I am beginning to question a truth that I have held for a long time. For many years I have been proud that I have been a self made man. I have considered myself to be one who has overcome a great deal in life. I was born with dyslexia and ADHD and my mother was told that I would never be able to read. With the help of my parents, God, and professsionals I was able to read and go to college and if I can pass my stats class, I will graduate with a fairly good GPA from a legitimate university.
I have always felt that no matter how crappy of cards you have been dealt you can manage to overcome all things. This in itself is an empowering truth. It motivates and it inspires one to act and achieve great things.
While I consider this belief to have been a guiding principle throughout my life, I am beginning to believe that it does not hold true for all people. I was recently accepted into the Teach For America program and next year I will be shipping out to Compton to teach underprilidged children. I never would have taken the job if I did not believe that I could help change all of my students lives. However, I recently found out that I will be teaching children who have severe learning disabilities. This in combination with the fact that they are in low income communities presents a whole new set of challenges for myself and my children. It is likely that if I am teaching high school special education, my average student will have my disabilities, but far more severe. It is likely that due to mental and behavioral problems my children on average will have a fifth grade reading level. In all honasty fifth grade may be too high.
As a result I am faced with a question that I cannot answer. That question is can I honastly look at my students and with all the sincerity of my heart tell them that they can dream above the stars and if they work hard enough they can go to college. Can I look at them and tell them that they can become doctors and lawyers when the do not even know how to spell the words doctor and lawyer.
I have been thinking about this question for a great amount of time and have come to the conclusion that I cannot tell my students this lie. I can help them obtain good vocations and become upstanding citizens of the government, but I cannot expect the best out of them. I can expect the best that they can give, but they have been placed in a system that is broken.
After learning about the struggles that many leaders of South African liberation movement leaders experienced I have come to the conclusion that the most damming members of society are not oppresive minorities or majorities. These oppressers are villianous and could be defeated were it not for another group. The most damning members to a call for social change in a biggotted and broken place are infact those individuals of the minority who are "self-made." the most frustrating people to a cause are those who believe the cause is for cop outs. Those blacks who had managed to obtain a sallary that would classify them "well to do" members of a society are the greatest opponents to real and lasting change.
The attitude of being "self made" only propels yourself. It does nothing for those who still remain in bondage. Those who feel that others should just shut up and start working their way to success are absurd. I was once one of those people. But this is the truth that change does not come because people shut up succeed and think their way to success. That is a lie. Change comes because people complain. Change comes about because people react against the system.
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