Reflective Essay: Preparing College Students For Higher Education

I was born in Prosser, Wa. and grew up in Sunnyside, WA. Where 82.2 percent of the population was Hispanic or Latino and 15.7 percent was white (Census). Only 52.3 percent of residence were high school graduates (Census). My parents did not go to college nor finish high school. My father stopped going to school when he was in 2nd grade. When my parents migrated to the U.S. in search of a better life they ended up working the in the fields, picking fruit. The community I grew up in was mainly working-class. The median income was $32,641 (Census). While I was growing up, I thought every public school was like mine with bad food and strict schedules. As I transitioned from middle school to high school. I learned that there were better public schools. My …show more content…
I had teachers that would not motive nor challenge the class to grow. It was as if they already knew every student wouldn’t pursue higher education. After high school, I quickly learned that my high school did not prepare me to be on the same educational level as my college classmates. I argue that schools need to challenge students to think critically and actually prepare all students for higher education no matter what community they come from.
My high school was in a low-income community with high gang activity. I believe that is why many teachers might not have expected their students to learn more than required. Ms. Ibrihim was my science teacher for two years. There were countless of class periods were the class did absolutely nothing, which is why many of my peers stopped showing up to class. I even considered no longer attending because class time was spent talking to friends while finishing a simple worksheet. For our class final we did have an actual experiment, but the class was split into groups of six students. The teacher led the experiment and one member of each group was able to help her in the from the classroom. Not every student engaged with the