When looking back on my educational experience I would have usually complained about how my high school was full of snobby individuals and I was so ready to get out of high school and move onto college. I wanted to get out of Centerville where I had spent my entire schooling career from kindergarten to graduation. I had heard over and over again from my parents and others that people just move into the district for the schools. We had never had a levy fail until my senior year and we had top performing students in academics and athletics. Yet, I still had no true understanding of how lucky I was to have an education like I did. I came to Cincinnati and was completely blindsided by the different dynamic with schools down here verses where I grew up just 50 miles away. Needless to say, I took my education for granted and unfortunately I know I am not the only one. Prior to taking this course I had a feeling that I would harbor some sort of guilt given the opportunities I obtained because my parents wanted better for me. A large majority of my journey throughout this seminar coupled with my “Beyond I.Q.” seminar have both brought me to a place of better understanding not only on the issues at hand but what my personal responsibility is regarding these issues.

“Some researchers contend that as much as 50% of the achievement gap can be accounted for by gaps in experiences and conditions affecting children prior to entering school” (Zom 2010). To attest to this, I can vividly remember my educational journey starting before I even stepped onto the school bus when I was 5 heading off to my first day of kindergarten. I was placed into daycare when I was 8 weeks old because both of my parents worked. It was there where I interacted with others my age by playing on the playground, swimming in our daycare’s pool, coloring, and working on different projects. Little did I know that my daycare was actually a certified preschool too! We had class time every day before and after lunch. It was at daycare where I started to learn how to read with Hooked-On-Phonics and I began to learn French. Before I went off to school I was already learning different life skills that made it easier for me to adapt later in life. My mother always claimed that I didn’t want to spend time with her at home. I wanted to spend time with my friends and that is why she sent me to daycare. After my day was finished at daycare I would head off to gymnastics, dance class, religion class, or to my babysitter’s house for a day of fun. I was always doing something when I was younger. I never stopped. According to Larue, “The middle-class families she observed followed a strategy that she labeled ‘concerted cultivation.’ The parents in these families considered a child’s development to be a parent’s responsibility, and so they planned and scheduled countless activities to enhance that development – piano lessons, soccer games, trips to the museum. They engaged their children in conservations as equals, treating them like apprentice adults, and encouraged them to ask questions and challenge assumptions and negotiate rules. They taught them how to navigate institutions and get what they needed from professionals like doctors and teachers.” (Tough 2009). My parents perfectly embodied this strategy of concerted cultivation. It was at daycare where I learned the most in the beginning of my life and my parents simply enforced the lesson plans at home. If I didn’t feel well I had to tell someone, I had to learn to wait in line, if I got in trouble I had to speak up for myself. Independence became a key factor in the beginning of my educational career. I was able to better adapt to a classroom when I was finally in one because I had already been exposed to similar situations before.


Something I found very interesting that came up in one of our articles was how parents spoke to their children at a young age and how the amount of vocabulary usage already had an impact. It was not only the amount of words that were spoken between lower and middle class that made a difference but the distribution of positive and negative messages to the children. “What’s more, the kind of words and statements that children heard varied by class. The most basic difference was in the number of ‘discouragements’ a child heard – prohibitions and words of disapproval – compared to the number of encouragements, or words of praise and approval. By age three, the average professional child would hear about 500,000 encouragements and 80,000 discouragements. For the welfare children, the ratio was reversed they would hear, on average, about 80,000 encouragements and 200,000 discouragements” (Tough 2009). Looking back, I really don’t remember anything traumatizing which makes me think that I was rarely told negative messages besides disciplinarily ones. It scares me how much children really don’t have control over when it comes to learning. I am noticing that I was already being molded into the person I am today without my knowledge.

I think that I have already proved to myself and I am sure others agree that students are already set onto a different playing field before we even enter a school building. I found the first article that we read, “The Achievement Gap” to set the standard for how to judge the educational inequality best when stating, “However, it is clear that when it comes to academics, low income and some racial groups of students need more support than their peers. Does this mean that schools are responsible for gaps in achievement? While causes are elusive, differences in both school and non-school conditions and experiences have been found to correlate with the gaps that are evident in achievement” (Zom 2010). It is with those two simple questions where I truly begin my journey into the Centerville School District. I entered Dr. John Hole Elementary School. There were 5 other elementary schools in the district at the time and 1 private catholic school. I entered the 1st grade in a very unique way. I was placed in an experimental class where we had both 1st and 2nd graders in the classroom. As far as I know, this was done completely at random and we weren’t tracked…yet. I continued through my elementary schooling with nothing truly special happening. I was placed in the normal math class and always scored slightly above average on the proficiency tests but nothing that set me truly apart from the other students.

