Thoughts on Educational Access

This week, I chose to focus my writing on something our class hasn't really discussed. Throughout the semester, we've been talking about types of access that are imposed on us. Our income level, the class we're born in to, the community and culture we're a part of....these are generally aspects of access that have been imposed on us, or things we don't have full control over.

My thesis revolves around psychological attitudes and how they precede educational access barriers such as class or income. Essentially, I argued that the first step towards gaining access to education is having the desire and curiosity to learn.Without being psychologically openminded towards learning, the level of access one has is irrelevant.

I'm still wondering to myself about the development of my argument, and for this reason, this week's paper was particularly difficult for me to write and reflect on.  

Here is an excerpt:

In seminar, the psyche as a means to access has been largely ignored in favor of the material indicators of access such as the quality of schools we've attended. However, the psyche is just as important, if not more important, than the material factors of educational access we've discussed. Having a predisposed curiosity and ambition to learn transcends material factors of education. It is the initial and essential step towards obtaining an education; and it precedes any sort of material access. For example, a person with intrinsic curiosity and motivation allows themselves access regardless of their class or socioeconomic status. Conversely, a person with a wealth of material access but no curiosity, ambition, or desire to learn bars themselves of access even if they have the material means, such as a steady income, to obtain it. Thus, it is evident that external factors, either favorable or unfavorable, make no difference to an individual's access to education unless that individual has a predisposed intrinsic motivation and ambition to learn.