Waiting for Superman and 12 Lies Article

I found the “Waiting for Superman” film to be extremely moving. I was able to relate to it, even though I didn’t go to a really bad public high school in Chicago. I was really surprised by the severity of this problem. I knew that inequality in education existed, but the number of schools that are failing is insanely high! I feel like to help save these kids, there is a lot that needs to be done. We talked a lot about this in our meeting on Friday. There are just so many variables in this conglomeration that it is almost impossible to look solely at one reason, and say that if that problem is fixed, everything will be better. Many things can be factored in to help determine why these kids and schools are failing. We talked a lot about the federal system and how their agenda is different than the state’s agenda, which is different than the district’s. There is also the distribution of money issue and the strain on the teachers. Some things that are often overlooked are the things that we have to control over, such as the neighborhood the kids are in and the situation away from school back at home. I think a good place to start is getting everything fixed at the federal level and trying to get everyone onto the same page. Then hopefully it will trickle down to the district level and will improve some things. We can also get parents involved to help by making the communities better and just educating them on the seriousness of this matter. I believe that all the parents would be more than happy to help to make sure their child gets a good education. Voting for officials that can help solve this issue is a big way that parents can certainly address this problem.

I found almost everything the “12 Lies to Stop Telling Yourself” article to be relatable to me. There were many things in there that I think I tell myself all the time. There are many improvements that I would like to make for myself after reading this article. The ones that I found really interesting were the ones that said, “my dreams are impossible” and that “failure is bad”. I’ve always had the mindset that failure is terrible and that it should never happen. Plus, if I do fail at something, then I will almost never reach my goals and dreams in life. I now know that this mindset is really bad and to always remember that we are always improving ourselves to make sure we always get back up whenever we fall down. This will not only make you a better person, but it will rub off onto the people around you which will only make their lives better as well. A perfect example is with the inner-city students and how their mindset is that things will never get better. We need to show that there is always a chance.