My first taste of the importance of a college education
I remember going
to my first Chicano Higher Education Conference
in January of 1969
in a barren place of
University of Whitewater, Wisconsin
my brother Juan drove a white university station wagon
to his hometown Racine
that Friday night
to pick me and my other brother up
I had never been to a college campus before
but from stories I had heard
college was a cross between
Disneyland and
a crowded New York subway on Times Square on New Years Eve
all I can recall from the two hour ride
was a flashing red light
at the intersection of Highways 20 & 83
there were no cars in sight
just a warning…
we arrived on campus at 11 pm
and went to the student union
where we listened to an acid rock band
playing to a crowd of Chicanos and Blacks
no dancing occurred
just meditating
A college friend offered up his room
and slept at his girlfriend's
at 3: 30 am
seven of us shared
the beds, floor and mushroom chair
but I didn’t get much sleep
we snuck into the cafeteria
in the morning
when a football playing black friend named “Big C”
stood in the way of the cashier
the first workshop
was on bilingual education
and the speaker was so excited
he used a lot of big words
I had never heard before
so I figured bilingual education
must be important
or he wouldn’t have been so serious
the only bilingual education
I had ever heard of
was mentioned once in
our Mexican-American history class
taught by the only Mexican-American teacher
in our high school
the last workshop
was on getting more students enrolled in higher education
the speaker Corky Gonzales
was also a poet
and he told us
“we were the future of our people”
I stared at the blackboard
in that college classroom
and felt strange
about all the times
I had raised my hand in grade school
and my teacher
did not call on me
or want to hear my answer
poem by Oscar Mireles
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
I am here to give the American people some straight talk about higher education. Some have said we might have cut financial aid for college students. The truth is we have expanded access to college for our neediest students through the record growth of the Pell grant program.
quote by Ric Keller
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Crippled by Knowledge
The wayward way of thinking has always been: “Son, I want you to go to college, graduate with a degree so you will have the education to secure a well-paying job. You know back in my day, I was able to go to college, so I want to make sure you have every opportunity to! ”
The inevitable downfall: The rise in college tuition, along with the decrease in federal aid for working middle class families’, students and their parents are placed under enormous pressure in paying back mass amounts of student loan debt.
The vicious cycles remains: Parents could not afford college for themselves ' Parents want better for their kids ' Parents struggle daily and sacrifice their home, their livelihood to ensure their child will have the opportunity at a college education ' Casting a dark cloud over the excitement of their child’s graduation - Four years in a state school and one bachelors degree later ' Parents are faced with a $500 a month student loan payment ' Their son will begin paying on his portion of the loan next month.
The pleasures in being a working middle class family in today’s society. Parents who in the course of hard work and determination established careers with little to no higher education, providing and making the ends meet. Nevertheless, no tuition grants or federal aid for their hopeful first generation college student. “Son, we make too much money for you to qualify for grants. I know who would think a daily struggle is equivalent to making too much money. It is simply loans for us, and I'm not sure we can afford the $568 a month payment. I guess we will manage like we always have. I sure didn't foresee this worry and grief when I just wanted better for you.'
His son, an elementary school teacher in a low-socioeconomic urban school district has hopes that each and every child in his classroom will have the opportunity to pursue higher education. Thoughts of his monthly struggle on a state teacher’s salary to make ends meet and pay back his student loans, escape him every time he walks into the classroom full of young minds craving to learn.
The children we raise and educate today are the minds that will drive our society into the 21-century. Must you realize you are sacrificing the well-being our nation and placing the future of our society in jeopardy to only have history repeat itself. Senators, congressmen, lawyers and lobbyists almost certainly would not have had the opportunity to be where they are now without the support and devotion of their underpaid and overworked school teachers. Everyday leaders such as school teachers and their hard working families do not deserve the crippling burden of outrageous monthly student loan payments when the end goal is to simply further their education in order to influence and guide the society that will lead our nation’s future.
