Laser Movie Sucks

This movie fails to address the main problem with students coming into Community College. The students coming into Community Colleges have been failed at all levels of education prior to college. The bad habits most students have now were created and developed in schools before college. The passion, will , and foresight we lack (as the movie states) are with these kids long before College. It's like standing idle and watching someone bleed to death for 10 hours and on the 11th hour yell to everyone help. The Cognitive dissonance suffered from the movie makers is unreal confusing expectations with reality. In that College isn't the main problem but just one of few. I believe one shouldn't proclaim there is a problem without offering a solution. The problem is kids aren't ready for college. Students need to get on track in Jr high and High School. They need to put these classes in Jr. High so that you can catch kids earlier.  That's were the focus should be. The dropout rates at UC's are extremely low compared to CC's. There are many reasons for this one is that many students aren't pampered at home and have to deal with trauma daily. Another is kids don't know themselves so they cant begin to know the college system without losing all aspirations and conforming to what society wants from them. All while trying to wrangle their future success by please family or pleasing themselves.

Please DO NOT Conform

The Culture we live in pushes people strongly to conform American values. If one doesn’t conform then they’re in trouble. We are told that we need an education by the power structure and we are told we must work. The America school system sets people up and encourages them to be workers. It doesn’t influence them to be themselves. It acts by saying everyone has to fit into this vacuum. The power structure is made to keep people in their place and does not allow for dreamers. If a child wants to dream the school system will tell them to go someplace else. They believe it’s no time for that. In Passion Project Romeo Says “Society is not doing its job because it has high expectations for people to follow what other people are doing”. By society I believe he means the people, but the people are only acting out the wants of the American school system. It’s like get down or lay down. If one tries to dream then America will be right around the corner to ostracize you. In the end that’s how it’s done. They created a culture to conform or leave and whether it’s good or bad depends on ones own views.  The sad thing is that people subconsciously know that it’s better to follow ones dreams than to conform to a life of unanimity.  But in life we find a lot of people don’t go with their gut. In a speech on education President Barack Obama said “You can choose a future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they have. Education was the gateway to opportunity for me. It was the gateway for Michelle. And now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life”. This might sound nice to one who follows blindly and doesn’t acknowledge the governments hand in how he supposed to live. Essentially he tells people we can only choose our future and be successful by getting an education. By saying that’s the best way for a middle-class life just shows me that he and a lot of other people want us to be workers and not in the upper-class. While Obama encourages the masses of people in America to be workers, he supports colleges Like Cal Berkeley that have sister campuses in China that tell their students to be entrepreneurs, dreamers, and the thinkers. While we’re here being ushered into being the workers. He pushes values on the masses that only a few want. In the end the Power Structure wants the companies to be modern day centaurs, a Chinese head and American body. What a beautiful piece. I see many parallels from this and the days of the American Chattel slavery. African ‘’American” people were forced to do work while the white man prospered and was able to do what he wanted. I put quotes around American because they weren’t treated as Americans at that time and the hypocrites to call them American were and still are out of their minds.

The Usual Suspects, Whats the Real Definition Of Success?

            Success takes on many definitions for many different people and what ever road your on in life Success has a different meaning. I believe success is a feeling that cant be measured. Like love, one truly cant put words together to define it, but you know when your part of it that it's something really special. Success is something personal for an individual not whats viewed as good from the society.  In my own life I'll have to say success for me is that my family is happy and being able to do what they choose. I have a huge family and learned through time that no achieved goal can be celebrated if your not happy with the end result granted from it. I want my nieces and nephews to be leaders, not followers. Leaders get to do what they want, they set the standards, their the bestower of moral values and that's what is most important for me. They'll be able to do what they want not what their told or ushered into by society or their family. In Into The Wild it shows a contrast between Chris and his sister Carine.

"I was always getting on Mom and Dad's case because they worked all the time and were never around, Now look at me: I'm doing the same thing"(P.129).

