1. "It's possible, of course, that once a student reaches adolescence, those skills and habits are no longer teachable. It may be that, at that point, you either have them or you don't, and if you have them, you're likely to graduate from college, and if you don't, you're not."
2. The thought that certain people are born unfit for college and will never be fit for college is rather off putting. It seems discouraging to the students who don't fit those standards, to be told that they're simply not cut out for a higher education, and that any attempts to pursue one are destined to end in failure. It's this notion that is helping to foster apathy towards college in students.
3. I'm not smart. I'm clever, and that's about enough to convince people that I'm smart when I'm really, really not. College is for the hardworking, the focused, and the organized. Organized is not my middle name. It's Danger. Staying on top of things and keeping them straight in my head has never been my strong suit, and in college, you fly without a safety net. If you're disorganized, that's it for you. On paper, I seem like one of those people who just isn't graduation material. A lot of people in my life have accepted that, and for a while, so did I, but I think that people are always capable of change. They always have a chance to improve themselves and show the world that the statistics that classify them as dropouts are wrong.
4. There are examples of prominent and glaring contradictions to this belief, some of which were discussed later in the text, but what can be done to more greatly spread the truth that you cannot classify students with different skills as dropouts before they even begin?
Friday, March 8, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Drive QCC
1. "Effort is one of the things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it. It would be an impoverished existence if you were not willing to value things and commit yourself to working towards them."
2. Hard work sucks. There's no denying it. Yes, it's noble and respectable, but only because it's such a pain that the people who are able to stick it out and do it are, well, noble and respectable. A person's dedication will keep them on track when the going gets tough, but there is no dedication without motivation. Whether it be to solve a dire problem or simply to pursue one's own passions, strong enough motivation can convince someone to endure some remarkably frustrating periods of hard work, and then, there come the rewards. Still, even the time a person spends working toward their goals has its own reward. For all its frustrations, it is still the pursuit that excites us and entices us almost as much as the reward at the end of the tunnel, the primal thrill of the hunt, so to speak. Work was meant to be hard, and we were meant to endure it.
3. I am always working to improve myself, and trying to advance toward a career built around my passion for writing. It's a constant journey of reconstruction, reevaluation and exposure to criticism. In short, it's a pain, but it's what I love, and it's the promise of the end goal that keeps me going. Also, for all its pains, the work does have a certain pleasure to it. The thrill of the hunt. Hmm, I'm recycling analogies. I should work on that.
2. Hard work sucks. There's no denying it. Yes, it's noble and respectable, but only because it's such a pain that the people who are able to stick it out and do it are, well, noble and respectable. A person's dedication will keep them on track when the going gets tough, but there is no dedication without motivation. Whether it be to solve a dire problem or simply to pursue one's own passions, strong enough motivation can convince someone to endure some remarkably frustrating periods of hard work, and then, there come the rewards. Still, even the time a person spends working toward their goals has its own reward. For all its frustrations, it is still the pursuit that excites us and entices us almost as much as the reward at the end of the tunnel, the primal thrill of the hunt, so to speak. Work was meant to be hard, and we were meant to endure it.
3. I am always working to improve myself, and trying to advance toward a career built around my passion for writing. It's a constant journey of reconstruction, reevaluation and exposure to criticism. In short, it's a pain, but it's what I love, and it's the promise of the end goal that keeps me going. Also, for all its pains, the work does have a certain pleasure to it. The thrill of the hunt. Hmm, I'm recycling analogies. I should work on that.
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