Chapter 8: Christensen

This chapter brings up a lot memories from my own high school experience. I can remember the day I decided to take school seriously: I was in the 6th grade and they came to get students to rehearse for the honors program happening later on that night. I can remember thinking to myself that I had o.k. grades so I was expecting my name to be called. But it wasn't, and after the kids whose names were called left and class was over, I stayed behind and asked my teacher why I wasn't picked. He nicely told me that my GPA wasn't high enough. That was a turning point for me and I decided that I would be on the next list. I studied hard and by the time the next semester came I was on that list and it felt good to be recognized for all my hard work.

I guess what my point is that I made the choice to be one of the top students no one made that choice for me. Neither one of my parents were college grads, and we weren't rich we were middle classed. So, when I read this chapter I really can't relate. I mean maybe it was because I went to a charter high school were class time was extended and we were well prepped. But, inside that there were still students who were sent to my school because they "failed" at other area high schools or their parents thought that they would do better at Northwestern, but most of the time those students were pushed into this school that got out at 4pm rather 2:15pm, and the class work was hard. I feel like they were given a choice to care and my teachers did try and make them feel like they could do it and outside issues or them just not caring made them either not try or leave.

I guess my point is that some people don't try even when they can excel and they are given the tools to help them succeed. But I don't know maybe it's because everyone at my school was mostly black so I never really experienced the fact that I had to compete until I started here at Western and the Affirmative Action debate caught my attention and I realized that I needed to be ten times better than all of my non minority peers. Well at least thats what it seems like. I don't know maybe I'm being insensitive but I just think that sometimes its up to the person and sometimes it is a race and class problem but in my experiences it depends on the person. But, I can say that my high school is no longer a charter school and it is now facing its own discipline problems and kids who want to learn are put in classes with those who don't care but it still works out because they make the choice to succeed for themselves.