The Three Boys In The Pact

Leading a meaningful life meant breaking away from the fear of criticism or rejection; conforming to society limits Illgunas’ definition of life. Illgunas’ suburban upbringing makes the danger of social conformity clear to him. Surrendering to society would consequently cause him to completely lose himself. After graduating from high school, Illgunas and his classmates follow the conventional path towards a higher education. Illgunas explains, “My high school class and I moved like a school of fish: we graduates were capable of going off on our own, in whatever direction we chose, but something demanded we all swim as one…” (6-7). Parallel to the claim Illgunas makes, graduates that do not attend college are stigmatized. Society has created a paradigm: after graduating high school, students should attend a traditional four year university, and then enter the “career world.” In Illgunas’ perspective, people in

Michael and his friends accompanied Rameck onto the college campus. Rameck hoped that they'd be inspired to attend, since Michael used to be smart. Michael endured years of bullying and teasing because of his intelligence, and as a result of this, hid his brain behind a facade of new muscles and toughness. His friends, though, were all completely nuisances. All day, Michael and his friends ran across the campus wild, screaming and causing disturbances.

The most important thing to Taulbert was to receive an education, it was his way out of Glen Allan, his ticket to a successful future. Most children at that time did not go past the eighth grade as the colored high school was a drastic round trip of 100 miles. However, Taulbert was determined to graduate. Taulbert received support from not only his family but also from the community to pursue his dreams of graduation. Mrs. Knight, the town’s seamstress who employed Taulbert at her home had always supported his education plan and encouraged him to go to college. He was unsure what he would do after graduation as there was no money, but he was hopeful for a scholarship. Taulbert succeeded and graduated with honors as his class’s valedictorian. Unfortunately, he did not receive a scholarship only athletes did despite his high honors, which was unjust. He knew that Glen Allan could no longer fulfill his dreams, though.

There were many diverse aspects to this book. Most of this book is a recall from either the main character, or one of his students. This book is intended to open people’s eyes to see that in order to change the world we must first change ourselves. Being able to go through this story and see the mistakes, and the good decisions, teachers in Michie’s life have made, has taught me that the best way to teach is through love, justice, cultural empathy and imagination. Some of the points brought up in this book include the positive and negative sides of physical contact with a student, classification/stereotyping, race, gangs, police brutality/lack of justice, and children not being able to escape peer pressure.

As they got closer through the years they realized they had a lot in common. They all came from families with many issues that ranged from drug abuse to AIDS. They had to learn and figure out how to break away from these bad situations and make better lives for themselves. At a young age Sam, George, and Rameck made a pact, after going to an information session about Seton Hall, that they were going to become doctors. They would stray from the bad paths their family members went down and accomplish something no one in their families had ever dreamt of accomplishing. In all, The Pact is a very good example when trying to communicate the importance of education and teaching standards. This is seen by looking at how the men’s teachers and professors understood their families, individual experiences, abilities, and importance of peer

The pact helped Sam, Rameck and George through most of their school lives because all three of them have specific qualities which make them an effective team. Sam has “tireless work ethic” as George put it, and Rameck is the more analytical, questioning and skeptical “the-world-is-rarely-at-your-side” one. George is the optimistic, caring and determined one of the three, and despite the fact that he was without Rameck and George in dental school, he remained positive and housed multiple people when he was struggling most monetarily. The group reminded each other not to stray away from The Pact’s path, even when they were faltering, low in spirits and wanted to cop-out. Although they all dealt with a set of different problems, they had forged

I am aware that there are better and worse high schools out there than Fremont High School. And yet, reading Kozol's account of the terrible conditions that are endured by these students made me feel more aware of the severity of improper or inadequate education that poorly funded schools provide. All of these problems, alongside my awareness of my fortunate years of education, make me wonder, just as Mireya did, as to why, "...[students] who need it so much more get so much less?" (Kozol 648). Interestingly, I have little to comment on Kozol's actual writing style, even though he wrote this account of his. I was just so attached to the characters within that school that I wanted to be able to reach out somehow; Kozol definitely achieved something very touching here.

Analysis of “Boys Left Behind” “ Boys Left Behind” is written by Kevin Hassett describing the situation of what boys are facing in current society. Hassett claims that America’s society worries too much about how females are being treated unfairly and forgets about the struggles of boys. He describes the academic performance of boys and girls, where which, girls outperformed boys at every academic levels.

In the short story “86th Street and the summer of love” written by Colin. C Conway, an important character was mike, who helped convey the message of “doing the right thing”. Mike helped us understand this message through his decision to be brave and stand up against his gang, despite knowing the consequences - he did it because it was right. We are shown the importance of this message and it is very relevant to all readers, including me. Mikes character was perfect in getting this message across.

Self: Trevor McKinney has had a rough childhood and it puts ideas into his head with every reason to believe that life is terrible, wasteful and painful. Trevor’s mother is a recovering alcoholic and his father is an alcoholic who walks in and out of his life whenever he likes. Trevor shows no sign of respect towards his father due to him begin absent through his life and is abusive towards his mother whenever he’s present. Additionally, the only way Trevor can enter school is walking through a metal detector. Not to mention, Trevor’s mother works two jobs to try and support Trevor and herself. On the other hand, Trevor’s social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet encounters the students, explains their assignment and strongly encourages his students

“Jack Will, Charlotte Cody, and Julian Albans.” suggested Mrs. Rivers, a 4th grade teacher at Beecher Prep. Then I called the parents of these three students and they all replied that their child would be happy to show August Pullman around the school. I reminded myself that Mrs. Garcia scheduled my meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Pullman for tomorrow.

In Moorer’s novel, he writes of his initial academic success in middle school turned sour during his first years of high school. He speaks of his

Delois is a 12-year-old, black, female from rural Goldsboro, North Carolina. Her family is low-middle socioeconomic class and lives where the nearest neighbor is out of walking distance. Prior to admission, Delois lived with her father, stepmother, and two younger brothers, ages 9 and 7. Delois’s father works at a local car dealership and her stepmother is a school administrative assistant. Delois is of average intelligence and in the sixth grade; she repeated the fifth grade because of excessive absences from

The boys stood gasping, their eyes on the tall facade that loomed. Where they slept; where they ate. Where they lived -their laughter soaked into the floorboards, echos of jokes and taunts and teasing. Ghosts of them; wrestling in the dorms, sprinting through the halls, bounding up the steps. The imprint of their existence and the existence of generations of boys before them, separated by the times but all essentially the same. Tenants of the fifties still nicked each other's books on the way to classes, boys from the sixties still hurriedly snuffed out their cigarettes when they heard the dean coming, and boys from the seventies still climbed out their windows at night when they needed to escape. All of this encased in cold unyielding stone

I read this book for the summer assignment. Since I’m on summer break, I decided to read books about school and student. At first, I didn’t know why I’ve chosen this book to read. I had other books that were about school and student, but now I know why I chose this book. Justin kept made me think back to my elementary school life. Actually, I enjoyed being a student when I was in Elementary. I loved to go to school rather than summer vacation. Dodgeball was the best sport to do whenever we had PE. Well, now I turned at to be a worrier just like Justin. It’s funny how Justin, in 3th grader has same concerns like me, while I’m now in 9th grade. He worried about his friends placed in the different class with him, friendships, and worried about