If educators take a primary role in being the driving force behind a society of accountable well-informed people; I can only help to wonder if serving in our nation’s military can pay back student loans, why can’t serving in our nation’s classrooms pay back student loans.
© 2010 April Michelle
poem by April Michelle
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Gradation of The Institutions
Does the teacher want the child to learn?
It is the kindergarten.
Does the teacher expect it to learn?
It is the school.
Does the teacher suppose it learns?
It is the college
Is the teacher indifferent to its learning?
It is the university.
Is the institution not bothered at all?
It is the distance education.
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Hard Times (from Michigan)
In these hard times
Of unreported unemployed voices
Of ignored college graduates
Of desperate youth
As well as desperate old
In these times
Education is overlooked
Pale profit wins over ethics
Our youth gets pushed further
Further away from their hard earned achievements
Further away from their intricate dreams
In these times
Fresh bread is left behind to turn into mold
Experience overtakes knowledge
Education becomes a burden
The educated are the punished
When they should be awarded
Education is no longer counted as experience
Our interactions with one another
Is no longer experience
They become experience (in the eyes of employers) by the documentation of a paycheck
To be qualified
We must be paid to interact with each other
We must be paid to use our knowledge
We must be paid to develop our skills
When in reality
We pay for our education ourselves
And in our education in which we pay
We interact and learn from others without demanding to be paid
In the eyes of the employer
Education is not experience
Eight years of college and achieving a P.H.D.
Is no longer experience
What employers don't realize is...
Education is a full-time job
A full time job that we do not get paid for
Education doesn't employ us
We employ education for ourselves
Yet...education is still not experience
When will they open their eyes and enlighten their minds?
Education should never have to come last
But should always come first
No wonder we are behind
poem by Diana Poems
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Up! Education
Education is important
Right from when an infant
Education is not about college
It entails a wider range of knowledge
Supplying a market of skills shortage
Education is great
It creates and decides upon ones fate
Never leave it too late
Education makes it a priority
To provide you with opportunities
So I say
OK! Up! Education
Feed the Nations
Up! Education
Education is in abundance
A constituent of importance
As we humans advance
It offers us life’s insurance
Education is the key to set you free
From joblessness condemnation
Education is the key to flee
From endless financial frustration
Education provides you with ammunition
To tackle any country, state or nation
Education gives you immunisation
Against surviving global frustration
Education relieves you
From absurd ignorance
Education exempts you and me
From parental allowance
For most adults
It is usually a concerning disturbance
So I say
OK! Up! Education
Feed the Nations
Up! Education
I take my time to stress once more
It is the path to successes door
Education is a treasure
One cannot significantly measure
By only your life’s attended lectures
Education is power
Your immediate answer
To questions that remain unanswered
Education is for all
Embrace it or fall
Education provides options
And sets the motion
In life for you to function
So I say
OK! Up! Education
Feed the Nations
Up! Education
Education is the name of the game
poem by Sylvia Chidi
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They were often the first students in their family to go to college and the very idea of higher education was still foreign to them. They had to make a conscious and often difficult decision to come to college.
quote by Michael N. Castle
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The Committee supports the idea that there should be, within the University of California, a campus which puts particular emphasis on the education of undergraduates within the framework of a College system.
quote by Abraham Robinson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Education Celebration
(An 'Education Week' Rap)
Education, education;
There's nothing quite like education!
It gives you hope and lets you cope
And offers great remuneration.
Education, education;
The path to many a great vacation;
A fancy car and caviar;
A life of fun and relaxation.
Education, education;
Provides a firm and strong foundation
For better lives improved by drive,
By effort and by motivation.
Education, education;
Sing aloud in exultation!
And when you pass that final class
We'll shake your hand in admiration.
Education, education;
Requires a lot of perspiration.
You can bet - a lot of sweat,
And just a pinch of inspiration.
Education, education;
Let's all sing in jubilation!
For, those who strive and have the drive
May someday own a 'corporation'!
