Student Loans Take a Toll

Ronald Quang

Prof. Williams

English 1A

22 December 2013

Student Loans Take a Toll

            Colleges can take a toll on someone’s life depending on how much it cost to go to that college and how much loan people needed to borrow from companies. The type of occupation with their degree from the college is the turning point that can decide whether they will be successful or in debt most of their life. For most families, parents would always tell their children to go work hard in school and go to college to get a good degree and a great paying job, but what does not come to mind is how much colleges cost, how their children will deal with loans, and the amount of jobs by the time their children are out of college. This will bring trouble to people’s lives, families, and future. Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, the authors of “The Rich and the Rest of Us”, along with a video called “College Conspiracy” on Youtube has prime examples of what happens/ can happen to people with college loans and how it affects their future life. Student loans can damage a person’s life if he/she cannot find a job to pay back what they owed and can ultimately keep a family in poverty because of debt to loan companies.

            Paying back college loans should be the number one thing to do on a person’s list as soon as they get a job after college. The longer people wait, the more and more money they will have to pay due to interest rates. Students work hard throughout high school in order to go to the college they desire in the future. They soon realize that they will need college loans in order to attend the college and stay in the college. After all the schooling of 4-8 years, students have racked up a large amount of number for them to pay back after they graduate. The next step that students take may be even harder: finding a job. The amount of jobs we have right now in America is way too low because of the economy. According to Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, “corporate profits soared, middle class jobs vanished, high- wage industries accounted for only 14 percent of new jobs, while low wage work made up almost 50 percent of job growth” (Smiley, West 65). These numbers were from 2012 and there has not been too much a change in a year. While thousands of college students graduate every year and they go and find jobs. It is impossible to pay back the college loans they have borrowed if almost 50% of new jobs out in the world are low wage jobs. Not every single graduate will find a job, so in time, their student loans will rise and it would be very hard to pay back what they owed before they retire. A lady that was interviewed in the video “College Conspiracy” owed about 136,000 when she got out of dental school. Throughout time, she paid off about 100,000, but the student loan companies says that she owes about 300,000 still. She wasn’t making enough money to meet the deadlines that the student loan company provided for her, so interest rates and other federal laws took place and her the amount that she owed has raised to a much higher number. Even though paying back loans is very important, sometimes there is nothing people can do about it. There aren’t enough jobs in America with a high- wage to pay people the amount they need in order to pay back loans. This can keep people in the poverty class down from rising to middle class or better.

            Jobs are a very important thing to have in our country, but the government is spending the money in wrong places and not creating new jobs. Because of the war back in 2003 to now, the government has spent trillion of dollars to our military and giving them what is necessary to invade another country. Within these trillion of dollars, billions of them have been spent carelessly on unnecessary item. This money that was spent could have been used to help many college students to be in college or to help them when they are out of college, which is creating more jobs. In a way, interest would be lowered in loans and there would be less trouble for the economy and companies. Smiley and West states that “if students had access to interest-free loans like big banks do, many young people would flourish with less debt” (Smiley, West 108). There is a pattern in how people respond to interest being lowered in loans. From the government spending more money in education to what Smiley and West said in their book, shows that interest rates can really damage someone in their future. But the thought of interest free loans would help so many people become successful in America and other places around the world. America would immediately see the economy go up and more jobs would be created because of the money that the government and the rich have.

            There are ways that schools and government can fix these problems by lowering tuition if there were not so many rules and careless spending. Schools are always trying to impress future college students with all the new technology and new buildings they have at their campus, but in order to do that, millions of dollars have to go into building and investing in their new state of the art programs. Then tuition's will be raised because the college will need to have more money to maintain everything they have on campus. This would affect almost all of the students that attend their school because some students will need to take out more student loans to pay for their college fees. What needs to be done is to only have what is necessary for the students. The new buildings that don’t have anything to do with most of the students can hurt them financially. Another problem is financial aid. In “College Conspiracy”, a man that is in control of the tuition is forced to raise the tuition when financial aid is being raised. Even though he doesn’t like raising the tuition, the college forces him to. There is no point in raising financial aid if college tuition is going to be raised as well. This won’t help any of the students who are attending the college or if they’re going to attend the college in the future. These are some of the problems that can be fixed in colleges in order to give graduating students a better future. It lowers the amount they owe to student loan companies and it will give them a chance at rising to the middle class and the 1%.

