What bothers me...

I guess going into this part of our assignment I already had the thought in my head that I would be talking about Fukushima but after reading about our increasing shortage of clean water, I would be lying if I said Fukushima is my greatest environmental concern. I mean, after all, without water what can we do? Nothing. We can't even continue to live. Air. Water. And I guess some type of food is what you need to live. I haven't heard of any oxygen shortages, so I guess our lack of water and the continuous neglect by people in power, and by many of us others would be my greatest environmental concern.

Me and the world around me...

When you have a child, you do everything in your power to protect and provide for them. You teach them, nurture them and you do so because they are yours. You feel that this beautiful being is here because you created it. There is pride in that and it's the same pride that Mother Nature feels with he creations, her children. As we live our daily lives, we should take a moment to really look around us. Look at the trees, look at the sky, the flowers, the animal, if you're at the beach look at the ocean. Look at them and contemplate on all of the things we do as human beings to harm Mother Nature and her children, her creations. For parents, how would we feel if we found that someone that we help daily was abusing our children? Now think about how Mother Nature feels.
See, much like our own bodies and the bodies of our children, the earth needs to be nurtured. We can’t expect our bodies, as humans, to be healthy if all that we consume is junk. If we abuse out bodies they will begin to fail. It’s likely that we’ll become lethargic; we’ll have no energy. The earth works the same way. We can’t continue to pollute it with all of the deadly materials and fumes we do and expect it to continue performing at its maximum capacity. Our excessive desires and lack of compassion are killing the world around us.
At the core of our existence as human beings is a desire to be accepted. We’re social creatures. Although we may see the world as a stagnant entity, or at least a slow moving, slow growing one, it’s actually extremely social. It has a desire to be accepted by the beings that call it home. It provides, it nurtures, it protects. It provides water, food, and sunlight and yet we abuse it. The relationship between human and earth is an abusive one that leads to resentment and a lack of compassion and affection. Soon enough, the earth will walk out on us.

Leaving a legacy...

I've spent two weeks thinking about these questions... 

"What do you want to do in life?"

"What do you want to be in life?"

and...

"How do you these connect?"

Loaded questions.

At this point in my life when I think about my desires, my dreams, my goals, I have to consider how they affect the well being of my children (so I guess it's kind of funny that I'm writing this on my eldest daughter's second birthday). Now with that in mind, answering, "what do you want to do in life", becomes an extremely difficult question to answer.

I guess what I would say is that, more than anything, I want to leave a legacy for my children. When speaking of things that aren't tangible, I want to leave them a legacy of love, compassion, pride, thoughtfulness, joy and thoroughness. But I also want to leave them with a tangible legacy. I want to leave them with something that I built and owned, something that they can continue on with. I would be lying if I said that those thoughts had little to do with finances, but more importantly, the legacy I want to leave is one of which they can fully understand our obligation, as people, to help others. 

So I guess outside of leaving a legacy for my children, what I really want to do in life is help others. Whether it was growing up Samoan, which is a culture built on the foundation of family, helping each other and never leaving anybody behind, or coming to understand the struggle of illegal Mexican immigrants from my father, who was an illegal immigrant, my desire was always to find a way to help those that I cared about, blood relatives or not. As I grew older and became aware of the injustices many people face, that desire grew to being able to help anybody that needed it. I think about the things in life that have given me the most joy, outside of moments with my family, and many of them have to do with helping another person. It's a fulfilling feeling. 

It's a gift and a curse though, I feel. It's a gift in the sense that their excitement, their happiness, if even for just a moment, was a result of your action but it's a curse in that you begin to bear the burden of other people when you so desperately want to help. I've had many sleepless nights thinking of people I could have, should have but probably didn't help. 

When it comes to helping others, it's also about being able to provide an opportunity to the talented people that I have around me, an opportunity for them to see their talents flourish and, I guess, be able to monetize their talents so that they can sustain a life built off of their own talent. I've always been extremely thankful for anybody who took the chance to see what I had to offer and then provided avenues for me to succeed, so in some way I feel like I owe that to people around me. I also hope to be able to create my own lane to thrive off of my own ideas, my own passion as well.

