“You’ll be much more successful if you follow your dreams and follow your passions” Jay Weatherill.
This is exactly what the character in into the wild, by Jon Kraukauer did. He followed his dreams until then end and he let no one change his goals. Following your passions and dreams are very crucial for every individual, because they tend to live happier when they do so. When you have dreams/passion that truly matter you become determine to be successful in these goals. When doing this you find a way to overcome every obstacle that life puts on you because you will be grateful with the end of the journey to reach your goals/passions. Education, economic class and race are something that usually faces many obstacle sin almost every individual’s life. Many have a strong passion for it and are willing to fight for what they want, others decide to give up. Money also shapes the way you approach things and can either make your passion stronger or lead you to give up on them. And finally race, race is something that in most societies affect your everyday life and determines how much struggle you will face to accomplish your goals and passions. Therefor education, economic status, and race are strong factor of making your views of life change.
Education is something that many want but not a lot are privilege to have. Education is something that Chris has. His parents were able to pay his college and give him a good education. We can imply that he came from the privilege class. Even though Chris had everything, he could ask for and good thing were also offer to him by his parents he was unhappy of the life he lived, he wanted to go in the search for something he though as better. The courage he showed by leaving his parents and forgetting of all the physical privileges he had, showed great passion form his behalf to follow his dreams at any cost, even his life. “Too much of anything could destroy you, Simon thought. Too much darkness could kill, but too much light could blind.” Cassandra Clare, City of Lost Souls. This gives us a better understanding of the consequences of having too much of something. Chris had too much passion for what he believes that he took his actions to an extreme that cause his own death. However, He was aware of the consequences because he was educated and seems to understand where his actions would lead him. With this, we can conclude that having passion is good however; we must also know the limits of our actions if it is hurting us or someone else. “You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent…he read a lot. Used a lot of big words …” (into the wild.18). Even though education was in Chris McCandless, or “Alex” life, he didn’t really have any passion for education. His focus was reaching other goals he had for himself, which would reach to his inner happiness. He, perhaps had the same passion as someone had for education, because he never gave up his passion and goals, he always did the things he though would lead him to fulfill his passion and goals. He used education as a tool to express his opinions of life and to give sense to what he was doing in life. Education is something that many use in order to succeed, how much passion you have for it only depends on you.
Money is always a big deal in this society, and it is needed to survive. In the case of “Alex”, he was privilege because he came from a high class family and his parents were economically dependent. “Chris dint understand how people could possibly be allowed to go hungry, especially in this country” (into the wild 113). With this we can infer that Chris never suffer from any economic need. Because he came from a privilege family he was offer what he needed without the need to sacrifice anything in life. Although he had all the commodities he could ask for he his passion and goals were somewhere else. “Her son … believed that wealth was shameful, corrupting, inherently evil…” (Into the wild 115). Chris believed that being rich was evil; he focused more on his personal life instead of “looks”. This also shows that he has a strong passion for his belief of living a simple life. Throughout the story Chris shows that he wanted to find his inner self, he wanted to be able to have peace in his mind. He showed great perseverance throughout the story, because he never gave up and always stayed strong with what he wanted. Having a strong idea of his perfect life lead him to not give in into what other people wanted. Although his end was tragic, you are able to tell that he died doing what he wanted, in the end he was a close to be able to complete his goals. Having passion and perseverance can make you accomplish all the goals in life that you set your mind to. This is the same perseverance someone shows when they have a passion for education, because people who believe in education often fight for those ideas and never give up in having/ accomplishing what they want.
Another thing that can affect your passion is your race. This could be considered one of the strongest obstacle fights to defeat. The main reason is that people can’t change their skin color, they have to live and fight for what they want because, in this society there are many people that find pleasure in discriminating against you just because of your skin color. In the book into the wild, Chris was privilege his life because he was white, he didn’t face discrimination just based of his skin color. People where less afraid of what he could do, because he seemed educated, and he was white. “…gallien reached behind the seat pulled out an old pair of rubber work boots, and persuade the boy to take them” (into the wild 7). This shows that he found friendly people throughout his journey. People showed kindness, mainly because he was of the same race as the people he was help by, white. “I believe discrimination still exists in society and we must fight it in every form” Andrew Cuomo. This is very true, and even though Chris never faced this kind of struggle, others did. Many people find this very hard to overcome because society makes them think about themselves as inferior. Even though colored people face many more obstacles in every aspect of life, an important attribute you must have in order to succeed in perseverance and passion for making your goals a reality.
Education in my life is very important to me although many changes in the education system must be done in order for it to be successful in getting many people out of the shadows society has oppressed them to go into. The story of into the wild has a strong connection to my views of education, because like the character many people, including myself have that determination to complete ones goal. The character , Chris , showed great perseverance into making his idea of a perfect life into a reality and embark into a journey knowing the dangers he face and still threw himself into his journey because he knew that would lead into making his life better. Having a strong passion for education makes you value education. Because of how much one can value education, one is able to criticize education into making something better, but before one criticizes education we must also learn to criticize ourselves. Evaluating ourselves is the key to making the education system a much better one.