            In conclusion, colleges hurt students by constantly raising their tuition each year by a lot or a little. This forces students to take loans from companies and return it when they get a job in the future, but the economy is not good enough to create more jobs for the students with degrees. The interest rates then kick in to their loan money and numbers go higher and higher even though they are slowly paying back with the money they are making. These problems could be fixed but the government and schools choose not to and only choose to think about themselves. This keeps people from rising and it keeps families in debt for a very long time. 

Myth vs. Mayhem

The article I read was basically about if jails are actually doing what it's supposed to do. Are the men and women coming out of jail the way they're supposed to? People expect that prisoners to come out clean and crime- free after jail. However, it's not always like that for many people. Many people join gangs when they go into jail because "if you don't join a gang and get protection, you are always being watched" according to the video Extreme Prison Gangs. Although many men go into jail already in a gang, I believe it's better for them to be in jail even if it works or not that it'll fix them. It is better to have them in jail and settle their disputes in there instead of having violence out in the streets at night. It puts other innocent people in danger as well as their own families because of gang affiliated reasons. I don't believe that it is the best solution for gang members, but at least it can keep some families safe while it puts the dangerous gang members away for a bit.
There are many ways to help these gang members while they are in jail. Like in many jails and women jails, they have group discussions to talk about the things they have done wrong and how they feel about it. This can be done for the men as well so that they can get a chance to talk about their past. We can partner up with doctors who are mean to talk to people about these problems in the jail. If not, working with pastors may work as well.
I learned that jails are not working very well. Yes, it will keep some people off the streets, but once they get out of jail, they go back to the same things they are doing with or without parole. It is disappointing to read that there has not been a change in how things worked for people who are on parole. The only one thing that jails do well is keeping them in jail. They don't make the people better and change their life around. All it does is make things worse and get in more fights.

Compassion for Others

The world is full of compassion even if we know it or not. It revolves around most of us and people usually take it for granted. Teachers give a huge amount of compassion to their students ever day in class. They try their best to feed us the information we need to know so we can be successful in the future. They want to help us in any way they can. This does not only teachers, but many people around us. Doctors, teachers, police, parents, relatives, etc. would usually all want to help us. Then why should we not have compassion as well? I have seen a lot of compassion that goes on in my work place. My coworkers help me regardless if I need the help or not. They step right in to get the job done without even being asked to help. After being helped and the job finished, I feel obliged to be compassion back to others. People should feel thankful and happy that others are willing to help them. So I like to give back to others for what someone else has done for me. I like to help people and be compassionate even if they have done nothing for me. I tend to be more compassionate and patient than with others so I always find myself in a situation where I find joy in helping people.

                There is a lot of cause and effect with compassion. Just like how I see compassion, where if someone is compassionate towards me, I feel a need to be compassionate as well. If this one concept of giving back to others after some good has been done for them, it would make a neighborhood and community a much better place. A video posted on youtube.com by Life Vest Inside in 2012 called “The Kindness Boomerang” shows a chain of people doing something nice for the next person after they have been helped from someone else. This five minute video shows and informs people to show some compassion to others anywhere in the world. It doesn’t matter of their race, ethnicity or gender. What matters is that something good is being done in this world. A series of events goes on and it puts a smile on every ones face in the end. If this could happen in our community or neighborhoods, then people would soon realize that there is a lot of goodness in every body. It all goes in a circle and this circle is infinite. Even if one doesn’t seem like they would have a lot of compassion in them, deep down in their heart, it’s there. Everybody is compassionate; some just have a harder time showing it than others.  

Poorly Funded Public Schools (Continued) (9 Paragraphs)

Why Do Bad Teachers Exist?