I guess when looking at it that way, I feel the like "what I want to do in life" also has to do with being able to have ownership of everything I create or develop. I don't want to have to work for another person for the rest of my life. But I feel like this is going somewhere else, so we'll come back to this...

So Sam, what do you want to be in life then?

I. WANT. TO. BE. REMEMBERED.

Ok, that too, but let's seriously answer that question.

I want to be a journalist. I want to be an educator. I want to be an activist.

I want to do all three and I want to work for myself. I want to have ownership and control over all of the creative ideas I am able to think of over my lifetime, however irrelevant some of those ideas may end up being.

Now why all three? Well, I want to write. I want to talk to people. I want to create genuine relationships with individuals. I want to help people. I want to teach people. I want to be taught. I want to spread awareness. I want to be made aware. I want to make a career out of all these things.

Now, how do we connect these two?

Well I guess it goes back to wanting to have ownership over my ideas, my thoughts, my dreams and also maintaining creative control over these three while also creating opportunities for others to do so. I mean, yes, I can always get a degree in journalism and get a job writing for somebody else OR I can get a job teaching something somebody else wants me to teach OR get a job spreading awareness about something somebody else wants me to spread awareness about, and I'm not trying to criticize anybody who does any of these things, but I want OWNERSHIP and CONTROL.

How do you retain ownership and control in this era? I believe you have to create a product, you have to brand it, and you have to put in the footwork for that product and the brand to succeed, every step of the way.

That leads to the magazine right? Well, kind of, sort of. I don't have all the knowledge in the world to make my dreams happen right now, but I feel like that magazine is a step in the right direction. I want to help people through my writing while also creating a product and a brand. Now I just have to figure out how to make it happen.

OCCUPY THE BLOGOSHPERE

"The weight of the world is heavy on my mind, foggy thick, heavy as bricks.

The way that I feel, it's gotta be our time 'cause all of this, it can't persist."

Looking back on the Occupy movement, it's really hard for me to believe that the shit was all going down almost three years ago now. It seems like it was just yesterday that a real revolution was on the verge of happening.

I had been married for only about two months and me and my wife were expecting our first daughter, so needless to say, I was going through some serious transition in my life. I was made aware of the Occupy Wall Street movement by my older brother and a friend of mine who was living in Tennessee. Those two conspiracy theorists really got me thinking about this one...

I've always been one that was down for a social movement, social change and really just being a little shitheaded rebel. But this was different. It wasn't about being latino, polynesian, black, white, gay, straight, urban, suburban, country or whatever other classification you want to use to separate people, it was about the 99% and that includes a shit load of people.

On October 18, 2011 I made this post on Facebook:

"I'm not a controversial person. I don't like to force my beliefs onto anyone. I don't like to talk about certain issues when another person feels uncomfortable about it. I do believe in certain things others don't. I do believe in some "conspiracy" theories, if you want to call them that. I don't believe in the "wars" this country chooses to fight. Not only the wars in the Middle East but also the "war on drugs" or "war on terrorism". But I do support the men and women who serve the country, and do so to protect the people of their country. I respect them.

This #occupy movement is not about any of those things. Don't be fooled by what the media tells you. Don't brush protestors off as homeless hippies or conspiracy theorists or anarchists. Don't ignore this. It will not go away. This #occupy thing effects everyone in the 99%. Everyone leads different lives. Some may be better off than others. But that doesn't mean it doesn't effect you. I have a comfortable job, make good money, my family are working class people who have done well for themselves. My parents came from different countries and provided me and my brother with a good life. I want to take what they've done for me and do better for my kids. I want better for my child, my children, my nephews, my nieces, my younger cousins, myself. But in order for that to happen, things need to change. 

