The Challenges of Immigrant Students in Secondary Schools in the US Essay

For its reputation as the “land of opportunity,” America has made the path to finding that opportunity remarkably unclear for its immigrant populations. Most Americans would agree that some level of education is necessary for success or eminence, with higher education usually leading to more career opportunities and connections. However, state and federal policies concerning benefits have historically made education difficult to access for undocumented immigrants. Some argue that the United States has no obligation to its undocumented populations, pointing out the illegality of their presence, but regardless of an individual’s citizenship status, the fact that he lives in and thus contributes to American society cannot be ignored. Whether…

The Adolescents at School offers an assortment of essays, research summaries, commentaries, interviews, and profiles of diverse group of authors who were influenced by their students’ identity information from American secondary schools. The book presents varied aspects of youth identity that happen within modern US school systems. Most of the youth identities and voices presented were African-American, immigrant, Asian, homosexual, underprivileged, and others. These identified youth have found…

Today, 282,000 students, that is two hundred, eighty-two thousand students in secondary school are victims of this oppressive practice, because schools do not provide enough anti-bullying programs to get the “no racial bullying” message across. The bullies’ words hurt more than expected, they influence the way we see ourselves and the world around us, giving us a non realistic view of what this world should be. For me, it was that fake image of that once beautiful girl inside that the world…

you have to be the best. I was born into a family of hardworking immigrants in a city only an hour away from the Mexican-American border. My parents, worried about the quality of education in the low-income neighborhood that we lived in, had toured schools until they found one that satisfied their expectations. As immigrants, they dreamt of a life full of opportunity for me and my younger brother. In the face of adversity, in neighborhoods where people rarely made it out, they made our…

from town to town fulfilling with the twelve labors, overcoming the obstacles, adversity and difficulties in order to be able to advance, as well, I have had to move out of different countries in order to progress going through situations that for me were my own version of the twelve labors. I am a 24-year-old student in her second year at Valencia College. I did not have had the opportunity to attend college after I graduated from high school in 2013, four years later of what was supposed to…

States. Factors such as immigration, the Civil War, and the Second Industrial Revolution all heavily challenged and impacted education in America. During this time, tens of millions of immigrants came to the United States…

the societal oppression of women of color (Feagin 2012:46). I am an African American/ Black woman who derives from two strong black immigrants with roots in Honduras, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Barbados. My parents made it their mission to provide my brother and I with the best childhood and educational tools possible. This goal came with a couple sacrifices and hardships that I had to face head on. Tracing back from history till now, the fight for an education that’s not only exceptional, but also…

from all around the world. Due to so many different cultures coexisting, Hong Kong has become a diverse city. This phenomenon is reflected in the education sector in Hong Kong. Although 95% of population is still Hong Kong Chinese, more and more diverse students from different ethnic backgrounds arrive in Hong Kong to study resulting in a multicultural classroom environment (McInerney, 2010). Some researchers raise concerns of the current unequal student engagement level amongst diverse ethnic…

Having recently moved from Okinawa to West Texas myself, I was eager to meet the hosts of the event; Ly Mai and I compared experiences and reminisced about Vietnam and Okinawa. Ly Mai described her greatest challenges and experiences with culture shock in the American classroom (personal communication, February 11, 2017). Teacher-student relationships in Vietnam, for example, are very businesslike and most classroom work is lecture based with no interaction between the teacher and the student.…

My mother, Kirsten Torgersrud, a Norwegian immigrant and permanent resident of Canada, has lived in this country for the past 30 years. She grew up in a neighborhood just south of Oslo speaking Norwegian as her primary language. She learned English in school, but in the 8th grade she chose to take French instead, and then in 11th grade she changed again to German. As a result of these switches, she never developed a secondary language in which she could hold an extended conversation. So, when…