Growing Roses in Concrete

It is not unusual for students to fail. Many barriers are are put in they're lives everyday, but it is also known that certain communities deal with this issue more often. It is in communities where there is poverty that this will be more obvious, some students won't have the right role models and motivation. On the other hand some of the students who do want to be successful, may not have time or money to make school they're priority. Schools are supposed to be the place where students find support, but this is false when schools are not taking the time to know the students as individuals. Students are graded on their self actualization, meaning: GPA, test scores, and attendance. But what is not being taken in account are all the other parts of a students life that build the structure fore good self actualization, such as: psychological and safety needs, food, clothing, love, belonging and self esteem. Not only this but in some areas students live in constant danger and extreme violence leading to even bigger issues. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is affecting a large quantity of these students lives, "Urban youth is twice as likely to have PTSD than soldiers coming home from Iraq"-Jeff Andrade. Post traumatic stress disorder is affecting a third of students living under\ these circumstances, causing depression and intervening with their ability to succeed in school and many other aspects of their life. This PTSD is sever, when soldiers leave the battle field their stress is over, but when the environment in which you live in is constantly causing stress, it becomes a lifestyle many can't seem to get away from. The education system is aware of theses issues, yet does not do anything about them. Schools can be the way out of the concrete as they claim to be, but this will only happen when students who have been lucky to succeed help others, "When roses come back to the concrete, they create garden rose gardens"- Jeff Andrade. It is thanks to people like Jeff Duncan Andrade, that students who live under the wrong circumstances are able to succeed. He has proved this by personally helping students throughout the years, and showing his students in comparison to others have been greatly successful and gotten into four year universities. Furthermore, others have proved to be great inspirations, as Maya Angelou was to Tupac Shakur, and Tupac was and continues to be to millions of people. With roses returning, rose gardens can be created, that is a proven fact.