We need hospitals, schools, (as much as I dislike them) police, firefighters, libraries, after school programs, sports and music in school, jobs, health care, OPPORTUNITIES. We need tuition and fees for college lowered or more financial help for people trying to better their "situation" but with that, as a society, we need to not "screw" the system over if its willing to help us. We need the working class taxes lowered and we need to tax the "super rich". The "American Dream" is being lost for all of us. There are multiple events over the last few decades that have increased the wealth and power of the "super rich" (1%) and decreased the oppurtunities for everyone else (99%). 

Be aware. Be smart. Be honest with yourselves. Treat people right. Support Occupy Together. #OccupyWallStreet"

The movement may not have went away, but in some sense it ended.

While watching the videos in class, I was overcome with a healthy amount of anxiety. Where it comes from I'm not exactly sure. I guess it's because I bailed on the movement before it ever really started. I stayed at home with my pregnant wife, watched it happen on TV (at least whatever they showed) and vented on the interwebs. COWARD.

I don't know man. I remember telling my brother that I didn't feel right about leaving a pregnant wife at home while I go and fight for something bigger than any single individual. I guess the movement just wasn't bigger to me than my wife was, than my child was. I'm not really sure what that makes me. 

I asked my brother tonight what his thoughts were about the Occupy movement and he replied "The FBI killed it." I laughed. Fucking conspiracy theorist, right?

But where there's smoke, there's usually fire...

THE FUCKING FBI

I guess at the end of the day, I'm upset.

Upset that I wasn't really a part of it all.

Upset that it died.

Upset that I'm just reflecting on it now.

Upset that the world we know is crumbling.

Upset that I don't know how to help it.

The weight of the world is heavy on my mind...

9 Out Of 10 Americans Are Completely Wrong About This Mind-Blowing Fact Response

            The statistics aren’t surprising. I can’t say that I knew it the exact statistics of the distribution of wealth, but had I been questioned during this survey, my answer would have been far from what most “Americans THINK The Distribution Is”. I probably would have thought it was much worse than it actually is. While I wasn’t sure of the exact numbers, I am familiar with the issue as someone who was somewhat involved in the Occupy Movement that represented the 99-percent against that 1-percent of wealthy Americans.

            Who are the people in that 1-percent? Well, it includes Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison (who apparently lives in Woodside, where I work regularly), Charles and David Koch and the Walton family, who if they put their money together would surpass every other rich person BY FAAAAR. Blame it on Wal-Mart. If you shop at Wal-Mart, this is your fault, you “Mom & Pop Killers”.

            Growing up I watched both of my parents work multiple jobs to provide my brother and me with a roof over our heads, food on our table and clothes on our backs. We didn’t always have the toys we wanted, but we had what we needed. More important than watching them work those jobs was watching the progress they made as two immigrants from two completely different countries. It was the “American Dream”. The dream lived through them for me and while I went to our already addressed and broken school system, I said, “Fuck it.” They made it to the middle class and bought their own house. A Mexican “illegal immigrant” and a Samoan lady with no education made it, I’ll be ok with barely passing high school… and then I started working.

            After a while I realized, “man, this shit isn’t working.” No time to sit their and cry though, I had people to tell me…

Straying slightly off topic, but that was just to explain that at one point in my life, I really did believe in the American dream. I believed in the middle class. That’s not the case anymore. As much as my parents tried to hide some of their financial woes from my brother and me, as we grew up those woes were easy to see. What is that house with the white picket fence really worth when you have to work two or three jobs just to pay for it? Not much. But those CEO’s with their multi-million dollar homes, well, estates really, they probably have the time to enjoy it. 380 times more than their average employee, huh? Call me a socialist, a communist, a Marxist or whatever, but do people really think this is better than an even distribution of wealth?

            To hell with Fidel Castro. Damn you Hugo Chavez. Don’t even mention Pablo Escobar. Is it weird that the poor people in Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia loved these public figures? I don’t think so. I guess leaders have to choose whether they want to be loved by the rich or the poor though. That’s probably a conversation for another day though.

