This afternoon, when were discussing the roles of class and gender in education and in life in general, I was surprised to notice that, when discussing class issues, I become extremely tense.  This was shocking to me because I normally have no problem discussing class in the US, and even tend to welcome discussion of it.  I thought about this a lot on the way home today, and over the course of my evening.  

Hi

I am Ngoc Nguyen. My English name is Nancy. I was born and grew up in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. Before coming to the US, I studied IB in New Zealand for two years. I intended to major in Economics and minor in Educational studies. My dream is making education reform or creating a school on my own. Besides these two subjects, I am also interested in

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?

After leaving today's class, I realized that education is not just what is written by scholars in published work or what teachers or professors teach you in class. It is much more than these two things put together. Education is also the experiences that we learn and grow from day to day. It comes from the people we meet, people we know, and people we see.