Week7
1087 words by bnichols
The problem to promote the importance of education in order to achieve higher learning for a better future through showing students that it does not have to involve playing a sport to make it happen is a product of the unequal opportunities present in America. Unequal opportunities in education are mind blowing in the United States, the so called ‘land of opportunity’.
This is why my chosen problem is the lack of encouragement given to student athletes who believe that their only way to get out of the devastation brought on by Post-Katrina New Orleans and attend college is through athletics programs. This is a problem that is not only faced by McDonough 35, or even the city of New Orleans, but by the entire country.
To add, there is no doubt that the future of this country is in the hands of all children but more accurately, in the hands of students. High school is the step towards higher education that weeds out those who are willing and able to succeed from those who are not able to due to an infinite number of circumstances or those that just simply feel content with settling.
Before beginning research for my project, I knew about the country’s education status due to the fact that President Bush implemented a federal program, No Child Left Behind, but little did I know how staggering the rates of matriculation in high schools were across the United States, let alone the city of New Orleans.
The New Orleans school district is the lowest in the state of Louisiana but I have researched and found out that McDonough 35 Senior High School is not among the schools which are performing poorly to contribute to the results. McDonough 35 scores very well and I see the overwhelming potential of the students that I work with at the school on a day to day basis. They are eager to learn and perform well. Surprisingly, I had a few of the Seniors ask me if I would be willing to tutor them longer because their tests were approaching and they had certain scores they needed to achieve. The reason they had to achieve the scores were of course in order to successfully be signed by their prospective colleges and universities which they planned to attend and play college level football. I do not agree with this, but I do respect that they were proactive and asked for help so that they can reach their goal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans
The curriculum at McDonough 35 Senior High School is above what the state requires of them which I would not have thought simply by committing the time old adage ‘Do not judge a book by its cover’ due to the state that the school is in. Instead of taking many electives, the school took the initiative to alter this and add an extra credit of core subjects such as math, science, fine arts, and foreign language. If only the rest of the schools in New Orleans would adopt this method. http://www.mcdonogh35.org/graduation.htm
This was only half of the research that I performed do to my project being related to athletics. Therefore, I decided to look into the probabilities of successfully being drafted by a college level football programs and what tools are needed in order to do so. I was able to find that there are on average 983,600 high school football players in the country, 281,000 of them are high school seniors. Of these senior athletes, only 5.8% of them advance to the NCAA level of football. These figures do not include the other divisions of sports associations but chances are still very slim. There are other options such as playing for other divisions other than the NCAA but the chances are still very slim. The athletics assocaiations are the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the NCAA which has three divisions, the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) which has three divisions, and the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) which has two divisions. So there are options, however, all divisions such as NCAA Division 3, NCCAA Division 2, and NJCAA Division 3 do not offer scholarships. In order for the student athletes to receive a scholarship from NCAA Division 1, NCAA Division 2, NAIA , NJCAA Division 1, or NJCAA Division 2, the student must also be well rounded which includes good grades. So it has come full circle in that no matter what or how you plan to receive an education, grades are more important. Getting excellent test scores and or grades allows the student athlete to be confident when choosing athletic programs but more importantly the competitive level of a college education. http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/faqs.htm#What%20are%20the%20chances%20of%20playing%20college%20sports
God’s house, the Tabernacle, is described in most of Exodus to be the dwelling place of God on earth. It seems to me like God wanted the people to feel his presence and also have more of a semi-physical connection with Him instead of just imagining Him in the sky. As for the description of the Tabernacle itself and the specific instructions that God gave to Moses, God intended it to meet perfection just as He has. A specific wood, acacia, which was overlain in gold was one of the most specific details to be included in the building of the Tabernacle. Along with the wood overlaid in gold, an altar of incense, curtains, and most of all the ark of the covenant were present. Overall though, the fact that it was mobile sets Him apart from all the other gods and tells us that God is in fact different and wants those to know it.
The fact that the Isrealites were brought out of slavery under the Isrealites and brought to a promised land where they had to defeat the residing people causes the idea of the ‘Promised Land’ to be problematic. The land that God promised to the Isrealites was fertile and of value to the people making it a great place for the Isrealites to come, conquer and with God on their side to even roll back the waters of the Jordan River, I am sure it was quite easy. All in all, the land that God promised to the Isrealites after so much suffering and the land that Moses was unable to enter due to a previous occurrence is problematic because the land was home to an entire civilization, the Canaanites.