            We’re really blind to all of this, aren’t we? Even me. Although I know a little bit about these issues, I refuse to dive deeper into what’s really going on in fear of finding out that there really is no hope. So we just keep on keeping on. Pretending like the American dream still lives. Pretending like we’re okay. Pretending like these rich people don’t have all the power in the world do whatever they please, whenever they please. Because what the hell are we going to do? I’ll tell you what they think we’ll do. They think we’ll just sit there and take it. But they’re wrong ese. Somos pocos pero locos ese. Or as you would say in English, we’re small but we’re [FUCKING] crazy ese. Sorry, had to throw that in there.

            Sangre por sangre. Ok, now it’s getting ridiculous. Let’s get back to the subject. I’ve long fought a battle inside of myself where I try to figure out how I balance my hunger for change and activism with my responsibilities to my family. Talking about this subject doesn’t make me feel good. It makes me feel like I’m not doing enough. Where do I start though? That’s always the most difficult question to answer. Where the hell do we start when trying to take down a monster...

(oh no! the illuminati!) … a monster this big? (No, I’m not talking about Rick Ross) I don’t know. Is a coup d’etat actually possible in this country, and is that how far we actually have to go? I don’t know. What do we do? Where do we go? What does the future hold? I don’t know. I hope to find out though, or at least just help when it comes time.

English 1A "Savage Inequalities" Paper/Final Draft: It Rains On My City

Samuel Jimenez

Professor Monique Williams

English 1A

12 March 2014

It Rains On My City

A dark cloud covers a city filled with drugs, violence and a failing school district. Despite the efforts of gentrification, the misery produced by the dark cloud is still evident, especially in the schools. But less than one mile and an overpass away, the sun shines brightly on one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the nation. A neighborhood filled with wealth, where students thrive and one of the nations great academic institutions calls home. The grass is greener on the “west side” and all you have to do to see the difference between East Palo Alto and Palo Alto is cross over that overpass. Ask yourself, who creates these imaginary boundaries in our society and how could it be that all that separates one of the wealthiest zip codes in the nation from a neighborhood with two of the lowest performing schools in California is just an overpass? My research of this topic, aided by the reading of Jonathan Kozol’s “Savage Inequalities”, part of Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, Erich Fromm’s “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem” along with watching Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for ‘Superman’” documentary about the American public education system, led me to the belief that instead of failing neighborhoods producing failing schools, in fact, failing neighborhoods, like East Palo Alto, were produced by failing schools. In a society that’s growing rapidly, I believe that it is all of our obligations, as a society, to help reform the system that leads to these failing schools.

Within these failing schools are children who, despite their, at times, troubled upbringing and familiarity with negative influences from their primary socialization, show promise and enthusiasm during their early years in education. Young children, because of their innocence, have yet to realize the inequalities in our education system at this point in their lives. Although the problems of our education system exist in these early years, it isn’t until later that the effects of these issues are immediately noticeable through the child’s grades. Father Michael Doyle, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in North Camden, illustrates this innocence in Savage Inequalites, “’It rains on my city,’ said an eight year old I know, ‘but I see rainbows in the puddles’” (Kozol, Pg. 180). The loss of innocence begins later on. In Guggenheim’s documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman’”, educator Geoffrey Canada says “Between the 5^th and 7^th grade, you see a huge number of minority students go from being ‘B’ students to ‘D’ students” (Guggenheim, Waiting For Superman). Kozol’s book “Savage Inequalities” backs up this thought by saying, “By fifth or sixth grade, many children demonstrate their loss of faith by staying out of school” (Kozol, Pg. 70). A state of unintelligence didn’t suddenly take over these students. They just became aware and they became conscious. They became conscious of the inequality that they face in the broken educational system and, in turn, became disinterested in education. German sociologist Erik Erikson illustrates this sudden consciousness in his epigenic principle. The epigenic principle is a formulation, which states that humans develop through eight different stages in life. Most 5^th through 7^th graders fall into the epigenic principle stages of competence and fidelity. They begin to ask themselves if they are competent and also begin to question who they are and what surrounds them. They find the answers to these questions by looking at their surroundings.

