underprivileged?” shows the feeling of anger. Rodriguez clearly states, not only for herself, but for anyone and everyone that has experienced disrespect and labeled with a term as degrading as underprivileged, that it angers people quite a bit. Not only did the article state “Help for Underprivileged Students” but it also only had a picture of students of a certain race on the front cover. The students on the front cover were Hispanic, African American, and Asian. This also angered Natasha Rodriguez for the simple reason of it is showing the world that these individuals with either Hispanic, African American, or Asian descendants are all underprivileged and need help which simply is not the entire truth. Even changing the picture to individuals of all races and ethnicities may have changed the outcome of this event just a little
The author, Julia Brookshire Everett commenced the article, “Public Community Colleges: Creating Access and Opportunities for First Generation College Students”, by first characterizing first- generation college students and also expounding on the difficulties first-generation students encountered when acquiring post-secondary degrees. According to Everett (2015), the term ‘first- generation college student’ was first coined in the 1960s in order to regulate student eligibility for federally financed programs to aid students from low-income households.
As an African American male, I experienced inequality, and judgment from individuals that have no idea what kind of person I truly am. As a youth, I received a lackluster education, which has resulted in me underachieving in a number of my college classes. It has come to my attention that other colored students are currently experiencing and receiving the same inadequate learning environment and educatio...
As societal pressures for higher education increase, more emphasis has been placed on the importance of a minimum of a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university. This has led to the increased enrollment of students with learning disabilities over the past decade. According to a recent survey from the National Clearinghouse on Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Disabilities, one in eleven full-time first-year students entering college in 1998 self-reported a disability. This translates to approximately 154,520 college students, or about 9% of the total number of first-year freshmen, who reported a wide range of disabilities, ranging from attention deficit disorder to writing disabilities (Horn).
Long ago, receiving education was once something only the rich could afford; it was a luxury. Nowadays it is open to everyone, but many students enter college only to discover that they are underprepared, and in turn they become disenchanted. David Leonhardt’s article, The College Dropout Boom, addresses the issues that are apparent in the education system and how it contributes to the gap between the upper and lower class while Access to Attainment by Abby Miller, Katherine Valle, Jennifer Engle, and Michelle Cooper calls to improve access to college education for today’s students. This is incredibly important because many students either drop out or never attended college and in today’s time, having a Bachelor’s degree has become a requirement
The right and privilege to higher education in today’s society teeters like the scales of justice. In reading Andrew Delbanco’s, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, it is apparent that Delbanco believes that the main role of college is to accommodate that needs of all students in providing opportunities to discover individual passions and dreams while furthering and enhancing the economic strength of the nation. Additionally, Delbanco also views college as more than just a time to prepare for a job in the future but a way in which students and young adults can prepare for their future lives so they are meaningful and purposeful. Even more important is the role that college will play in helping and guiding students to learn how to accept alternate point of views and the importance that differing views play in a democratic society. With that said, the issue is not the importance that higher education plays in society, but exactly who should pay the costly price tag of higher education is a raging debate in all social classes, cultures, socioeconomic groups and races.
College is often said to be the time to be whoever you want to be. However, when a student feels they need to make the choice to cover, they lose the opportunity to be themselves and learn more about their community. Covering is a person or group’s acts of censoring portions of their identity viewed as disadvantageous in an attempt to assimilate. Judicial and societal unwillingness to provide protection for marginalized communities furthers encouragement for individuals to cover. While some civil rights activists intertwine protective legislation with equality, requirements for covering in college settings shows a lack of equality and the need for creating a model of acceptance, an opportunity to further equality throughout the world.
Lacking the necessary support, many start to devalue the importance of doing well in school deciding that perhaps school isn’t part of their identity. In Susan’s case she’s eliciting multiple forms of subordination, and within each dimension she’s being subjective to different types of oppression; racial oppression, gender oppression, and class oppression, she’s experiencing cultural alienation and isolation and is not only based on her ethnicity as a Latina but is also influenced by how she is treated as a female, as a member of a certain socioeconomic class, and in relation to her English language proficiency, and even her perceived immigration status. In this sense, students like Susan experience different forms of discrimination or marginalization that stems from
Imagine turning into someone unrecognizable and watching as your life rips apart, a life that you worked so hard for, because all hope is lost. You have hit the bottom of “the well of life”, and deep inside this “well of life” you understand it’s all because of students.
Education is a profession which requires a teacher to be able to communicate with a multitude of students on a variety of levels. There is not a class, or student for that matter, that is identical. Therefore, teachers must be able to identify and help educate students from all different types of backgrounds and at different levels. Teaching a singular subject presents difficulties, but teaching students with disabilities should not be one. There are three main teaching areas that need to be focused on when teaching a student with a learning disability. Teachers need to focus on the strategies that will assist students with reading comprehension skills, writing skills, and maintaining appropriate behaviors in a classroom setting.