The reason why it is important is to point out the flaws that the education system has and how we can improve this. It is also important because it is the education we as, a student, are receiving. Is the education good? Are we really learning to be professionals in life? Or just reading everything off of a book? The better the education system is the better our future is, because even if we don’t want to accept the fact the education has a lot of flaws and we are greatly affected by it, it is the truth. "An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't." -Anatole France This quote is very true in this situation, because going to college is seem like everything has to do based on how good of a memory you have. This shouldn’t be the case because memorizing a whole lecture or a book is not going to lead you to real success in life, because you aren’t really learning anything. In the end the only person hurt in this situation is the student. Because bad education has a negative impact on the student he/she should criticize the education system in order to change the way it has been structure thus changing your future. If this was the education you cared about and your future depends on it wouldn’t you criticize it? On the other hand the education system isn’t the only thing that should be "judge”, the student should also judge him/herself. This is a very critical thing to do because even if there is change that favors students in the education system, the change would be useless if the student doesn’t really put much interest in school. Some of the reasons might be that his/her parents are obligating them to go to school. Another possible reason is that they are unhappy with their major, that they don’t put the same interest as someone who is passionate about the carrier they want to go into. "One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested." E. M. Forster this quote relates to the interest a person put not just on education, but life in general. When a person has no interest in something they do not put any interest in getting something better for them, in contrast a person who is very passionate about something is willing to critique themselves to become better and by consequence change the education system. These people are willing to accept their own flaws/mistakes in order to come up with a solution that will make them a better person. Because of this I believe that criticizing the education system is very important, however you must also criticize yourself (evaluate) yourself in order for these two related topics to have balance. Finally being able to criticize yourself and the education you received make you appreciate and want a better education.
Being able to keep up with the college life is a huge challenge for some people including myself. There are many obstacles that jeopardize my career in college, however those are controllable, unless they are out of your control and you find yourself with the need to drop from college, anything can be overcome you just have to set a strong mind to it. “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” ― Winston Churchill. In other words, you decide if you want to be successful in life depending on your view of life and the obstacles you create on yourself. This quote makes a lot of sense for many people that are struggling to keep attending college for a better education and consequently a better life in general. Only the strong survive the difficult journey of college, which, only the person that has its mind clear on what they want in life and the things they need to do in order to achieve it, are successful and rarely fail to accomplish all the goals they set their minds to it. The obstacles I faced in my college career are things like transportation, and money. Transportation is an obstacle because I must wake up early in order to catch the bus and not be late to any of my classes. Although transportation is, an obstacle for me is something that I can overcome, by not procrastinating with my priorities. The second obstacle I face is money, unfortunately my income is very low and adding an extra cost to pay for college is something that can’t be easily overcome, however with determination everything is possible. Saving is something important I learned in order to control this form making me drop Form College. being able to save money for the future were I might need the money for a book or a class I need to pay in college is very critical to keep my finances good enough to keep attending college. Finally, by not procrastinating in your priorities in life you are able to overcome many obstacles in life. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will” -Vince Lombardi. This quote is very true, because only the people who are willing to put the effort to complete their goals are successful. Anyone can be successful if they try, however many people do not fight for what they want and end up being unhappy in life. Going to college is something that I like, and I am willing to do anything in my hand to be successful in college and get the education I want. It is also a good idea to judge the actions the one has taken in order to achieve the goals that you have made, in my case is getting a college degree. I have made many sacrifices in life in order to be the first in my family to have a college degree. Getting the opportunity to be successful in college will not only make me feel proud, but also my family will be proud of the things I will succeed in.
According to this survey, white children and minorities have the "same" educational opportunities. Is it really the same educational opportunities, or is this the idea that society wants everyone to think to say the education system is good? In my opinion, minorities and whites do not have the same opportunities, not just in education but also in every aspect of life. Minorities have to struggle than a white person because they do not have the same amount of privilege as white people. The reason, in my opinion, of why minority groups, for example Latinos and blacks, do not have the same rate of success and whites is that these groups are the "abandoned" ones. Nobody does anything to provide aid in order for these groups to get a better education. “The rich get richer, the poor get poorer" - William Harrison. This is very true because the rich get the same amount of help as the poor, when in reality more help should go to the poor, because that is where they need it the most! Moreover, the majority of people that are in those poor communities are minorities (Latinos and black). Shouldn’t they have more focus on these groups? , instead of given help to rich communities, which is something they do not need and are taking away from the poor.
Who is to blame for the bad education system? Parents, school officials, teachers, government? In my opinion, everyone has some guilt in making the education what is today. In order to help solve such horrible education system that exists today, all of these groups of people should work together. Everything should start at home with parents. Parents should motivate their children to go to school to get a better education. Parents should show their children that if they do not get an education they would most likely have a poor life. They will always need to be working and they will die doing it! Teachers should have a bond with student, not just sit in a classroom, and read off a textbook, which is not education and that is not teaching the student anything. Because the majority of teaches are not motivated with education, they show no need to change their "teaching" styles. this makes kids feel that they do not belong in school , if teachers make class interesting , it will make the student interested in the subject they are learning and thus making school his/her priority. Students should also SPEAK UP! They should talk to someone if they do not think they are getting an education, because saying something about the education you are receiving is the only way you can get a change. You, as a student, should also judge/evaluate yourself, are you really trying to be successful in school? Are you doing everything that is in your hands to achieve academic goals? Etc... Finally, government should provide help (financial) to help make the education system better, thus making minorities have a better success rate in their life.
Finally something must be done in this country to better the education system. Making the education free of all the flaws it currently has will benefit society, because more kids will be getting a higher education. Getting a better education benefits society as a whole because it will only bring positive things to this country. "He who opens a school door, closes a prison" Victor Hugo. if education was better many kids would be off the streets wanting to get an education , by doing this crime would go down , because kids would be more interested in learning than doing other things that hurt themselves and society. Even though we have the tool to change the way education is structure, we have not done so mainly because teachers do not have interest in what they teach. Although it is not true for some teacher, the vast majority shows no interest in engaging and having a healthy relationship with their student, they only lecture and give papers related to the lecture without having any kind of activity that makes the students engage in a conversations related to the things they are learning in school. Therefor education needs to be reform into a better, much more productive system that will benefit everyone.