In those stages, children become increasingly aware of what they lack and in the case of a city like East Palo Alto, in comparison to Palo Alto, or as illustrated in Savage Inequalities, a town like East St. Louis in comparison to the near-by Fairview Heights, they also become aware of what others have. The difference in environment can take a toll on these children as they begin to establish their own identity. Los Angeles-based rapper, Nipsey Hussle, speaks on this in his song “Crenshaw and Slauson” as he raps, “The demonstrations speak loud, so I ain’t sayin’ much. Was a charismatic nigga, now I don’t play as much, because life is real when you live it in a place like us. School pictures crackin’ smiles, now my face is stuck, shell-shocked to see how much they really hated us” (Nipsey Hussle, Crenshaw and Slauson). The loss of charisma, or their own smile, is realistic for children from failing schools. As they begin to see how the education system neglects them, they begin to question what is left for them to smile or be excited about at school. It becomes a decision of whether or not school is giving them the gratification that they desire, and if it is not, they begin to seek alternative forms of gratification that are, many times, available on the block.

In order to combat the calls of the street life, the child must look differently at the scenario they have been born in to. Instead of feeling like there is no way out of this cycle the system has created for them, they must begin to find something within the school to cling to. If the system won’t change, we must help change the perception of the scenario for these children. Paulo Freire says in the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, “To do this authentically, they must perceive their state, not as fated and unalterable, but merely as limiting and therefore challenging” (Freire, Pg. 9). We must help them to look at these failing neighborhoods and failing schools as a challenge waiting to be overcome. A challenging state is not impossible to break out of. As a society, we must build these children’s identities to be that of challenge seekers and challenge defeaters.

To break through the wall, the challenge, put in front of us, we should be looking to not only highlight the avenues currently available for our children to succeed, but also create new avenues for them to succeed. We shouldn’t limit the options our children have as students. We should be challenging them to find new ways to succeed and to pursue what they find joy in or have a passion for. The problem begins with the fact that, “Sports and music… are for many children… ‘The only avenues of success’” (Kozol, Pg. 31), as the chairman of the Illinois Board of Education observes in Savage Inequalities. As a firm believer in both sports and music as tools to help build confidence in young people, I believe that they’re both very much-needed in urban communities. They should not be the only avenues available to students, though. Compton rapper, Kendrick Lamar, notes “My mama didn’t raise me up to be jealous-hearted, like most of the winners call it. ‘Regardless of where you stay, hold your head and continue marching,’ that’s what she said but in my head, I wanted to be like Jordan [or] award touring the country with money from mic recording. The only way out the ghetto, you know the stereotype, shooting hoops or live on the stereo” (Lamar, Black Boy Fly). As positive an effect music and athletics have on some children, they must also be aware that there is more available to them. They can’t be aware of that possibility if the possibility does not yet exist for many of them. Whether it is through expanding arts programs, enhancing the use of technology or undergoing a complete reform to project based learning, creating and providing students with more avenues will only lead to greater success.

Savage Inequalities speaks about the lack of resources available to students many times. When comparing New Trier to the schools in South Side Chicago, Kozol notes that New Trier students have up-to-date technology, three separate gyms and multiple studios for dance instruction. Much like many of the students in Hayward, Oakland and East Palo Alto, students on the South Side of Chicago don’t have those same resources available to them. Kozol also comments on how “…children in one set of schools are educated to be governors; children in the other set of schools are trained for being governed” (Kozol, Pg. 212). But as Father Michael Doyle, illustrates in Savage Inequalities, “When you’re on your knees, you take whatever happens to come by…” (Kozol, Pg. 179) With the lack of opportunities to pursue something different, a child has little choice but to seek success through “shooting hoops” or making music. It’s either “the block” or the gym, and as for the 8-year old child Father Doyle talks about seeing rainbows in the puddles of rain falling on his city, we must ask ourselves “How long will this child look for rainbows?” If we don’t offer our children more outlets and avenues to pursue a successful life, they will likely be another dropout statistic dropped into a failing neighborhood. Our children will become blind to the rainbows they once saw and will only see the dark cloud left hovering above them.