            Many people become a teacher because they have a passion for teaching. Some teacher’s passion last longer than other teachers, while some lose it in a year. However, only a few people’s passion will come back while others quit or resign. This is creates a bad teacher if he/she chooses to stay.  A loss of passion can ruin everything that the teacher is doing for the class. Students would learn less, have a lower grade, and be unprepared for the next year’s course. I had a firsthand experience with this in my high school senior year in my English class. My teacher gave up during mid-year because of a certain situation that happened at school. The teacher didn’t have a passion to teach us anymore and the class was basically useless every day. Many students skipped out on class because they knew it would be boring and we would be getting the same lecture every day. There was no new pattern in the class. A good teacher in this sense would shake off the situation that happened and focused on the students. The problems that he had outside of the classroom should not affect the student’s education. Every student’s education is as important as anyone else’s.

            Students can also get the wrong idea of what the teacher is trying to do by setting goals for the class that don’t have anything to do with the subject. Ever since President George Bush published the “No Child Left Behind” act, many teachers have only been focusing on what the students have learned in the year. I have been told by my math teacher that school districts want to end up on top of other districts every year.  They want to be the best around their area to reach a certain goal to get a set amount of money for their school, so they have meetings with all the Principals and all the Principals then have meetings with all the teachers in their school. They want to make sure that the teachers students test scores is at least the average in the nation. The higher the better but at least aim for average. This is what makes students think that some teachers are bad. Students might wonder why the teacher goes over one particular thing over and over again, but the reason is because the teacher wants to integrate it into student’s head that ‘this is what you need to know for the state exam’.  Certain teachers focus more on the state exam more than other teachers. They want to meet a certain standard so it doesn’t make them seem like a bad teacher compared to other ones in the district. Teaching also gets very competitive at times but everything leads back to teaching the students in a correct manner.

            For some schools, teachers do not have a choice of being good or bad. The poorly funded public schools most likely do not have the type of resources that other schools have. The material to teach a class is missing and the school does not have the money to buy the material. A lot of this happens with science classes. Labs are just as important as the lecture class. The things I have seen in the lab helps me a lot in my test taking for the science class. The current Biology class I am taking with the Laboratory every week requires a lot of materials to get the lesson done. If the class was missing a lot of the material, students would automatically turn to the teacher for a resolution. The teacher obviously cannot do anything about it so it seems like they are the bad guy in the situation. These teachers could easily be labeled as a bad teacher even though it is not their fault. There was nothing for them to do about it but try their hardest at making the lectures useful. This is a type of unlucky bad teacher but really, they have the potential to be a great teacher if the school had enough resources.

Why can’t we get rid of the teachers?

            Teachers used to be easy to find a decade ago when it was still a decent paying job and was a great choice in an occupation. However, the past few years were hard for teachers because of how much they were getting paid each year. This was a red flag to many people who were about to go into the occupation of teaching. People reconsidered the job and some chose new different routes to take in their life. Of course there were still people who wanted to be a teacher and carried through with it. But the amount of teachers quitting is too high compared to the number of teachers getting their credentials. One of my best science teachers in whole life worked as a teacher for a while before he had to quit and move on because his family is very important to him. He told us he was very sorry for leaving but his family needs the money. He had two children and wanted his kids to go to a very good school to get good education. One of his friends had a job opening and he told my science teacher about it. The new occupation he went into was selling sofas. My teacher would make more money in a year selling sofa than teaching students science. In the moral of this story, teachers don’t make enough for more teachers to come in and take their place, so people just choose to not be a teacher in that particular school. When that happens, teachers aren’t able to find a replacement for that teacher even if they are a bad teacher. The district doesn’t have a choice but to let them stay even though the students aren’t learning anything.

            Even if a district finds a teacher to replace the one that will leave of left, it is not that easy. Districts do not just hire any teacher that walks in the door with an education for the right subject their looking for. They look for someone who is reliable and will do a good job in teaching the students the material. They want them to be able to connect with the students and make sure that they will not harm the students in anyway. So the districts cannot let go of a teacher any time they want. They need to find a good replacement for that one teacher before the teacher is let go of. Something else that schools look for is experience. The more experience that the teacher has will increase the chance of getting them getting the job compared to others with no experience. Take my English teacher in high school for example, he gave up half way through the year but the school district could not let him go because they did not have a reliable replacement for my English teacher. They couldn’t let go of him whenever they want or the following year. Schools have to go through a lot before getting rid of a teacher. They have to plan ahead before they make a final decision especially on the causes and effects of letting go of a teacher.

