Grades Present Anxiety [or G.P.A.] (Glimore Girls)

school has me like

Between the ages of 4 and 15, something happened to me.  Yes, I may have grown a little taller, or a little smarter, or even a little less naive, but that's not what I'm referring to.  I've lost most of my interest in learning; I mean really learning about the world around me, even if it's not in the class syllabus.  What happened to the "Why is the grass green?" or "How do birds fly when we can't?" or "Why do the leaves change color?" questions that my mind used to be riddled with?  I've always heard that curiosity killed the cat, but I was never warned that the cat, in fact, was the one to kill curiosity.

Walking down the halls of Troy High, I'm immediately met with complaints from my peers of AP classes that pose no interest to them other than as a GPA booster, with the sight of dark under-eye circles permanently attached to blank (but caffeinated!) faces.  I'm tired; we all are.  Through our sleep-crusted eyes, academia is only a haze and all we see is what we believe to be the goal: "to pass the course-to get a degree" (97).  Somewhere along the way, the pursuit of knowledge became distorted and mistaken for the hunt for a heavily sought-after college acceptance letter.  Excitement to go to school turned to indifference and, eventually, dread.  I started to feel less and less like I was chasing after my dreams; rather, that I was being chased after.  In the game of cat and mouse, I suddenly found myself as preyed upon; I was cornered and afraid.

In a plethora of district-mandated courses to take, it is easy to lose sight of what the point of school really is.  Often, as graduation is nearing, a dilemma arises: after being absorbed in getting an "A" for so long, rather than what students are truly passionate in, many are lost when it comes to what direction to take in life.  With no clear-cut, black-and-white answer key, finding and picking a career suddenly becomes an impossible task.  So perhaps, every once in a while, we should close out of the Schoology app and really learn.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Fresh From Stereotypes (Fresh Off the Boat)

this doesn't actually pertain to the blog post but @TheBluestEye

Let's get something clear: discrimination is a two-way street.  Anyone and everyone can  be discriminated against, there's just the matter of how well-known and what level this discrimination is operated on.  Beneatha exemplifies this idea when she so bluntly states, "[disliking rich people] makes just as much sense as disliking people 'cause they are poor, and lots of people do that" (50).  Sure, plenty of discrimination against the lower socioeconomic groups exists, but we can't ignore the fact that resentment and prejudice exists on higher classes as well.  This isn't to downplay the struggles of those who are at a financial disadvantage, which are undoubtedly vast; rather,  it is to bring to light the nature of discrimination (I'm talking discrimination itself, not what discrimination does): it *ironically* sees no age, color, or class.

Perhaps I'm not being clear.  Look at it this way: The young see the old as phased out, frail, suck-in-their-ways, and simply outdated.  Meanwhile, the old see the young as rash, naive, foolish, and untrained.  Discrimination functions both ways.

discrimination from both sides

Take affirmative action, for example.  It reinforces stereotypes for both those who benefit from it and those who don't.  On the one hand, it functions under the assumption that all African-American, Native-American, or Hispanic students attend inner-city, underfunded schools with a lack of resources, and implies that any students from these race groups are incapable of making it into certain schools or occupations on their own merit.

reminiscent of the Gratz v. Bollinger case?

On the other hand, affirmative action maintains that all Caucasian and Asian-American students are overly privileged and that school is "easy" for them.  On the contrary, plenty of poor Asian immigrants exist, just as there are African Americans living in the upper middle class or even in the top 1%.  If affirmative action exists to show compassion and consideration for the hardships felt historically by certain racial groups, why does it still send a message of indifference towards others?

By asserting that race closely equates the economic well-being of applicants, affirmative action perpetuates a double-edged discrimination.  Should, then, adversities go by uncompensated for?  Of course not, but they should be done rightly so.  The resources available to each student should be assessed by some other means other than simply color; current methods leave room for more qualified candidates to be passed in hopes of making (at times) dubious social gains.  

Just as stereotypes can be applied to any group, so can discrimination.  This is because the root reasoning, the foundation of any type of discrimination is founded upon over generalizations and misconceptions.  Stereotypes and discrimination go hand in hand, and both are far from being eliminated.  In the end, all we can really do is make judgement with a handful of doubt and the willingness to revise them.  

*****I know that affirmative action is a controversial topic, and I respect that there may be other opinions on it.  I encourage anyone willing to express their thoughts on the topic in the comment section.  Additionally, this blog post was inspired by a research paper I wrote last year on the topic.  If you'd like to read more about it or see evidence to back up my claim, you may click here to view it*****