Carine said this because she followed the path of her family by accepting and adopting the family value's. While her brother was away doing what he wanted to do, setting his own standards, living how he wanted to live. If his life ended "early" so what, who's to say that he even had a premature life, compared to who's value on what time one should die. Luckily Chris was lead by his own values therefore he was always right and who cares if he died. He at least died doing what he loved and what he wanted to do, most people cant say that. They both were successful in what they did and it shows that success has many meanings to different people.

            I can say today that I'm successful person. Although society will tell me I am not. We as a society judge others with a common goal and definition of success. Society views a married man with two kids in a middle class neighborhood with a managerial job that he's held for 12 years as successful. If that is success, I dont want no part of it. If exploiting, dehumanizing, and believing in trickle down economics while being CEO of a Fortune 500 company is success, I dont want no part of it. We find in time that society sets the standards of success not the individual. The only true way to be successful is for the individual to make the decision that the life their living is right. Chris in Into The Wild was tremendously successful. He didn't let societies definition of success define him, he defined his own life. Chris said to Ron Franz

"people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind"(P.56).  

             The thought process of conformity is that people should all do the same thing. This logic doesn't take in to account there are many people with many personalities. Some people even have multiple personalities. The blueprint of conformity can't cope with millions of people. Someone out of the masses have to stand up and say I'm not conforming and we find those people are viewed as outcasts, just the way people viewed him. Chris didn't feel part of this society and he put himself in exile by going to Alaska. Although he probably was pushed that way, he felt at ease knowing society was wrong. His attitude were unmatched at home and he didn't want to follow the norm, so conformity he wasn't going to be apart of. I believe if he felt a certain way he is smart to act on it and that's what he was telling Ron.

            What prevents me from success in my community, is my community. The fact is if I do something out of the ordinary I will be ostracized. It seems as if one has to almost choose between the view of success from the family and the view of success from society. Usually when it's deep ingrained beliefs the family is following society and most times it is set by laws. For example, in Saudi Arabia women aren't even allowed to drive cars it's written law therefore it's punishable. So how can a mother with pressure of breaking conformity support her daughter. The community is holding her back. If a young girl can't think outside the box, how can she be different? We as people feel there is a emotion of having to fulfill your family dreams and what they expect out of you, while trying to balance out personal dreams. It's very hard to do. Most times family dreams prevail and people collapse because they feel it's so hard to be successful and go against the grain. In a dysfunctional family most people conform because it's easier to do wrong and it's a struggle to do right when everyone else is in a state of dysfunction one will settle for almost anything that's normal. In Bread Givers, Sara was the only child who made it out of dysfunction. Noticing how her other sisters fell into their lives Sara wanted to be different she said

"I've got to live my own life. It's enough that mother and the others lived for you. Thank God, I'm living in America! You made the lives of the other children! I'm going to make my own life!"(P.138). 

            Sara being the youngest saw how her sisters were forced to be indentured servants for the family. She decided that will not be her fate and took action into her own hands. Just how Chris had the will of not to conform, Sara did as well. Family will prevent people from doing what they want to do individually. If being different is viewed as being weird in this society, I want to be a weird Mother Fuc*#!. I Want to be the neighborhood weirdo and the worlds kook. We should encourage differences because we're crushing passion by not letting kids be successful and in being successful one are able to do what they want by following their passion. Therefore crushing ones dreams by trying to make everyone in the family conform to what society wants them to do not what they want to do individually.
          