The lack of resources is a major issue that failing schools face but we should seek to use the resources available to us to stimulate the minds of children. Whether it is the use of a child’s cell phone or using a simple two-by-four, we should be attempting to use everyday materials in innovative ways to teach students. As adults, we learn everyday through our interactions with the world and with other people, and we should aim to structure the education of our children in much the same way. CEO of High Tech High, Larry Rosenstock says “You can study the world through almost anything” (Rosenstock, Project Based Learning at HTH). He provides the example of learning a lesson in capitalism by studying a simple two-by-four and how it grew to be much smaller than it originally was. We run into similar examples in our everyday lives. Everything in our world should be able to teach us something and despite the lack of certain tools immediately available to students in failing schools, we should attempt to take materials that are available to them and turn them into a teaching lesson.

The use of the resources readily available to us is evident when looking at the Landfill Harmonic. Through the use of garbage, literal garbage, they are able to build functioning instruments, such as, violins, flutes, cellos and others. Being able to turn another man’s trash into a ready to use treasure can provide children with an avenue for them to cling to. A young member of the Landfill Harmonic says of her violin “I love playing my violin because you can convey anything.” (Case. Landfill Harmonic Amazing and Inspirational) Through the use of another person’s garbage, she’s able to convey her thoughts, emotions and feelings into art. Although this may be extreme to some, it shows that if we truly want to, we can use anything to convey anything. It may take an innovative mind, but the possibilities are endless when we tell a child to create something out of almost nothing. We just have to give them that power.

Other solutions are not always free, though. Especially when the issue of being able to pay teachers comes up. To connect more personally with the book, and better understand this issue, I sat down with Lorin Eden Elementary School (a school at which I coach basketball) principal Kim Watts, to talk about the problems facing Hayward schools and possible solutions. The first solution she offered fell in line with Camden High principal, Ruthie Green-Brown’s first priority as she told Kozol, “My first priority, if we had equal funding, would be the salaries of the teachers” (Kozol, Pg. 175). Watts talked about compensation for teachers being the biggest issue facing Hayward public schools. She explained to me that the best teachers are able to think innovatively and differently, but as illustrated in Savage Inequalities, the difficulty is not always in hiring good teachers but in retaining them once they become a known commodity. Without having the ability to compensate these good teachers, the task of retaining them begins to seem nearly impossible.

It then becomes an issue not of who is more deserving, or in need, of that teacher, but who is able to pay them more. It isn’t always the case, but the thought that everyone has a price isn’t completely untrue, and as a good teacher continues to grow, it is likely that they’ll be offered more comfort financially in a different school. Without an increase in funding, it becomes nearly impossible to retain these teachers. Kozol points out that “Investment strategies in education, as we’ve seen, are often framed in the terms: ‘how much is it worth investing in this child as opposed to that one? Where will we see the best return?’” (Kozol, Pg. 141) With the thought that a child from a more successful neighborhood can provide the education system, and society as a whole, with a better return on investment, we leave children from failing neighborhoods with a failing approach to their education. In an interview with Roses in Concrete, educated Jeff Duncan-Andrade says “The radical disconnect between the intensity of those experiences in the lives of urban youth, and the kinds of things we are focusing on attempting to teach them and measure their learning around is so ridiculous. The ways in which we approach schooling in this country, with poor kids, particularly poor kids in urban environments would never be tolerated for middle class or wealthy children.” (Andrade, Andrade on Education “I teach my neighbors kids.”) We have a system built on inequality where the tolerance levels for what is acceptable for wealthy children is extremely different from those of children from failing schools. What’s acceptable for Longwood Elementary would never be acceptable in Castro Valley, but it’s a system that, in a sense, is doing what it was built to do. Putting a system in place where we can financially reward teachers for positive results would provide failing schools with an equal playing field.

