Editor’s Note: Nakiya Worship is a senior at Gentry High School in Indianola, and she has something to say about education in her community.
Worship was recently named the winner of the Young Black Successors Essay Contest.
The daughter of Angela Worship, she not only received an IPad Mini Fourth Edition for her work, but she also won the opportunity to have her essay published in The Enterprise-Tocsin as part of the contest.
Worship plans to attend Tougaloo College and major in English.
“I realized if you can change a classroom, you can change a community, and if you can change enough communities you can change the world.” -Erin Gruwell.
This quote is of paramount importance when mentioning the issues within the community of Indianola, Mississippi. There is a numerous amount of problems that are capable of being addressed as key issues in the community in which we live.
Notably mentioning the obvious, one of the leading issues is the significant matter regarding education. I feel a student receiving their education in this community is not held to the high expectations on which the students are capable of performing. The expectancy level of education is tremendously below what the students should actually be encouraged to achieve.
The youth of the community are the future of the world.
There must be extortionate standards that the future of the world is expected to achieve. Students are only given what will help them achieve their desired success within their surroundings.
However, the world has so much more to offer and the world withholds far more problems than our everyday lives.
Career readiness is a part of schools’ guidelines when pertaining to what the students are being prepared for when attending school. However, when viewing what the students are actually taught compared to what is considered as succeeding within the school guidelines wholeheartedly contradicts what the students are expected to complete.
The bar is placed ridiculously low for the betterment of students. There are certain students who only perform enough to get the satisfaction of simply being promoted to the next grade. If you want someone to possess goals then they must be presented with a challenge.
Giving students something to work hard for creates future hard workers to be the human capital of the community. Education partners with determination. Both are important to thrive and flourish in a community and both are assets that should be accessible within an individual.
On a more positive note, there is room for change.
As the future of the world, the classroom is the very first environment in which students can exhibit their skills.
Both the education department and parents have to work to improve the efficiency of the classrooms to ameliorate the standards before the students. The steps that can be taken towards the enhancement of students are simple, yet influential.
To start, the students must be made aware that the performance level is below average. The students have to possess the desire to achieve the goals placed in front of them.
There must be certain guidelines set in place designed to focus on improvement.
The guidelines must include clear and accurate improvements and the educators in authority must fully implement the attempts and expose the students to what they are required to do to grow intellectually. Parents must also be involved in the steps taken to better their children.
Our community is the most important factor students represent. This community could be superior with education holding the place of number one priority.
