Digital Voices

“Without Education, You Aren’t Going Anywhere”

I believe in the importance of education.

I have never heard anyone say: “I love waking up at six in the morning just to sit in class for eight hours, come home with two hours of homework, and have to do it all over again for five days a week. I just can’t get enough of it!”

No one thinks that. No one wants to come to school before the sun comes up every morning but it is important that you go. If you do not go, one, you will be breaking the law, and two, you will not have much of a future.

In most of my classes, there are always a couple of students who when the teacher asks them to do something, they moan and groan about doing it. And that really irritates me. Call me a “nerd” but I think you should just get the work done and not complain. You will have to do the work eventually. And I think if you keep putting the work off, you are only hurting yourself. The more work you set aside for later, the more work you will have to do. And the more work you have, the harder it is to catch up. And the students, who can’t seem to catch up, end up dropping out.

I am legally old enough to drop out of school, but the thought never crossed my mind. Even on those mornings where I have to literally drag myself out of bed, I have never thought of quitting school. I have done my research and found that with all of the new technology, companies are not only requiring not only a high school diploma, but a college degree to get the job. And if companies are looking to employ college graduates, then they certainly would not accept high school drop outs.

According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the average high school drop out makes 65 percent less than someone who has received their high school diploma. That statistic alone tells me that without at least a high school diploma, you might as well get used to saying: “Would you like fries with that?” for the rest of your life.

And that is not what I hope for in my future. I want to successfully graduate high school, go to college to study music education, and become a band director. And with only two or three music education programs at the high school, it is so hard to sit through classes, like geometry, when it has nothing to do with my future career. But if I want to pass high school, I have to survive classes like that. And it’s not just me. Everyone has to survive school, no matter how difficult it may get.

So the next time you are faced with a tough math problem or stuck studying for a test, remember to not give up because your future lies in your education.

education_samantha.mp3

“This I Believe” response

I’m beginning to understand podcasting now. I already knew a couple things about podcasting but now I feel like I’m learning more. I noticed that the speech I was listening to sounded like one of the mp3s I normally listen to on my iPod. The sound was clear and it didn’t even sound like someone recorded it through a microphone; it sounded like the speaker was in front of me speaking.
The essays I listened to were “Music Makes Me Come Alive” by Joan Tower and “Failure is a Good Thing” by Jon Carroll. I selected Joan Tower’s piece because I’m very interested in music. And I chose Jon Carroll’s piece because the title caught my attention. You rarely hear “failure is a good thing,” so with that interesting title, I decided I would read it. Both essays were very well written. I think Joan’s essay reflected on how most people feel about music. Like how it nourishes your inner soul and how you can relate yourself to other people you don’t even know through music. And I think Jon’s essay could really teach people a lesson. That failure isn’t as bad as people make it seem, you can actually learn from it.
The introduction of Joan’s speech talked about the importance of music in the world and the speech just continued on from there. It was a great way to begin an informative speech. And the introduction of Jon’s speech had his own personal story. He talked about his granddaughter starting kindergarten and how he hoped she would strive for failure, which to me, sounded odd. But it definitely caught my attention.