This is a value-added college education if I have heard one described. And what is the most remarkable about Delaware State University graduates - is they just keeping giving back.
quote by Michael N. Castle
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Stay In School
Stay in school, don't be a fool
A dropout gets left out
A dropout gets pushed out
Show me your name, what does it mean
Show me your ring, you're in the scene
Without an education there is no beginning
With education you are winning
Stay in school, student maintain your cool
It's so hard to get a job now days
Without education just be on your way
Show me your car, what does it prove?
Show me youe diploma, you're in the groove
You don't have to be smart to finish school
But you are a square if you are not there
Dropout, you can start back
Students that are in school
You are on the right track
You can stand around the corner
Watching the school bus go by
You know deep down inside you want to cry
It is good to stop drinking
It is good to stop smoking
When you are thinking about stopping your education
My friend you better start thinking
poem by Leon Thomas Lee
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Education A Lost Cause
Education A Lost Cause
By Lori Triggs
Copyrighted Feb.2010
Education was importion at one time,
now it is on the back burner not importation.
In the U.S.A. we ranked number one in education,
now in the U.S.A. we rank 13th in education.
Americans cannot even comprehend English language
besides math or science even sex education.
Americans talk with text or iming words thinking that the English language
when Americans today are alliterate cannot read or write even do math.
Our states even government wants to take away
12th grade from high school what's next?
11TH grade than no high school suppose to be going forward not backwards.
So we need to fix education and our government,
because education comes first and the fat cats like the senators,
and the congressman come last no more free rides plus free dinners.
We need to rank number one in education again!
poem by Lori Triggs
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The Perfect school
THE PERFECT SCHOOL
A place where a student worships his teacher as a god,
The heads of the children before their teacher nod.
The place is the school where teachers give education,
It’s a school where there is afforestation.
A school that has all the beauties,
Is a perfect school whose students have all the qualities.
A school whose students will become president and magic vista,
A school whose students will become Rabindranath Tagore and Mother Teresa.
The Perfect School is a school whose trees will always be uploaded with fruits of joy, success and happiness,
A school whose students will never have a future of darkness.
That school will conquer the world,
In that school, music will be sung by birds.
CONTRIBUTED BY:
Gautam Kumar Sharma
poem by Gautam Sharma
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Bleeds Through: Bringer of Modern Clarity
What has the world come to today?
Gas is four dollars a gallon
Inflation is on the increase
Housing markets down
The war continues
And teachers are suffering job loss!
In grade school,
I thought my teachers were evil
They slept inside coffins in the schools basement
Only to rise when they heard my name called
It was a hell for me
When I turned sixteen
I realized how hard it was to be a teacher
With several students under them, three-hundred or more
Makes you wonder why governments are making it harder for them
The classes I suffered through in college taught me the skills I needed
I learned how to apply them later while observing
I admit, I wasn't perfect my first year of teaching
But I learned quick
Why ruin education?
Harder classes for students and less teachers to help
Sure make the classes harder, challenge the students!
Why challenge the teachers?
Twenty-five was my size of classes all my years of learning
Thirty plus is too much to handle effectively
To watch the progress of each through grades in elementary school is unrealistic
It conflicts with my psychology courses with watching only grades
A dying profession the teacher is
Optimism is my muse and savior
To teach the future leaders and core of the worlds work force
Is the only thing keeping me going
Thank you my students
'Good morning class, lets turn to page twenty-four in our math books! '
March 14,2012
poem by Ryan Collins
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Right to education
Right to education
Free and compulsory
Education to all
Free and compulsory
Education through mother tongue
Right to education
Education to maintain
Peace and harmony
Education to keep
The world order
And discipline
Right to education
Education to earn
For livelihood
Education to provide
Food clothing and shelter
Without depending others
Right to education
Free and compulsory
To educate all
That we all are
Brothers and sisters
poem by Gajanan Mishra
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Education
In a deep dark jungle long time ago
Lived a lonesome caveman
He was a solitary soul
And he spent his playtime
Chewing meat from bones.
