why I wrote a memorial about my first car

Your first car: a rite of passage. You turn sixteen and get behind the wheel with your license for the first time and so many doors are flung wide open. The options seem endless when you’ve got a full tank of gas, a high school student’s ambition and four wheels beneath you.

My car’s name was Chuck, before my family sold him and traded up. His full name: Chuck the Astounding Adventure-mobile. Yes, I know, men are supposed to name their cars and boats – all manner of vehicle, really – female names in the tradition of our seafaring ancestors. But I was not a man when I named that car. I was still a boy, and regardless, that goofy, cherry red Mercury Sable was definitely a male in character: sturdy and loyal, but not above playing the occasional prank. I went without air conditioning one sweltering Texas summer while we saved money for that fix, and I discovered the hard way that the 1999 model doesn’t come with anti-lock brakes.

why we need to change how we teach poor students

Students that come from impoverished families do not learn in the same way as students from middle class or wealthy families. Notions of value and importance are different when seen through the eyes of an underprivileged child, and we can’t expect them to adapt their worldview in order to succeed in the American education system. Our schools need to adapt in order to teach all students effectively, by using programs that will help them understand the worth of a grade school education in the real world.

When we attempt to understand obstacles to impoverished students in the classroom, it’s important to put ourselves in their shoes. When someone of the well-to-do class takes a glance at a poor, urban high school student they see the obvious. Financial limitations, likely poor parenting, and maybe a part-time job after school make it difficult for poor students to keep the importance of schooling in frame. But let’s say that the good people of the world were to give that student enough money to go to college - we’ll say $100,000. Would this fix all of his or her problems?