ABSTRACT

If you want to change the world you have to

start with you. In the end you must look out at
all the problems in the world and what
education would do to change it. You must
start with the first person: yourself. After
your education is complete the work begins to
educate others.

Kenia Bush
English 2010-029

IS EDUCATION A WAY OUT?

What are my choices?

Bush

Kenia Bush
ENGL 2010-029
Professor: Eric Robertson
December 3, 2014
Final Project
Never Give Up On Education!

I am originally from Venezuela and I came here for a better life. However, I
found myself working in labor jobs and I felt like my life was not going anywhere. I
got married and had a child. I was happy in this respect but still felt I was missing
something. I am one who does not like to come home and watch television. I
needed something more after twelve years of marriage, so I decided to go back to
school. I am doing it for me and my child. I want her to see how important an
education is to me. I want to note that my husband supports me. I know its about a
better quality of life by being educated. You make choices for yourself and dont let
someone else make it for you. Our forefathers understood this, and made education
a right for all races, men and women. I believe that the more educated you are, the
more free you become.
As an introduction in The Shriver report Cristine Andes Waiting Tables to

NASA: How Education Changed My Life. She was a 35 year old mother who
decided to take charge of her life. She also felt like she was going nowhere in her
life. It is important to note that her first husband was not supportive of her goals.

Bush

She emphasizes that she needed support from her family and didnt need to listen to
those naysayers in her life. She talks about how hard it was to accomplish her
goals. In her life as a waitress she had none. The payoff for her was a career that
she loved. She also had a greater income, increased spending, and evenings and
weekends with the family. I empathize with Cristine because these are the goals I
want in my life. I also want to spend time with my family, to enjoy my career, and
to have a better income. There are those who still believe that a womans place is in
the home. Religion and archaic thinking sometimes prevent women from reaching
their full potential. This is tragic because women make up more than half the
workforce today. As stated in the DPE, AFL-CIO, Women make up more than half
of the professional and technical workforce in the United States.
In addition, Id like to add a short note about J.K. Rowling. She is another
woman I admire. She had all kind of difficulties in her life. Her mother died of
multiple sclerosis, her first marriage came to an end, and she lived in a rough part
of town, raising her daughter on what would in this country be considered welfare.
She never gave up on her dream to be a writer. She also completed an education
before this all happened to her.
Although some people may object to education, like entrepreneur Peter Thiel
of PayPal online pocketbook, who wants to pay people to work for him instead of go
to college, I believe that is merely his ideology. However, in reality an education
should be a foundation from which to launch your ambition and dreams. It would
be nice if an education could be more affordable. If this country really cared about

Bush

its future, our leaders might want to invest more in it. The end results would most
likely be less prisons and lower welfare projects.
The upshot of all this is that we can have an attitude that emphatically
declares, Never give up! I signed up for college and committed myself to finish, no
matter how long it would take. I never listened to those who said it couldnt be
done. Someday I will help those who have been dormant to bloom. I will inspire
them to persist with personal careers, and to move forward no matter what their
obstacles may be. Ill help them have fun all the way and never give up. We must
always continuing learning, because education lasts a life time.
Although learning may seem of concern to only a small group of people, it
should in fact concern anyone who cares about knowledge. But who really cares?
Who besides me and a handful of recent researchers has a stake in these claims?
My goal ultimately would be to prove that anyone who lives in todays society
or communities should care.
Ive always believed that education is a way to free one from the shackles of
ignorance. Our prisons are filling up at an incredible rate. Who pays for this? You
and I do. In our own state here in Utah, they need to find a new place for the
prisons. The current size of our prisons is not adequate for the population of
inmates. Are we going to keep this cycle of madness going? Its time to get real!
We cannot to continue to ignore those with poor resources and say that its their
problem. It is ours. We did not take care of our fellow citizens when they were

Bush

young and in school. Thats where it should have taken place and now we spend
millions of dollars to keep them in jail.
There is a way out. I have a proposal. I would like to address the madness
of putting inmates in jail, serving their time, and releasing them only to find them
returning again. First we need to evaluate each inmate and give them an
opportunity they may not have had before. We have to realize that some people
enjoy being criminals. However, not all do. Lets give those who want a way out an
education, one that is useful, that they can find work with, and be part of a solution
and not part of the problem. This would break that cycle, lower recidivism, and
shrink our prisons. Yes, these prisons belong to us, just like out of the story, A
Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. When Scrooge notices two homeless children
clinging to the second angel of Christmas Present, the boy is referred to as
Ignorance and the girl is Want. Scrooge cried, Have they no refuge or resources?
I paraphrase here what the angles reply to Scrooge using his words against him.

Bush

Are there no prisons? Are there no work houses? My point here is this is our

responsibility.

Now, this seems like common sense but we need statistics to back it up. I
have searched a few resources on EBSCO. This is considered a reliable and
acceptable site. First I would like to start with a paper written by Stephen Meyer:
Implementing Postsecondary Academic Programs, in State Prisons. Participation
in postsecondary programs in correctional settings is low, despite evidence of
positive outcomes and national emphasis on postsecondary education to meet labor
market demands. With research like this I see no reason to not find a way to
implement education programs in our prisons to give more opportunities to the
inmates. Of course, many will probably disagree with this assertion to give
prisoners a chance.

Bush

According to Shakoor Ward, in a paper entitled Career and Technical

Education in United States Prisons, he focused on the topic of negligible effects of
CTE in prisons.
The Martinson report paints a general picture of the effects of educational
prison intervention methods. After thoroughly reviewing 231 studies of prison
programs aimed at rehabilitation, Martinson stated the following. With few and
isolated exceptions, the rehabilitative efforts that have been reported so far have
had no appreciable effect on recidivism. Basically, the programs to educate them
are not working.
I disagree with Martinson. I think his studies are flawed. This is not their
fault. We need to implement programs that teach the prisoners coping skills along
with a career skill which would help in lessening the chance of them entering back
into the system. You get what you give. We are not giving the prisoners adequate
programs to keep them out.
Ultimately, my goal is to demonstrate that no matter what, we need to help
these people stay out of jail by educating them to be part of society. What Im trying
to say is that education matters. This is my position. Do we spend more money on
building bigger and better prisons, or do we educate the population and shrink the
prisons, making society a safer place for all?

Bush

If you want to change the world you have to start with you. In the end you
must look out at all the problems in the world and what education would do to
change it. You must start with the first person: yourself. After your education is
complete the work begins to educate others.
It is my intention in this paper to show that education is important for us all.
As the rich get richer and the middle class disappears, we go back to a time where
only those who have money have an education. Those people will rule like kings
and the subjects will be self-educated or have no education at all. Is this the way
we want to live?

Bush

Works Cited
Andes, Cristine. "Waiting Tables to NASA: How Education Changed My Life." The Shriver
Report Waiting Tables to NASA How Education Changed My Life Comments. The
Shriver Report, 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Bidwell, Allie. "The History of Common Core State Standards." US News & World Report, 27
Feb. 2014. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
Meyer, Stephen J., Linda Fredericks, Cindy M. Borden, and Penny L. Richardson.
"Implementing Postsecondary Academic Programs in State Prisons: Challenges and
Opportunities." The Journal of Correctional Education 61.2 (2010): 148-52. Web. 24
Nov. 2014.
Ward, Shakoor A. "Career and Technical Education in United States Prisons: What Have We
Learned?" The Journal of Correctional Education 60.3 (2006): 191-95. Web.
Williams, Joseph P. "Who Is Fighting for Common Core?" US News & World Report, 27 Feb.
2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.