I never wanted to be a teacher — and for what I considered good reason. In my mind, the life of a teacher consisted of runny noses, sticky hands, monotonous fire drills and a meager paycheck; the satisfaction of a student’s success could in no way suffice for the work.
Moreover, I never realized the dire need for dedicated teachers. As a child, my dreams were encouraged and education was promoted as the means to obtain any of my adolescent fantasies.
Graduating high school and continuing my education at a university was a not only an expectation, but virtually a guarantee. My hometown, Lexington, Ky., ranks 10th among the Census Bureau’s American Community
Survey’s list of most educated cities, with 39.5 percent of residents having at least a bachelor’s degree.
Data by the 2000 Census Bureau on incomes shows the median income for year-round full-time workers with a bachelor’s degree is $42,877, twice as much as high school dropouts, who on average earn only $21,332.
The ideal that highly educated people will develop better economically abides as a truth. Yet in our society economic success is not dependent solely upon educational merits. One’s socioeconomic status also contributes to educational success rates.
A 2010 study by University of California -Santa Barbara reveals that 60 percent of upper class students complete college, compared to only 7 percent of lower class students — a ratio of more than 8 to 1.
Drive two hours east of Lexington toward Appalachia and slowly the view of mansions, manicured lawns and glamorous horse farms fades, replaced with trailers, Dollar Marts and decrepit strip malls. Poverty in the 49 counties residing in Appalachia is not considered a mere circumstance, but a simple reality.
Of the total U.S. population, only 13.3 percent live in poverty. In Kentucky’s Appalachia Region, 16.1 percent of the total population lives in poverty, earning a median personal income per capita of $15,883. In Owsley County, distinct for having the highest poverty rate in the Mid-Appalachia region, 40.9 percent of the total population lives in poverty.
Only two hours away from one of the most educated cities in the U.S. is a community structure believing the relationship between education and wealth is strictly endogenous — where the youthful strive for a new life most often returns to regression.
A 2004 Appalachian Regional Commission study reported that in 2000 every county in the Kentucky Appalachia Region had a higher percentage of adults, 23.2 percent, with less than a high school diploma than the rest of the U.S. combined, at 19.2 percent.
In the region, higher education is not viewed as the pathway leading to the gates of success, as I was raised to believe. Most high school graduates do not continue their education. The current college attendance are 63.3 percent nationwide, while only 35 to 55 percent of Appalachian high school graduates go directly into post-secondary education.
In Appalachia, and nationwide, higher education and wealth is seen as a perpetual societal pendulum — those with a higher education use it to obtain wealth, those with wealth use it to obtain a higher education — that cannot be disaggregated.
But the pendulum must stop, perceptions must change and the achievement gap must diminish.
As a society, we must begin changing our conversations. Every student deserves the privilege of knowing that graduating college is a viable reality — of knowing that one’s ability to learn does not correlate to one’s economic status.
Kentucky must invest in providing not only the best education to every student, but providing hope and encouragement that we all can achieve our dreams. We must eliminate the acceptance of an impoverished lifestyle. We must end the achievement gap.
I never wanted to be a teacher — but now I truly understand why. The life of a teacher consists of motivating students who have been raised to believe they will not succeed, of inspiring students who have little faith in their own future to strive for greatness; it is the most important job there is — and it is crucial that it is pursued, honored and supported statewide.
Eva McEnrue is a journalism senior and the Kernel’s opinion editor. Email emcenrue@kykernel.com.
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