- Sep 5, 2013
- NewsTaco
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- Education, Featured
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By Ray Salazar, NewsTaco
As I enter my 19th year in education, I’m reminded of how much things change and how much they stay the same. About ten years ago, a casual conversation with a student started with me asking, “What are you doing after high school?”
The student, usually male, responded, “Going to the Army.”
“Why do you want to go to the Army?” I’d say.
Students would tell me to get money for college, to serve my country, to travel. Whatever the reason, I’d follow up by asking, “How else can you do that?”
I realized then and recognize now that many Latino students on the Southwest side of Chicago, and all over our city, make decisions based on a limited number of familiar options. Many of my students over the years also said, “I wanna be a cop.”
What I understand is that students really want a career with authority, with power.
Over the years, I’ve helped a few students with the challenging application for the Golden Apple Scholars Program, which provides strong financial and professional support in exchange for a five-year commitment to teach in a low-income Illinois school. At least three of my students earned the scholarship. Today, though, fewer and fewer students want to be teachers. I’m glad.
On Chicago Public Radio today, Odette Yousef thoughtfully reported on the decreasing number of minority candidates
