Week 12
1063 words by yaesha
My project is coming along great. I really enjoyed myself working with the teenagers. I am glad that I am doing a good deed that may hopefully change these children’s lives. I have talked to the children and I am also trying to figure out what else I could do to help other teenagers. I have been doing many things to get the word around about what I am trying to do. I have also talked to various teenagers separately and asked them what it is they do not like about school and what they think will make them want to actually participate and be enthused about learning. I feel that if I ask students separtately than they will be more honest and less likely to say what their friend/friends say. I want to do the best that I can do to get through to these children. I plan to not only talk to the teenagers in my family that are going in the wrong direction, I will also talk to the neighborhood children. A lot of children in my neighborhood come from “broken homes.” Most of their parents are very young and have not yet grown up themselves. They do not care how their children do in school. This is why the children are doing so poorly in school. They simple do not have the support system they need. Mostof the children come from homes where drug dealing is a big part of their lives. They see their parents, or cousins, or older brothers making all of this money selling drugs so they in turn do the same thing. They want money and they want it now. I want to explain to them that fast money does not last long. If you are not making an honest living then chances are things are going to start going downhill real soon. I plan to sit down and explain to them the importance of having a good education. I want them to understand that without an education they will not go far in life. I want the children to understand that they can have those nice cars with the nice rims if they go to school, do their best, and become that successful, doctor, or lawyer, or philospher what have you. I want to show these children the light and hopefully change their lives. Also a lot of the children do not have a father figure. A lot of their fathers are incarcerated which means they do not have that male influence they need. I want to show them that this is not an excuse. They can still become successful young adults. These children need someone that is going to be a positive influence in their lives. If they see their local neighbors, such as myself, becoming successful they might want to follow in my footsteps. After I talk to them and hopefully get through to them hopefully I can talk to their friends and impact their lives as well. I also want to talk to them about decreasing the pregnancy rate as much as possilbe. A lot of the children in my neighborhood have many people in their family that have had children at a very young agae. They also start to think that this is the way of life. Children do what they see others do. If their parents had them at a young age, and their family members are having childrend at a young age, then they think that is what they are supposed to do. I want to make it clear to all of theswe young children that this is not the norm. The norm is and should be to get a good education as go as far as possible in life. Maybe if the children in my neighborhood start doing well then their friends from other surrounding areas will do the same. If this happens then I will have definitely changed the world.
Jesus is counter cultural in a variety of ways. Jesus did a lot of things during his time that society did not approve of. Jesus did what was right even if that meant going against the Romans. Jesus was very supportive of women. In the bible time women were not supposed to be treated as equals to men. Women were classified as being inferior to men and were supposed to obey them. Jesus did not see women as being inferior to men though. He believed that everyone was equal and he actually encouraged women to participate in worship. During Jesus’ life it can be seen how women were becoming more involved than usual. Many women became followers of Jesus. Jesus was counter cultural because he himself was not normal. Jesus was both human and divine unlike anyone else of his time. Because of this he would naturally be classified as counter cultural. Jesus saw everyone as equal Jew or no Jew.
My project is definitely not counter cultural. My project does not go against the norm at all. If anything my project should be considered as the “norm.” It should be normal and considered mandatory for people to make sure that students understand why they are in school. We as a society need to really explain to children why they are supposed to go to school everyday. They need to understand that school is not a nursery. It is a place to go to broaden our intelligence. In my opinion, it should be an obligation to push the students to perform to their full potential. Society should be doing everything in their power to decrease the school dropout rate and the teen pregnancy rate. If that means changing the way material is presented to students then so be it. Teachers need to get together and figure out how they can make students actually want to learn. Helping others is a norm. A lot of people in the world do many things to help others. Helping other people is just a way of life. I would say by helping others I am doing what Jesus did in his time.