Intellectual Awakening for Poor Kids

People’s academic abilities vary, and this is the key reason why classroom educators should find a way to inspire their students creatively to ensure that they achieve the best in life. Higher education is seen by many as a way to unleash the potential for future socioeconomic advancement, due to teachers who prioritize career economic gains rather than enthusiasm. Intellectual awakening is a vital part of education in the sense that it informs students of the value of receiving educational titles regardless of their desire for work rather than how much they can receive. It is critical for educators to ensure they do not negatively interfere with the intellectual status of poor kids because they are the most affected considering their economic status.

The Significance of Intellectual Awakening

Simmons Andrew, the author of an article talking about intellectual awakening for poor kids, does neuroimaging. He outlines in his findings that poor children at school are disadvantaged when an instructor tells them that only good grades at high school or college can get them a good job. He specifically wrote his article with the intention of reaching out to the educators in schools so that they can realize the significance of labor students put in their studies. Simmons elaborates that it is crucial to acknowledge the efforts of a student so that those from low-income families will not be distracted by the notion that academic degrees are the key to social mobility.

Negatively interfering with the intellectual curiosity of a poor kid entails that an educator tells them that they have to acquire an academic degree for them to eliminate their poverty (Simmons, Para 5). When teachers overemphasize on the importance of academic credentials as being on only for economic status, the other critical issue like intellectual passion is forgotten. This is evident in a scenario where a kid wants to study a particular course just because they have an idea of how much a qualified person in that field earns. This leads to children handling course work that they do not even understand.

Intellectual curiosity is important in shaping the life of a kid. Educators need to know that this kind of interest sustains a student even for their entire life. This is because once a student does something that they have developed passion in they get to understand with a lot of ease since they are willing to learn. For a poor kid, intellectual curiosity can make them stay focused for long periods during their studies unlike considering only the financial point of view of pursuing careers. This enables an individual to do what they want to do in their future life, as opposed to only doing what they are capable of doing, (Simmons, Para 11).

Instructors should consider advising kids to dwell on awakening their intellectual beings because thinking in the direction of social and economic mobility as the results of an academic degree is living in a world of fantasies. A kid who is told to pursue medicine because it is a career with a lot of economic returns may start thinking of a fancy lifestyle when they have not even worked towards achieving that kind of life. Intellectual awakening, on the other hand, helps a student focus on their passion and this yields a long-term sustainable means of earning a living. Lacking the privilege to enjoy economic advantages is a favorable environment to develop an intellectual passion. This eventually leads a kid to their intellectual destiny, (Simmons, 30).

Educators have the responsibility of ensuring that kids_x0092_ curiosity is awakened. This will ensure that cease from the fantasy world of thinking about good future life, when in the real sense their imagination has diminished. The likelihood of students not graduating due to decreased imagination as a result of deemphasized intellectual benefits is usually high (Simmons, Para 9). This is mainly because the kids reach a point where they imagine less of their future, and this leads them to pick institutions of higher learning that are not if their interests. Undermining the intellectual benefits means that the kids will graduate later in their lives without a reasonable amount of knowledge of what they studied. This implies that a mechanical engineer, for example, will only bear the title of an engineer but he or she has no full idea of mechanics.

Conclusion

It is, therefore, important to understand that educators have to take up the role of awakening the intellectual curiosity that is bored in children in schools. This will help solve the problem of fantasizing thereby making children loose imagination abilities. Taking into consideration the intellectual benefits of higher education implies that a lot of people will pursue careers which bear their passions rather than pursuing studies for future financial gains only. For this to happen, there have to be teacher leaders who can guide and reach out to kids (Katzenmeyer & Gayle, 4). The disruption of the poor kids emerges because of educators making them know that only the academic degree can guarantee social and economic mobility in future. Considering their poor status in life, it becomes difficult for them to stay focused if their passion and effort in studies are overlooked.

Works Cited

Katzenmeyer, Marilyn, and Gayle Moller. Awakening the sleeping giant: Helping teachers develop as leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2009.

Simmons, Andrew. The danger of telling poor kids that college is the key to social mobility. The Atlantic., Jan 6, 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/01/the-danger-of-telling-poor-kids-that-college-is-the-key-to-social-mobility/283120/. Accessed 30 Apr 2017.