Students Be like "I Need Help"

Say word....This dude is cool. He saw a problem and addressed it. From being in school he understands that handing out packets is not going to keep kids in school. In essence he thinks that to keep kids in school is to get to their hearts. He understands packet teaching doesn't work and this is a key problem with students staying in school today. I like him because he shows a problem and gives a solution, unlike most people who state problems and have no answers for what to be done. He gives a step by step way for students to stay in school. It seems like this isn't the first time he spoke out in class just by the simple fact that the camera was out and they probably know he gets bizzy with the teacher

Wild Boy

            Into the wild intersects in many ways. The main one is passion, because I believe Chris could've been anywhere in the world, he had options. He didn't go to Alaska because that was all he was allowed to do. He went because he wanted to. He loved the area and that was essentially his passion. He wouldn't let anyone determine what his life would be like. Completely going against the grain is what Chris did and he did things his way. The way this intersects with the class is that it gives an example of following ones passion and how people will think they know whats best for somebody. In Into the Wild Chris was told by his parents

"Go to college, get a law degree, and then you'll be able to have a real impact"(114).

They got him to go to college, he didn't get a law degree, and we know now that he had a real impact on a lot of people, without the law degree. Chris didn't need college for his passion, after he graduated high school he was already on the road and his parents should've just supported his passion. Although his parents didn't want to hurt him they thought they were doing their best. So I don't blame them I blame the dynamic they were committed to by society. I believe we can learn a lot from Chris. He's an example of what to do and what not to do. He says push the limit and live in the now but he's unprepared for a long stay in the wilderness. So we can see the limit line he crossed by not taking advice and believing he can do it all by himself.

          Privilege is another way that the book intersects with the class. The whole notion of Chris being confident that he can even live in the wild has serious ties to privilege. First he's privilege by even having the chance to go to Alaska when he was a little boy. That's where his passion grew from so if he never got a taste of Alaska, he probably would've never conceived the notion of even to dream the place in his thoughts. He was able to become himself because of the rides his family took on the road and to Colorado. Thats where he got his passion for the road.

"On the weekends and when school was out, the family took to the road. They drove to Virginia Beach and the Carolina Shore, to Colorado, to the Great Lakes, to the Blue Ridge Mountains......There was always a little wanderlust in the family, and it was clear early on that Chris had inherited it" (P.108). 

The privilege the family had to even drive a car let alone drive on road trips during the weekend was amazing. Most poor people don't even leave the city they live in, for many reasons. I believe Chris viewed this as a way of getting away from the world because on the road its just him and he could be himself. While having privilege he was able to get on the road because if his father was Black or Latino he wouldn't been able to get that job at NASA let alone allowed to go to a certain University which employers preferred. Because University's were segregated as well.


            Location is another way this intersects with the class. One becomes part of the enviroment in which they grew up in. When a child is born they are instantly cultured by the parents from their views of what is acceptable in the community. So for most people they become the communtiy and inherit certain morals and values of the whole community.  Luckily for Chris he was always on the road as a child, so later in life he became one with the road and the road was his home. He went the opposite way and rebels against his society, community, and family. That's why he was attracted to Bullhead City, because it didn't have anyone there telling him what to do. While there it was the longest place he stayed since Alanta. There, it was no power structure for Chris to be mad at. In Into The Wild

"Bullhead City is a community in the oxymoronic, late-twentieth-century idiom" (P.39)



Nobody cared what Chris did or did not do. It was a place where I think people didn't judge him. He could think freely in this town and didn't have to worry about anything. He was living Hukuna Matata. The town had no discernible center and no real Government and people essentially were able to do what they wanted. It was like the Wild Wild West with no violence. Chris hated the people around him because they had certain views on what a life should be like. Those views created by the society in which Chris rebelled because it wasn't his cup of tea. If Chris was born and raised in Bullhead City his views would be different and thats goes for if he was born in Jasper and Laramie.

Passion, Privilege, and The Power of Perception

    Perception is very strong. People make lifelong decisions around what others think of them. people don't know themselves until they fully break out of how they think that people think they should be. Essentially we imagine how we must appear to others then we imagine the judgement of that appearance, so we develop our own self through the perceived judgement of others. We see everyone doing this but its worse on women. We all know that Perception is far from reality. So why do we still continue to fall deeper in to disillusion? In Passion Project, Karina said

"they'd rather me be a nurse because they get money and they're in high demand". 

