Passion and privilege

Most people are passionate about something. Having a passion towards something means wanting to do that all the time, but not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to do so. Some can't afford to practice their passion because they are not privileged. With privilege come more opportunities to explore and participate. Being privileged means you face less barriers, and may even be helped and encouraged to follow your dreams. When you are privileged it is likely your passion might be your priority; while the unprivileged may have other things to focus on such as simply surviving or helping others and with that life style there probably isn't time to focus on passion.The difference between a privileged and unprivileged person will depend on many aspects of their life. For example,passions may require money, if you have a good job and time, or your parents make enough to pay for your expenses, you will be able to fulfill your passion. On the other hand if you come from a poor family, you will most likely not receive financial support, in addition you may also have to help with the family's expenses and in many cases work two jobs, leaving you with no free time to engage even in free activities such as hiking. Another example is the education your family has received. That plays a roll when you need guidance. If your parents are college graduates then they might serve as a counselor, who will focus only on you and will have your best interest in mind, but if your family has not had a higher education you will not be able to count on their advice. Being privileged is likely to aid you in following your passion,but it all depends on which angle you view life from. Contrary from that, someone completely unprivileged may feel the desire to fulfill their passion more intensely than someone who is already living a good life. The hunger for success, and to run away from the life they are already living can be the biggest motivation; that is the case to many celebrities who speak about growing up in harsh situations and fighting for their dreams. It does not matter what situation you are in; you can always follow your passions, even though most of the time it is privileged people the ones that will do so.

The problems students face at school are a result of the way they were raised. Everyone wants to be successful, but they don't know the way. We are influenced to think that happiness is the result of the material we gain, but that's not necessarily true, happiness is a choice. We also feel pressure as we compete against the world, we are all individuals and unique, yet we get compared to each other as if we were all the same. This affects most of us since we don't produce the same results. Since we are unique we all have different needs and different priorities, but most of use get influenced into thinking that what we need is not always what we want, or we become so brainwashed we forget to think for ourselves at all. Unless we are able to think for ourselves and do what we love, we become slaves of pressure "Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery." -Wayne Dyer. From the moment we are born this process begins; many of our parents will go out and make sure to buy the "best" baby supplies for us. Most babies will have at least some brand name clothing and shoes. As we grow older we work hard to keep up to those standards. We invest time and money in school, then we get to work forty hours a week, plus the commuting. We do this to live comfortably, to own a house, nice car, and other commodities. There is no doubt we will benefit from this, but who really benefits from it is big companies. We work our whole lives to purchase their products, once we are economically stable we might consider ourselves successful, but imagine how big companies feel; knowing that millions of people are busting their ass just to purchase from them, they are the real winners not us. We literally work to get the richer richer, our boss becomes richer, and same goes for who ever sold us our home, car and other goods.  Sometimes our priorities aren't what is best for us,"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life, Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other peoples thinking. Don't let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice, And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition"-Steve Jobs.It is important to realize that we need to follow our passions and forgot about what will give us more money. Doing what you love every day will bring more joy than any material goods will bring. The fact that our system works this way proves that there is something wrong with it, but we need to be able to outsmart fear and be pioneers. We need to try new methods in order to get different results, and hopefully create a better environment for future generations.

Everyone has dreams, but may become unmotivated to see the results they get, aren't the results they expect. Our schools system measure our intelligence by having us take various tests, and based on those results we obtain our placement in college. We are treated the same, and have our intelligence and knowledge measured in inadequate ways. For example, studies have shown that the SAT's are designed designed for middle class white students; leading to poor results from minorities and lower class students. It will be difficult to come up with a method that is able to measure intelligence since everyone is different, but it is essential. The school system at this moment tries to use the "cookie cutter" effect on us, they try to mold and shape us all the same way, leading to mediocre results. Everyone is unique, therefore they shouldn't be expected to produce the same results as others, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing its stupid"-Unknown. Just like in nature everyone has a different purpose and abilities; this quote explains how a fish cant be expected to climb a tree the way a monkey would, and a monkey cant be expected to swim as a well as a fish. I also believe that the way schools teach can be inadequate because in the majority of cases, teachers will teach the student what to think instead of how to think for themselves. Many classes consist of reading text, memorizing it and then testing on your ability to remember everything, but its hard to remember things that may sometimes seem meaningless. We take classes that are required, but don't understand why it is we need that class. It is in those classes that we learn contents, but forget about them as soon as the test or the semester is over. The strategies used by schools and in schools may seem good, but it is the results of the students that actually shows how good they are, "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results"-Winston Churchill. Learning should be something that comes naturally not something forced, and personally I believe I learn more from interacting with different people everyday and experiencing new situations, than I do by sitting in class listening to a lecture or reading a text book. It is easy to remember something when you feelings are involved. That is why most remember common things that happen in everyday life,more often than they remember what they were asked to memorize in a text book. Nevertheless, this strategy isn't used in schools often, most of our learning is cold, and a lot of the time we don't understand why were supposed to be learning that. We should be taught to come up with concepts of our own, give our opinion, and question, not simply memorize.