Daoud 1

Manel Daoud
Professor Koning
ENG 113B
7 May 2014
Education of The privileged; Where We All Stand

It was a beautiful Tuesday morning, where the sun shined on me kind of like a
gentle way to say its time to wake up. With all the strength and energy I had I got up to
get ready for one of the most important days of my life; college. No more back to school
shopping, no more parent conferences, and most of all, no more high school. As I made
my way to campus I thought to myself this is the beginning of the whole new experience.
Step by step, I made my way closer and closer to my first class as a freshman. So many
thoughts roamed my mind, like am I going to catch up with everything? Is college really
for me? Am I going to fit in? I kept pushing hoping not to turn back. Finally, I had
approached my destination; I took one more step to realize this is the world in front of
me.
We live in a world where people strive for what they want, but at the end become
classified as the class they dont intend to be. People are being determined based on
where their families stand and no matter how hard they try to work themselves up to a
higher class, it doesnt make a difference. bell hooks book Where We Stand: Class
Matters is about her personal experience where she felt as if she didnt fit in and lived
two different lives. hooks first year in college was at an all girls college, due to the fact
her parents didnt want her going too far away where she would get discriminated by the
higher class. Her journey was associated with sexism, racism, and classism, but she
Daoud 2
didnt let any of that get into her way, because she wanted to rise her in class where she
was categorized in. bell hooks ideas about social class are very relevant to today society.
Many students coming from a low income families are discouraged, under prepared, and
have a lack of motivation toward education and lack financial support.
It is very difficult to make a decision that can affect your whole life. Many
individuals struggle to choose the college that offers the best program for their majors,
but as for other the environments they grew up in influenced them. This mostly applies to
private schools due to the fact the schools like such have more motivation and help
toward the students that attend the high school. Education that results in payments usually
provides the students with the best education and prepares the students for college.
In bell hooks books, she discusses the discomfort feeling she experienced at the
college she first attended. She felt as if she didnt belong and wasnt good enough like the
rest of the students. Students would look down on her and treat her less from what she
really was, there were hardly any other black students to collaborate with and make
friends. When she finally had the privilege to leave the college she was relieved [she]
would not be returning to the womens college, to a place where [she] had truly been an
outsider(32). When having trouble to fit in and getting used to the environment around
you interferes with your education is it tremendously hard to focus on class and passing
all courses. bell hooks dreams vanished when she attended the womens college she did
not think about being an artist anymore. [She] struggled with the more immediate
question of where to continue college, of how to find a place where [she] would not feel
like such an alien(31). The environment that surrounds one another makes a big
different when associating with education. It effects the position where you stand next to
Daoud 3
everyone, because it gives you a feeling of being less compared to everyone else and by
having that feeling it is very hard to feel motivated toward your education.
In many cases, family members want their loved ones to get an education on
something that will help to support them when they are older. In bell hooks book she
said, no one in my family wanted me to pursue art, they wanted me to get a good job, to
be a teacher(31). The most awful feeling is being told you cant follow your dreams and
thats rather the same situation hooks was put in. She didnt want to be a teacher, she
wanted to be an artist, but according to her mother black folks could not make a living
as artists(31). The environment that bell hooks was nourished in had no hope and being
told from someone she respects that she is incapable of being an artist was a lack of
motivation. Even all the negative motivation she got from people, it still didnt stop her
because it made her happy. She felt as if poor students would be welcome at the best
institutions of higher learning only if they were willing to surrender memory, to forget
the past and claim the assimilated present as the only worthwhile and meaningful reality.
She was living two worlds that she wasnt very happy about. She had to abandon all that
she was taught and her background next to others and then come home and be herself
next to her family, but she managed to make it through and not let it get to the best of her.
Its difficult to be encouraged to attend a college that one has doubts about due to
expenses and class. In the article A challenge Of Being Poor At Americas Richest
Colleges written by Maggie McGrath states that a recent Brookings student found that
just 8% of low-income students applied to a reach school and just 35% of high-
achieving student in this group attended one of the countries 238 most selective
universities. Reach schools are schools that are classified as Americans dream schools,
Daoud 4
but not all students are granted admission. Students who applied to reach schools is a
very small percent and its because the rest of us dont feel as if we are prepared for a
school that expect a lot from their students. Secondly, many students dont want to
attend a school where they are obligated to take out loan, low income students are
heavily dependent on scholarship aid to go to college, and especially dependent on grants
as opposed to loans (Edsall). They feel they wont be able to pay back and some just
cant afford the tuition due to the fact tuition costs have grown at a much faster rate than
inflation (Edsall). Tuition costs are very expensive and its very difficult when coming
from a low income household without aid. According to bell hooks the records merely
indicated that even after receiving financial aid and other support, these students simply
could not make it, simply were not good enough. Unfortunately, there are student that
have the mentality that college isnt the right place for them, because they feel as if they
wont be able to stay on task and cant be compared to the other students.
The majority of a high school student wakes up every morning to get an education
and be prepared for college. Some students attend a public school and other attend a
private school and with no doubt private schools will most likely provide you with the
education that is worth paying for. They prepare you for college, provide extra help with
SAT, and give you the motivation for a successful career. According to the article The
Reproduction of Privilege it states that, the percentage of low income college students
actually graduating by age 24 has grown by only 2.1 points, from 6.2 percent in 1970 to
8.3 percent in 2009. Among students from families in the highest income quartile, the
graduation rate by age 24 has surged by 42.2 percentage points, doubling from 40.2
percent to 82.4 percent over the last four decades(Edsall). High income students are
Daoud 5
getting a better education and are more prepared for college, because of the assistant that
is provided for them.
The majority can agree that low income students struggle more when it comes to
college expenses, because they lack the financial support that most high income students
already have. According to Rachelle Sharpe Author of Low-Income Community College
Students Finance Choices During a Recession, low-income community college
students appear to be at higher risk for academic failure when they are financially
independent, enroll part time, and/or work more than 20 hours per week. It is very
stressful to manage your time when attending college and working at the same time.
Many individuals have a hard time studying because they didnt have time to and some
just dont have the energy in them to complete assignments right after getting off a long
shift from work, which then result in drop outs because they have an absence of
encouragement.
In conclusion students, needs to be more motivated toward schools and never be
discouraged when it comes to school. Yes, it is hard coming from a low income
household that is unable to support you and trying to be flexible between work, school
and social life, but dont ever give up on the future. Low income students strive to
achieve the goals they want to pursue to move up in their class mobility. They dont want
to be classified as the very bottom fifth their whole life; they want to make a living and
be able to support themselves and their family. bell hooks reaches out to everyone when
she wrote this book to inspire individuals.


Daoud 6



Works cited
Edsall, Thomas B. "The Reproduction of Privilege." New York Times [New York] 12
March 2012, n. pag. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.

McGarth, Maggie. "The Challenge Of Being Poor At America's Richest Colleges."
Forbes. 27 Nov 2013: n. page. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.

Sharpe, Rachelle. "Low-Income Community College Students' Financing Choices during
a Recession." Order No. 3443763 Walden University, 2010. Ann Arbor:
ProQuest. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.