He didnt know how to talk much
He only knew how to groan
Then he lifted up his hands and reached to the sky
Let out a yell and no one replied.
Frustration and torment tore him inside
Then he fell to the ground and he cried and he cried.
But then education saved the day.
He learned to speak and communicate
Education saved the day.
He thanked God for the friends he made.
cos everybody needs an education
Everybody needs an education.
Black skin, red skin, yellow or white,
Everybody needs to read and write
Everybody needs an education.
Thank the day when that primitive man
Learned to talk with his brothers
And live off the land.
He left his cave and he moved far away
And he lived with his friends in a house that theyd made
He learned to think and to work with his brain
And he astounded his friends with all the knowledge he gained
He wrote it down on a rock that he found
And he showed all his friends and they passed it around
And then education came that day.
The day it came was a sacred day.
Education came that day
He thanked God for the friends hed made.
Well man built a boat and he learned how to sail
And he travelled far and wide
Then he looked up above saw the stars in the sky
So he learned how to fly.
Thanks to all the mathematicians
And the inventors with their high i.q.s
And the professors in their colleges
Trying to feed me knowledge
That I know Ill never use.
Thank you sir for the millions of words
That youve handed me down and youve told me to learn
But Ive got words in my ears and my eyes
Ive got so many facts that I must memorize
Because educations doing me in
I want to stop but my heads in a swim
Education drives me insane
I cant recall all the facts on my brain.
Education came that day
The day it came was a sacred day
Education saved the day
He thanked God for all the friends he made.
Teacher, teach me how to read and write,
You can teach me about biology,
But you cant tell me what I am living for
cos thats still a mystery.
Teacher, teach me about nuclear physics
And teach me about the structure of man,
But all your endless calculations
Cant tell me why I am.
No you cant tell me why I am,
No you cant tell me why I am.
Everybody needs education,
Open universities, education.
Every race every creed, education.
And every little half-breed, education.
Every nationality, education.
All the little people need education.
Eskimos and pygmies need
And even aborigines, education.
Well physics and geography, education.
Philosophy and history, education.
Science and biology, education,
Geometry and poetry, education.
Well, education, education, education, education
(repeat education till end)
song performed by by Kinks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Academics often discount the value of top-rated sports programs in helping to develop a campus life and in contributing to the overall success of a college or university. Like it or not, the sports programs a college or university has are the front page of that university.
quote by James E. Rogers
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Quality education amidst Nobility Grateful...
Well knitted tie and silvery college uniform
Hair, socks, shoes but not perfumes
Oozing lowly smile depict innocence fragrance
Yes, sir madam we Peessa school children...
Fathers Mothers brothers and teachers of their own
Village school children with their agro-production
Accumulated love for teacher mother feeder plantation
Shed no tear but exhibited nobility of power education...
Rich or poor nor we bother
Since we too students of corner Uva
Learnt we much more to adopt that caliber
Never we ignore you teacher it's such a plaintive for your mother...
So sorrowful yes we pray sure she may attain Nibbana…..
Plot: The students of a remote rural school Peessa Lunugala Passara Education Zone children's honor of gratitude for their teachr's mother's funeral late Mrs.E.V.Yougawarnalatha, Galgodahenakumbura Pelgahatenna Passara Srilanka on 19th September 2012.
poem by Sisirachandra Vaduge
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The College Access and Opportunity Act addresses the important need to make higher education more affordable and easier to access for low and middle-income students.
She stole my life
Why do you do this?
You take our pride and leave?
Just like that?
You want too leave us like this?
Pay for your college and leave us like this?
I sold my house for you!
For your special dorm.
FOR YOUR SPECIAL DORM.
I spent my money and my life for your education.
What is college? is it about education or relaxation and tanning for you?
I feel like a idiot
thanks a lot
poem by Aron Statler
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No one should be denied the opportunity to get an education and increase their earning potential based solely on their inability to pay for a college education.
quote by Bobby Scott
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