“How did Lupe Quintanilla, retarded non learner, become Dr. Quintanilla?” (674) The essay, “The Professor is a Dropout” by Beth Johnson, tells the account of a young woman from Mexico, who in an effort to help her three children succeed, overcomes numerous obstacles to achieve goals that at one point in her childhood most would have considered impossible. Lupe Quintanilla is labeled as slow in the first grade and subsequently drops out. She, continued her life, marrying and eventually having a family. When she learns that her three children have been given a similar diagnosis and labeled as slow she takes action to ensure they don’t endure a similar fate. Lupe knows that if only she could learn English, possibly she could change all their lives. …show more content…
Lupe Quintanilla’s story so inspirational, in my opinion, is her determination to make it through college and the amount of hard work she was willing to put forth to get to where she is now. For example: every day, she studies into the wee hours of the morning, gets her husband and children off to work and school, takes the bus back and forth from campus to her home, and maintains her domestic chores. It takes some serious resolve to be able to take care of all that and keep up with her studies. Secondly, many mornings “Lupe doubted she could get out of bed, much less care for her family and tackle her classes”, but, “when she thought of her children and what was at stake for them, she forced herself on” (678). The willpower she displays is motivated by the love she has for her children. Lastly, not only was she working on her associates degree, she was also dual enrolled and attending two different colleges at one time, earning both her junior college and bachelor’s degree in biology. Even after attaining her bachelors she still wasn’t satisfied and earned her master’s degree in Spanish literature and her doctoral degree in education. Today she is now known as Dr. Quintanilla; she teaches Spanish literature at the University of Houston. The place she is in life today is a direct result of the effort she put forth and will she had to succeed; not only for herself, but for her children. I’m recommending that everyone read “The Professor is a Dropout”, because
Breast cancer can be a very scary experience, not just for the patient, but also for the patient’s family. While patients go through the process of being diagnosed with breast cancer and the treatment that goes with it there are many highs and lows. The themes of uncertainty, family, and isolation can be seen throughout Audre Lorde’s journal, and even though the poems are small you can still see the same themes throughout most of them.
Young people wind up neglecting high school for various reasons. In this circumstance, a number of students either don't have the aspiration to remain in school or they simply cannot stand to pay the tuition. In a couple of cases, the students dropout, as a result of low quality teaching. According to the article, Let Kids Rule The School by Susan Engel, she states “I recently followed a group of eight public high school students, aged 15 to 17, in Western Massachusetts as they designed & ran their own school within a school.” This quote shows that in our society today, its critical to consider who our 'associates' are in a peer learning group & how they don’t have a part like an educator.
Hernandez does what she can to keep her own head above water by getting a job at a local McDonalds and keeping her grades up in school. Though guilty of her own successes Hernandez did what she had to do, to survive and create her own future.
“Is Everyone really Equal” by Ozlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo is an introduction to building frameworks that will help students comprehend Social Justice courses more completely. This highlights the patterns and tensions that is caused by inequality within Society. It is important to view these courses through a critical lens and not necessarily through a personal one.
“College for the Masses” by David Leonhardt is a great article that displays the many benefits among lower-income students attending a four year college. “Why Poor Students Struggle” by Vicki Madden displays many examples from hers and her colleagues experiences while providing statistics of the lower-income joining a four year college. The two articles both display the benefits of attending a four year college and that the education pays off. David’s article talked about the different education levels based on their test score before attending the university and the amount of income, while Vicki’s focused more on the income and the effects on grades of students while attending the college on low income. David also goes more in detail about the disadvantages of community college than Vicki’s description of community college. “College for the Masses”, in my opinion, had more intensive descriptions and examples on the benefits of starting in a four year university, rather than community college.