Our system of education was built during an era of industrialization, in which it was meant to prepare students to take on different roles in society. The problem is that our schools have remained the same while the world around them has changed. The job market has changed but we are still preparing students for the same roles we were preparing them for many years ago, whether those roles exist today or not. But as Paulo Freire says, “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world and with each other” (Freire, Pg. 1) Our education is going through what sociologists call “cultural lag”, or, the tendency for elements of material culture to change more rapidly than elements of nonmaterial culture. While our world becomes increasingly dependent on the fast-changing technology industry, our education system falls behind. Principal Watts suggested looking at major tech companies and seeing what their staff rooms look like and then restructuring some classes to reflect those staff rooms. The idea is to restructure our system to properly educate students on today’s technology while also readying them to fill the current needs of our society.

Restructuring a system that still benefits the wealthy is no easy task. Being a catalyst for change is not always welcome; especially when many are comfortable with their situation or feel that the system is working. A willingness to be a martyr, of sorts, is necessary for the system to change. In “Waiting for ‘Superman’”, former Washington D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee says “There’s this unbelievable willingness to turn a blind eye to the injustices happening to kids every single day in our schools, in the name of harmony amongst adults” (Guggenheim, Waiting For Superman) We can either continue to turn a blind eye, or face the problem head on. “To be in favor of redistribution of resources and/or racial integration would require a great deal of courage—and a soaring sense of vision—in a president or any other politician.” (Guggenheim, Waiting For Superman) It will take an act of disobedience to positively impact the failing schools, and as Erich Fromm says in “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” “In order to disobey, one must have the courage to be alone” (Fromm, Pg. 686). We must have courage to make a change in the system. We must have courage to give children the best that we, as a society, have available to us, whether it means going against the popular opinion or standing alone against other adults. It may take a step out of the comfort zone for many, but it’s a necessary change if we want to see our education system turn around.

The system is failing many children and whose obligation is it to help these children in failing schools? Principal Watts believes that “it’s the obligation of everyone to restructure the system” (Watts, Personal Interview). Not just the principals, teachers or the parents alone. It’s everyone’s obligation, as a society, to help other people’s children. If we continue to turn this blind eye, our schools will continue to fail and, in turn, our neighborhoods will continue to fail. We must change the mindset of our children. We must challenge them to overcome the obstacles set in front of them so that they do not give up as they reach adolescence. We must provide children with more options, more avenues for success. We must make the most of the tools available to us. We must give failing schools a better opportunity to retain successful teachers. “It rains on my city,’ said an eight-year old I know, ‘but I see rainbows in the puddles.” So whether it is East Palo Alto, Hayward, East St. Louis, the Bronx or any other troubled neighborhood, we must keep those rainbows alive for these children. We must provide them with the opportunity to step out of that dark cloud, and to reach the pot of gold at the end of those rainbows.

Let ‘em reach up to the clouds.

Can’t eat if we don’t feed ‘em. Can’t read if we don’t teach ‘em.

There’s no light if we just hide ‘em. Don’t just let ‘em die.

Let ‘em shine.

Let ‘em shine on.

Works Cited:

Curry, Tim and Robert Jibou. Sociology For the Twenty-First Century,

     Pearson, 2010. Print.

Duncan-Andrade, Jeff. Personal Interview. 19 March 2012. Web. 7 March 2014.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB8mTOiQXjY

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum Books, 1993. Web. 7

     March 2014. http://www2.webster.edu/~corbetre/philosophy/education/freire/freire

     2.html

Fromm, Erich. “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”. Obedience to Authority.

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