Looking back at the times where I fought to stay at home instead of going to school, I laugh. I laugh at the idea of me scowling at my parents because they were making me go to school. I now thank them for pushing me to make good grades and go to class; I am lucky to have them. Others do not have the luxury of motivating parents to help them finish school, so either they help themselves through school or they drop out from school. Living life on the streets, selling drugs, joining gangs, robbing and stealing. I have seen these things happen in the community I grew up in and disliked it. I vowed to further my education to earn a degree to become an educator. With this degree, I will become that motivating role model to encourage kids to stay in school to best their chances later in life.
Every kid in school faces choices and peer pressure. Choices are especially dangerous for kids because that do not know the consequences that will come with the choice they will choose. Kids lack positive role models to go to in time of crisis and need. With a positive role model that demonstrates the correct way to analyze the risk of each decision. Kids will look up to me for advice on what to do. I will give them their options and let them decide the way to their own future for furthering their education to be the best. I will provide this support of which they could not receive before. If just being there to nudge a kid in the right direction is all I can do, count me in. Little help is better than none at all.
Some kids drop school because their parents did not go, so it is just a never ending cycle of never ending wasted potential. Just because the generation before did not finish does not make it acceptable for this generation of kids to abandon their education. A kids potential is so high because they are young. My job as an educator will be to unleashed their potential and make sure they finish school.