Rodriguez "Aria"

After reading this article Aria by Richard Rodriguez I can relate this passage to the first time I volunteered for inspiring minds and entered a providence school last week.

Entering the first class of kindergartners during a English lesson she had me work first with the students who were learning English as a second language. They were separated from the rest of the group and like the passage they were encouraged to speak in English and do English related activities. However I did notice some differences, the teacher did speak/say some Spanish words to the Spanish speakers unlike in the passage where the nuns did not speak to them in Spanish at all. In the second class I met with I did not work with any of the English as a second language learners but I could see where they were working. They were also separated from the group and were working on IPad's while the rest of the students did another activity. Like the passage from Rodriguez those students must have felt separated from the group because English is seen as the public language. 

After reading this passage and attending the providence school I was curious to see how many English language learners there were in Rhode Island and I found these statistics. 

When seeing the statistics for Rhode Island's English as a second language learners I am curious about how much encouragement there are in the households for the parents to speak only in English to their kids. As we saw from the Rodriguez passage this type of encouragement damaged his family relationship and had a hard time connecting with his parents after.

Blog post #1

This author Nicholas Kristof argues that the race gap is not the biggest issue with education but it is the income gulf that determines who is successful and who is not in America.

In this article the idea that is expressed is those who come from a poor income household are less likely to rise to the top then those who come from wealthy households. He compares it to the height of your parents saying that you will most likely not grow taller than your mother or father meaning that you will not surpass their income but either make the same amount they did or less. The higher income household’s kids are more likely to complete college at the age of 24 then those who come from lower income families. So instead of focusing on closing the race gap we should focus more on closing the income gap and get more kids from lower incomes to stay in school. Many bright kids that come from low income families are unable to reach their potential or reach their potential and are unable to capitalize on in and are stuck in low income jobs like their mothers and fathers were in. Check out this similar article about income and education.

I liked the story the author told about his friend and how when he skipped class they suspended him for more time out of school. I thought it was interesting how all people are smart and have the potential to improve their lives but are limited by the income of their parents and starting circumstances

Introduction

Hello everyone my name is Andrew I am from connecticut but have lived in providence for the last four years. I am a health/physical education major. Over the summer I took anatomy and physiology. When I am not in school I spend my free time playing basketball, golf and tennis.

Golf