The parents perceive that nursing is a good job and most of all good, for their child. so the kid starts to enroll in nursing school never really finding her passion. luckily some kids see this early enough and hopefully run in the other direction. also I think in two parent households that the child rebels more because they are able to see their siblings do other things and they will tend to do the opposite. the siblings act as an example almost and one can judge what to do from there. Perception is rooted in power and the people in power who are usually privileged do the perceiving, and essentially they "know whats right". In turn stopping a generation of passion. 



            Privilege takes on different meanings to different people. Privilege is that invisible leg up, it not having to struggle for a job. Your able to own the fruit tree while people are struggling over the branches.  Its true that the privilege and non-privilege person might get to the same place in the end but one took a road less traveled in pursuit of ones passion. Passion, when you know your passion, you can get it from anywhere and anyone. It feels so good because, your Passion is never boring, your excited every time you can act on it so its never fulfilled and in the essence of never being fulfilled, Passions true beauty comes out in the form of its longevity. In Passion Project Elaine said

"I got my insurance license when i was 21 because i wanted to make sure that people though that i was gonna do something.(Privilege). I thought that putting on a suit and having this license would make me some kind of adult.(Perception). When all I wanted to do was run around in the fields and explore and learn.(Passion)."

Its sad that people everyday are living unfulfilled lives. living their lives through other peoples perception all while missing the person they love the most, themselves. its good that some people see this and decide to stray away from expectation. but a lot of kids are left behind and some how some way passion and the need to know oneself needs to be added to every level of schools curriculum. because in the end whats more important. Passion is so important that it was in the first major paper signed in America, before the Constitution. It said in the Declaration of Independence that we have unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Passion.

Let's Make a Deal

There are many deal breakers for many different people when entering college. One could be language, culture, confidence, timing and many many other things. A deal breaker is essentially a barrier one has to overcome to stay in college. its easy for a firefighter to walk into a smoking building but to continue to walk up the fiery stairwell through immense heat is hard and that becomes a deal breaker, will i walk up these stairs or will i allow my fear, confidence, my love for my kid stop me. A lot of people go to college because high school ended and they don't know what to do next so they follow blindly the typical way to do it. For a lot of people high school ended in 10th grade when they dropped out because they felt disconnected from the school. The school isn't them and essentially it wasn't built for them. It was built to work for people who had their stuff at home together. So when and even if they join college they still fell disconnected from education in general because it doesn't effect their everyday life. some of these students haven't even taken the first step in enrolling because of fear and needs built in high school and middle and elementary school.

Another Barrier is when in college knowing what to do. colleges don't do enough to get students on track they assume students know what they want and don't try to encourage students on what to do. they in essence leave the students view out of the picture so its like come here do this and leave. So one doesn't feel like the school is working with them they fell like its more against them.just how there is a school for people with disablities and learning problems. There needs to be a school for students with these special needs that deal with real life. because having everything in order for these kids is fantasy so they need a curriculum to tell them how to cope with death and how to feed their little brothers in real life.

Solution.  I believe that the college has to shift resources towards human development. There should be an 2 hour mandatory orientation for all students enrolling at Community colleges to make sure what they're doing is right and let students know its a commitment and we have resources to take care of your kid (Daycare In School), we have transportation help (Free Bus Passes), we have mental help if needed (Mass Therapy classes). We can try to bring the community back into college and give the school a welcoming feel. Because it takes a village to raise a child. The policies have to be changed, then one can change the consciousness of the kids, finally one could change their actions and keep them from dropping out. A change to a quarterly schedule is desperately needed. So the kids will be forced to hurry up and get on track. There should be meetings in the middle of every quarter to make sure the students are up to date and do they need anything. Meeting held in groups of about 100 students because You'll find most students have the same kind of questions and although their specific question wouldn't be answered they'll know about what to do next. The Resources are there, They just need to be redistributed to personal development and that;ll make students breeze through classes easier. We need to ask What is College doing for me?