Part of my daily routine is to flip through the LA Times (surprisingly, one of the nation's top newspapers) and check out the headlines, local stories, and anything moderately eye-catching. Most of the time, it's the everyman look through the front page, sports page, and perhaps the metropolitan page, but every now and then I'll see something somewhat inspirational, shocking, or intriguing (not in that particular order). Today, I read an article that figured prominently in my own experience, education-wise.
The front page ran a story about one girl's pathway from the barrios of South-Central Los Angeles to an acceptance at UC Berkeley . Not that this particular phenomenon is shocking in itself, but the statistics thrown around are disheartening. Of the 500 graduating senior class, 100 will be receiving a "certificate of completion" rather than a diploma and these 500 represent 30% of their entering freshman class. Coming from a world where my own graduating class was close to 500 (not sure what percentage of my entering class that is) and most people I knew were headed off for four years of collegiate study, I can't fully identify with this, but the message of the article itself is ponderous.
Initially, my reaction to her own activism in an attempt to show others that life doesn't end at a barrio high school is one of admiration. While her own story should be an inspiration to others, there's a certain sect of people within that same barrio who will deem her to be uppity and perhaps even "too good for her people." Maybe this is the same attitude that keeps me from having been a part of any available cultural groups; someone of my suburban upbringing is never "Mexican enough." Maybe I'm just limiting myself. It is a well-known Chicano neurosis to never feel like you belong to any ethnic group to begin with, why should it surprise me at all?
Thing is, none of this should bother me at all and the student of this article should be proud of her achievements, regardless of what others think. Even someone like myself, who can't fluently speak Spanish and never set foot into South-Central until after my high school years should be able to overlook their own insecurities and be proud. Stories like this are just reminders of what others go through to accomplish their own goals and should be inspirations to everyone anyway and not one specific group of individuals. So I better stop being so self-centered and just remember that I'm darn lucky to have been given as many opportunities as I have. Not many do, and no one should ever take that for granted.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment