Today's reading struck a chord with me as I was reminded of the public educational system of which I am from. Throughout the course of grade school, we all started out with specific dreams and goals that we wanted to accomplish. I had one goal my entire life. Looking back it is so different from what I envision now for myself. As a young girl I wanted to be a gynecologist with an emphasis in obstetrics, and I was sticking with that "dream" up until several years ago when I decided that practicing medicine in the "traditional" sense was no longer the path that I wanted walk. I can't lie and say that I got this aspiration to be a physician from knowing someone in my family with this specific career choice. However, I was influenced by Bill Cosby's show "The Cosby Show", in which the actor/comedian portrayed Heaf-Cliff Huxtable, a gynecologist or obstetrician who lived an upper middle-class lifestyle in a prominent neighborhood with several children along with his powerful attorney wife, Claire Huxtable. I wanted this lifestyle and career and it followed me well into my twenties. Although I didn't ultimately choose this path, I have a future career in behavioral health and I'm happy with this decision.
However, although I was motivated by my "dream" to be a doctor, my dream alone wasn't enough fuel to gas me up and force me through the many barriers and obstacles that lied ahead of me. Realism, is extremely important to dreams. Dreams are titled "dreams" because they are aspirations, that should be paved with hard work. They are not miracles that just happen to happen to us. No one reaches a dream on pure talent alone, motivation and skill, and most importantly effort is a necessity. The reading very much hinted at the inner city children, which is telling not only regarding the book but regarding the population in which the context of this chapter is targeted. The inner city is filled with everlasting dreams. Some are simple, some more complex, but all are dreams nonetheless. However, what makes some dreams obtainable and other void of true ambition and attainment is the hard work and dedication to the dream itself. We can't instill within our children the power of dreaming without instilling the importance of putting effort behind those dreams. I have been friend and classmate to those who have had both realistic dreams that are backed by the much needed hard work and I have also witnessed those with highly ambitious dreams with no means of attainment. However, it is those with the skill to back their realistic dreams who are graduating from college, entering into successful careers, and starting their families on the road to what could be that middle class lifestyle that their parents could only "dream" of. Empty dreams with little to any work or realism are the true killers of the poor Americans' spirit. It robs them of the truth and slaves them to a life of "I should have" and "I could have".
I'm grateful for the "harsh teachers" that I have encountered while in my youth as a child growing up in the inner city school system. They held a mirror to my face and other students like me so that we can see the truth behind the work of turning our future dreams into realizations. Instilling within us the importance of having great verbal skills, writing skills, and the ability to grasp more than just the basics were the tools that they provided us. They were not the nicest teachers, or people for that matter, they yelled and screamed and pushed and sometimes cursed and used profanity to get to some of our classmates who through the lack of discipline at home needed an authority figure to rectify their chaotic lifestyle. I'm the product of these "harsh teaching methods", but no way in the world would a soft-spoken laid back teacher have changed the students of my youth. For some students where I come from, soft methods produce few if any results. However, strict and brutally honest, forward and invasive, and tough loving teachers leave everlasting impressions and produce everlasting positive results that can aid an inner city child to reaching their true potential and most importantly their dreams.
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