            Teachers also like to protect other teachers from being fired from their school. The union combines and doesn’t allow certain teachers to be fired because of the affects it will have on the department if he/she is gone. This usually happens with teachers that have been teaching at the school for a very long time. They seniority and cannot be fired as easily as other teachers there who have been working there for a short time. This also matters a lot if the teacher makes a great impact in the school. Even if the district and Principals don’t like the teacher, the union will compromise and make sure some teachers do not get let go of. There are a lot of similar ideas like this with other companies. Take BART for example, the union workers came together and didn’t allow themselves to work so they could come in agreement with the government to get a raise. When teachers all come together to protect each other, the district cannot do anything about it. Teachers will stand firm and if they do not get in an agreement, teachers do go on strike. It has happened at my school before where teachers marched around the front of the school and not working in the middle of class. This is why some schools cannot get rid of these teachers.

What standards should we hold teachers to?

            Parents, districts, and principals all hold their teacher to a certain standard. If not all, many of them want to find a teacher that will be fair. It is never okay to favor certain person at school or anywhere. It can hurt that particular person or more than just that person. Some people strongly dislike teachers who play favorites. It puts other student’s grades down while it raises a few individuals’ grades higher. Students can only hope for the teacher is fair to them. Their grade depends on the teacher on how they grade papers and other activities in the classroom. Going back to my high school senior English teacher, before he lost his passion for teaching, he was also playing favorites with the smarter kids in class. If a student was on their phone in class and was caught, their phone would usually be taken away until the end of class. However, if my English teacher liked the student, he would not care about him/her. He would wave it off and just tell the student to put their phone away and when it happens again, my teacher says the same thing where as a student he didn’t favor had their phone taken away on the first warning. This is an example of a teacher who is being unfair and not using the same level of consequences for each student. Districts and principals should hold these teachers accountable for being fair to all students inside and outside of class.

            Teachers should always have standard to help students to succeed. They should not only teach the information but to help them learn the information. This is how students will be successful in the future. Once they pick up on the subject and get the hang of it, they should be able to pass the class with a minimal amount of help. Certainly, there will be students who need help more than others, so that is where teachers need to be available for students when they need help. One of the best math teachers I have had in my high school years always made herself available to students during the week. Two times a week she would open up her classroom to any students who want help in math. It didn’t matter if the student was in her class or not; she would help students regardless. Even though some students saw her as a very mean and strict teacher, I saw her as one of the most helpful and kind teachers I have ever seen. She made sure her students passed the class by pushing them to the limits. I left the class knowing so much more than before. When students ask me about her, I recommend her every single time because they are guaranteed to learn more than they expect. This is a perfect example of how teachers can care and help students to succeed. Even though she knows she gets paid way too little for the things she does for students, she does it because she cares about us. She cares about our future and what we will become in the future.

            Another thing we should hold teachers to is being able to make students excited to go to class. All students like a teacher who is exciting and fun, but obviously not all teachers are capable of doing so. It is important for all students to get to class on time every time they have class. During high school/ college, many students skipped out on class because they found that the teacher or class is boring. Teachers should have at least some sort of exciting activities for the class. This can range from anywhere in group work/ talks to games for the whole class. The current communications class right now is a teacher who loves to bring the class together and have fun. All the activities we do in class or outside of class have always related to the chapter we are learning in the textbook. The most recent activity we played in class had to do with different types of cultures communicating with others. Each group of 5 people had a set of rules they had to follow when they communicated with other groups. We all learned a valuable lesson with the one activity because every time the teacher said stop, we looked around and we were much guaranteed to be next to someone that was in the same group. We were all very surprised by how the lesson turned out because none of us saw it coming. Those are the kind of activities that brings the class together and keep the students coming back to class to learn more about different cultures. Teachers should not only just teach the materials straight forward like they are forced to, they should make the class exciting by tell students what they are going to be doing soon so it makes them excited about going to class every day. The higher the attendance can lead to a higher participation grade which can ultimately lead to a better grade in the class. These standards should always be kept with teachers where ever they teach. 

Oct 2 What Effects Do Bad Teachers Have On A Child?

Why do schools have bad teachers? Where did they come from and why did the school hire them? Schools that are poorly funded could be one of the top reasons why schools have bad teachers. The school doesn’t have enough money to pay for really good teachers. There may be bad teachers because the one individual did not get the correct training while getting their credentials or they’re just not passionate about their job. I believe that all teachers’ passions should be to work with kids and help them to succeed. If the teacher doesn’t care about how the students do in class, then why should they be a teacher? The main purpose of a teacher is to teach and care for the students.

                A teacher can have different types of influences on a student. The things they do around the students can affect them heavily inside and outside of class. Even the simplest things like when a teacher walks into a classroom that is not ready for class at all. Some students take these behaviors very seriously because they might start thinking about their future and how it is going to end up like the teachers. So what standards should we hold teachers to? All teachers, no matter what age, race, gender, or religion, should be prepared to teach as soon as they walk into classrooms. It should not matter what type of school they are teaching at or how poorly/highly funded the school is. Teachers should be able to adapt to their environment and give the students a great learning experience every day.

                Bad teachers can be just as bad as bad parents depending on the age of the student. If the student is still young in elementary, bad parenting can be worse than bad teachers. Kids look to parents for answers and help when they don’t understand something. Kids seek attention from adults because it is part of a phase that every child goes through. Teachers are supposed to have a motherly/fatherly figure for an elementary student but not actually be a parent to the student. The student needs to learn on their own and learn their lesson. If the situation was with middle school, high school, or college students, then it would be different. Bad teachers are worse than bad parents because the information that the teachers are now teaching is worth so much more to the student’s life. The material they teach can determine their future career and occupation. Teachers need to be just as good as parents or better. They need to be brave, encouraging, caring, and etc. even if they work in one of the lowest funded public schools in America. They are the people that determine the future of America. 

Poorly Funded Schools in Bay Area vs Salvage Inequalities

While researching all the poorly funded public schools in the Bay Area, I was surprised by how many schools made it on the list. There are different types of so called “Tiers” to put schools in different categories by poorly they are doing. There is a long list of schools that need help according to the website. Comparing this to the book Salvage Inequalities, it is similar in how many schools need better funding’s. In the book, there are some schools that are poorly funded while there are other schools not too far away that have great funding. The better funded schools have the correct resources and teachers to make great students. While the poor schools had teachers who don’t show up to class or don’t teach the material correctly. Schools that don’t have the correct funding for their resources and teachers can result in teachers that aren’t ready to teach or no teachers at all. This relates to my focus on my paper because poorly funded public schools can have bad teachers where they will not be motivated to motivate children to study and work hard. The may fail and the graduation rate for the school will be lowered. If the school’s graduation rate is too low, they may not get funding from the county, state, or country.  This goes in a cycle where the schools will always be poorly funded. 

Educational Segregation

Educational segregation separates students from their race and financial situation than their performance. The world needs people from different backgrounds and points of views to get a good learning experience. So why would a school segregate lower, middle, and upper class from each other? The performance of a child does not depend on their race or financial situation. In the novel, Salvage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol, talks about an elementary school in Riverdale that is so strict on segregation that the school is practically two schools. Kozol states that, “one of [the school has] about 130 children, most of whom are poor, Hispanic, black, assigned to one of the 12 special class; the other [school] of some 700 mainstream students, almost all of whom are white or Asian” (113). This shows other people a racial and class discrimination. Children’s families who are in a lower class don’t deserve to be set apart from other students who are wealthier. Children would not even notice the difference if they are put together. Children just want to learn and play. They don’t care about how poor the other student is or what kind of skin color they are. They may have questions about a different colored student, but teachers should be able to conquer that question with no problem. Students should not have educational segregation because of their race and financial situation.