Rae Hamilton's blog

I struggled greatly with this paper. The prompt was too board for me and I feel like my paper didn't have substance. I tried to focus on how access and education were connected--stemming off from the idea that experience and thought were connected. I tried to explain that education is useless without access and that it is society's job to ensure that everyone is getting an equal access to education. I am not entirely a sure that I got that sentiment across. Its hard to talk about education and access when the definition is so relative. I cant truly express about education, because I have a personal definition of it that applies, I feel, only to me. I wonder if anyone else is struggling with this and it also makes me wonder about how much emphasis there are on definitions.

Attached is my map

Happy Reading

Rae

After discussing in class and rereading my educational story, I feel as if I have definitely omitted some parts I could have otherwise added. I didn’t talk about race in my story although it was significant. Being the ‘smart’ girl isolated me from all the black kids in my grade. Being smart meant being ‘white’, and thus most of my friends in the later years of high school were indeed white. I don’t understand the correlation to being white and educated. The only difference that I can think of is that white students are pushed more often and more vigorously than blacks or other minorities. Yet, no one pushed me to do well in school, it was a natural reaction that I had.  I think the main reason I didn’t add race was the fact that when I think of my schooling or education, I don’t want to stop and consider the color of my skin. So my big question is: how does ones race affect their schooling?

Hello one in all, following the stream of fellow classmates I will keep this brief. I was born in Boston and raised in a suburb outside of Boston, Somerville. I live with my mom who is originally from England, my two brothers one who is a registered nurse and the other about to start 2nd grade.

I spent my earlier days at catholic school, where at the end of fifth grade the school shut down due to lack of student enrollment. From there, I went to Prospect Hill Academy Charter School. About a train stop away from Harvard University, I spent the rest of my middle school and high school years there. PHA is unique tha t on paper its an urban school with over 70% is black, specifically Haitian, the other percentages are made up of Hispanic and then white. But in reality, PHA is a college-prepatory school dedicated to getting us all to college. And every year about 99% go to college. The 1% going to either the army or community college. 

Education has always been a big thing in my family seeing as my older brother went to medical school and that my mother has been an educator for more than 20 years. 

I hope this was a good introduction!

Rae Hamilton