Miranda is a 9th grade female student with a speech and comprehension disability. She lives with her two parents and has an older sister. Since the third grade Miranda has had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) implemented in her education. Both Miranda’s parents are Mexican-American parents that are involved in their daughters school performance. Her parents are both middle class parents, that have given their daughter to follow her interest in performing art. Although, Miranda’s parents are fluent in speaking English and Spanish, Miranda’s Spanish is not as fluent and has challenges speaking Spanish. Both Miranda’s parents describe her as a hardworking student and is currently succeeding in all her classes. Miranda is currently succeeding
American political activist Jody Williams once said “There’s a mythology that if you want to change the world, you have to be sainted like Mother Teresa or Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But ordinary people with lives that go up and down and around in circles can still contribute to change.” In an excerpt from his essay “Why Bother?” published in the New York Times Magazine, American public intellectual Michael Pollan reveals his goal to convince ordinary American citizens that they are capable of changing their behavior in order to reduce America’s carbon footprint. Through the use of the four rhetorical elements situation, purpose, claim, and audience, Pollan aspires to have his readers gain a greater understanding that the environmental crisis is “at heart a crisis of character” (Pollan 766). However, although Pollan targets the correct audience to carry out his purpose, he fails to provide proper evidence to support his claim that individual contribution matters.
I'm truly impressioned by the way he expressed about "the scholarship boy". On page 352 Richard Rodriguez markedly talks about the perspective he haves about this character that went from a synonym as an imitator of education to being changed by education and being referred now as a good student.It is a fact that education changes everyone I agree, one of the main concepts it takes to be changed by education is to concentrate, stay focused and committed. This part of the book I feel like I understand yet I feel sort of confuse, He got a strong point it is a life vivid example that I've seen and in essence it takes a lot to change a person academically wise but is not impossible. I feel like his family cycle and so did mine, also experienced
For my learners profile I have decided to pick Gabriela Reyes. She is a very sweet 7-year-old girl that came from Dominican Republic. She has been in the United States about 2 year. She migrated with her mother to the South Bronx and her father still lives in Dominican Republic. Gabriela is able to listen and speak in Spanish well. However, she is unable to read or write in Spanish. Her mother mentioned placing her in school in Dominican Republic before moving to the United States. Gabriela attends the public school 35, which is in district 9. District 9 is known as the poorest and very diverse neighborhood in the South Bronx. ENL classrooms since her arrival and her proficiency level at this moment are emerging. This year I had Gabriela in
One would think that she could write novels in her sleep, but that was not the case. The student spoke about how she always stressed the importance of following your dreams no matter what stumbling blocks got in the way. Cynthia told her students that she wanted to be a teacher since she was a little girl. Her dad used to tell her that there was no money in teaching, but she did not care because teaching was were her heart was at. Money did not matter to her, what did matter was her happiness and the chance to do good in the world. She said that when she was younger she used to have a giant chalkboard by her bed and she would lineup all her stuffed animals and dolls next to the board and pretend to instruct them. Becoming a professor was her ultimate goal so the fact that she had two kids wasn’t going to stop her from going back to school to get her Masters degree which she eventually did. She also struggled to make ends meet when she worked at a grocery store bagging goods, but that did not deter her. This demonstrates that if one is fully committed to what they want to accomplish, there is no stopping them and with perseverance they shall triumph. When Cynthia shares her personal life stories it sits well with the class because some of the students are going through the same phases that she had to endure at one point in
Jaime changed the stereotypes about the Latino community he was teaching and gave them hope. Escalante showed that effort pays off and that your life circumstances should not affect your life academically. That a teacher is the key of the success of the students.
Being culturally proficient means that you are able to effectively respond to issues that arise from diversity in many cultural settings (Lindsey, Robins, & Terrell, 2009). A person's level of cultural can be described using the Cultural Proficiency Continuum (Lindsey et al, 2009). In the book White Teacher, the author Vivian Gussin Paley, explores her experiences as a teacher and how these experiences helped her gain cultural proficiency and move upwards on the cultural proficiency continuum.
“When a rule is enforced, the person who is supposed to have broken it may be seen as a special kind of person, one who cannot be trusted to live by the rules agreed on by the group. He is regarded as an outsider.
Even with immigrating to this country and learning english, Cynthia works hard on everything she sets her mind to. Miss Reyes values academics, she has been enrolled in business courses like FCCLA. She has a great potential in the business world being flexible, prompt, personable, reliable as well as trainable. She aspires to keep pursuing in a college route; she would be a first-generation student, and strives to be a role model for her
published novels were used as stimuli, with the stipulation that excerpts did not end in the