I can remember my parents telling me about my sister’s 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Campbell. She tried to get into the Centerville School District for 5 years before being offered a position. She said that it was a top priority to try to get into the district because it is so well supported by the community and the schools are very good along with well-behaved students. Maybe the students were well-behaved not only because our parents were heavily involved in our academics but because our teachers not only looked like us, but acted like our parents. A majority of my fellow classmates had parents that attended college and over 90% of our student body population was white. This idea never came to my mind until I read this statement in one of our articles, “It is also challenging to consider the cultural understanding that educators and youth workers need in order to identify the strengths and needs of children from the many backgrounds and economic situations that are represented in many of the schools in our area. For example, Galindo and Fuller (2010) point out challenges to teaching young Hispanic or Latino children from different Latino backgrounds” (Zom 2010). I could only imagine trying to learn from someone who I couldn’t identify with. This was an observation that I made in one of my earlier reflections after visiting Hughes High School. The race of the faculty seemed to parallel the demographic of the student body. They were all primarily African American. I think that this factor subconsciously has an effect on our ability to not only learn but to relate and trust our teachers throughout our educational endeavors, especially at a very young age.

Unfortunately, I don’t really remember much of middle school which is really sad. I just remember my teachers not really caring and this was the point when math placement became brutally apparent. You knew if you were below average, average, or above average…and everyone else knew too. It was in middle school where I notice I started to get more complacent about my grades and what I thought about school. I never had to really try to get good grades. I was an A/B student. I was normal.

Once I went to high school I was slapped in the face with reality. I could not just skate by without trying to get good grades. I ended my first semester of high school with a 2.6 GPA. I am embarrassed to say that my GPA was that low but I didn’t care. According to the Choosing Colleges article, “having college plans at least by the tenth grade, attending a college-focused high school, having parents who expect their children to go to college, and having assistance in negotiating an adequate financial aid package are the key determinants to college attendance and choice” (McDonough 1997). I would have to agree whole heartily to this statement because it was in the 10th grade where I applied to be in one of our professional block programs at my high school. I got in to the Business Administration Management block class where we would focus on business related classes and earn college credit for doing so. I would be in this class for my junior and senior year and I have to say that this was the turning point of my high school career. I entered my junior year of high school with a better understanding of what I had to do to go to college and ended my first semester my junior year with a 3.8 GPA. Although this did have an impact on my cumulative GPA it was very little. The damage had already been done. This was a very important lesson that I learned prior to heading off to college…every grade counts!

But, I couldn’t have done any of this unless something had made me want to change. “Why does almost everyone seem to have a story about how one special teacher got through to them, changed them and reshaped their life forever” (Weber 2010)? Mrs. Yokajty was the teacher that forever changed my outlook on academics. She made learning fun and was always in our corner cheering all of us on. She would come to our games and events. She introduced me to Business Professional of America where I truly found my passion for making others a priority. It was with her tremendous support I managed to become Region 3 Vice-President, an Ohio Association State Officer, and the first student from my school to be elected as a National Officer for the Secondary Division of Business Professionals of America where I represented over 54,000 students, and I did this all before I even reached my senior year of high school. I don’t know if I would love learning as much as I do if it hadn’t been for Mrs. Yokajty. I think that helped me get back on the right track and not become a casualty of the educational system.

Choosing a college wasn’t a huge deal for me. I always knew I would be going to college and that it most likely would be in state because it was cheaper. It wasn’t until at the end of my junior year where Mrs. Yokajty had our entire class research a college and then we had to present our findings. I ran across the University of Cincinnati because when I cheered for varsity football we played Moeller at Nippert Stadium and I really liked the campus. The more and more I looked into the university and had a better understanding of what I was getting myself into I was elated at the prospect that I was actually going to be going to a university. I couldn’t believe that I was looking at colleges! I always knew I would go to college. It was a non-negotiable. I visited the campus again and was in love. I knew this was where I belonged. Before I could even think about applying to college I had to first take the ACT. I was never a good test taker and this test just proved that. After finally getting my scores, which were nothing special, I applied to UC and crossed my fingers. If I got in I wasn’t going to apply anywhere else. Then, in November I received my acceptance letter in the mail. I managed to bypass all of the paranoia of picking a school or finding out in April if I had gotten in or not. I was beyond excited to get in.

After finally getting here I changed all of my study habits and had something to prove to myself and everyone else. I wanted to prove that I could get good grades and live up to my potential. I received my first grade report from OneStop and I received a 4.0. I did it! My grades opened up so many new doors for me. I was accepted into multiple honor societies, I received an invitation to apply to the Honors Program, and became an advocate for students that didn’t do well in high school that you truly do have a new start in college. Being on the other side of academics with being average to finally being in the top percentage at the university is night and day. I am now a role model on campus to incoming freshman as both a Peer Leader and a Resident Advisor. Life is so much easier being on the top academically. We get priority scheduling, an opportunity to take seminars that truly gages our interest, and we are able to make UC a little bit smaller because there are only so many of us. I feel more like a college student because I am in the Honors Program because this is what I wanted my college experience to be. I wanted to be excited to learn.

The other seminar I took this quarter was the “Beyond I.Q.” course where we studied the emotional intelligence of ourselves and attempted to teach a 2nd grade class at Carson Elementary School how to recognize and regulate their emotions us the “Ruler Approach”. We read The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success to guide us through the process. Although the “Achievement Gap” and “Beyond I.Q.” seminars focused on two completely different approaches to schooling I was able to draw a very interesting parallel. During our readings for the “Achievement Gap” I stumbled across this statement, “Although the SAT and ACT are not considered to be IQ tests, students with high SAT scores are routinely presumed to be ‘bright’ and encouraged to consider the most selective colleges – sometimes with no regard to their academic performance in high school” (Syverson 2007). Our society is so focused on what your ACT or SAT score was and I have been around adults that still talk about their scores to this day! I didn’t do amazing on the ACT but I did well enough to get me into UC which is all that really mattered to me. But, while reading my book for my “Beyond I.Q.” seminar I found something very interesting. The authors stated, “In the book The Millionaire Mind by best-selling author Thomas Stanley, a survey was taken of 733 multi-millionaires throughout the United States. When asked to rate the factors (out of 30) most responsible for their success, the top five were: Being honest with all people, being well disciplined, getting along with people, having a supportive spouse, and working harder than most people. All five are reflections of emotional intelligence. Cognitive intelligence, or IQ, was 21st on the list and only endorsed by 20% of the millionaires” (Stein 2011). He then continued, “SAT scores, highly related to IQ, were on average 1190, higher than the norm, but not high enough for acceptance to a top-rated college” (Stein 2011). I found it so interesting that a high score on a test does not guarantee success and now I had proof that this was true. If I could have it my way we would implement more emotional intelligence based learning to our students. I think that if given a chance, it could truly help the current educational inequality we are faced with in our schools today.

Looking back and reminiscing on my educational experiences I realize how important our younger years are and how crucial they are to our success as adults. We are heavily influenced and often times don’t even notice it. While reading a majority of the articles during the duration of this course I found myself opening my eyes to the true issues at hand regarding education. I found it to be absolutely alarming and disheartening. I am truly blessed that I had a supportive system that had an understanding how to navigate me to college. I now understand that a lot do not have this. I have become more humbled throughout this entire process. Growing up my parents always made it a top priority to teach us to give back and I think it is now my turn to try to give back to the students who need it the most. I don’t have to harbor guilt for receiving a quality education but it was I choose to do with the education I have received that matters the most.

Reference List
McDonough, P.M. (1997). Choosing colleges: How social class and schools structure opportunity. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Stein, S. J., & Book, H. E. (2011). The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success (3rd ed.). Ontario, Canada: John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. . (Original work published 2000)
Syverson, S. (2007). The role of standardized tests in college admissions: Test-optional admissions. New Directions for Students Services, 118,55-70.
Tough, P. (2009) Whatever it takes: Geoffrey Canada’s question to change Harlem and America. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Weber, K. (2010). Waiting for “Superman”: How we can save America’s failing public schools, (Ed.). New York, NY: Public Affairs.
Zom, D., Ludwig, K., & van den Hoogenhof, S. (2010, November). The achievement gap in greater Cincinnati. Cincinnati, OH: University of Cincinnati.