Equal opportunity is key to making the world a better palce Essay Example for Free

Equal opportunity is key to making the world a better palce Essay Idealism develops over the course of a lifetime and with it, we develop new opportunities for service and a chance to reward our souls. In his book, â€Å"The Call of Service†, Robert Coles talks about the way idealism develops and how we react to it. At this stage in my life, I believe I am still in what Coles calls young idealism. Thought I have seen many things and do not believe that I am naive, I feel that I am just beginning to understand myself and what motivates me. My idealism has not been proven wrong by some life-altering event and I have nto ahd to fight any major battles to support it. I believe that all children should have the right to study and make a success in life. Specifically, I believe in equal opportunity. I believe that all people and all success should be measured on how hard you work for something, not being born with money or the right address or the right skin color. In my ideal world, people would be judged not by how much they accomplish, but how hard they try to achieve it. My basic belief system is that if there were equality in the beginning, there could be equality in the end. Right now, some children have no chance at a good education because they cannot afford it or go to schools where education is not valued. Some schools, for example, offer pre-kindergarten, all-day kindergarten and after school programs to help students get a chance to learn more and other schools are so poor that they cannot offer those programs. The children suffer because they do not have an equal opportunity. I believe because of this there is much suffering in the world. People who are not given an equal opportunity are not able to succeed as often and cannot afford the things that they want or need. Because they did not get a good education, they are sentenced to the same low-paying jobs that their parents had and are forced to see other people living the good life. Not having good opportunities leads to people being poor. When they are poor, it is easy to be mad because the rich have everything and you work hard and have nothing. When people get very mad, they try to steal from the people who do have nice things. That is why a lack of equal opportunity leads to crimes. And, since this happens to the same people whose parents it also happened to, they begin to believe that it is motivated by other factors: race or nationality or beliefs and cannot see that poverty causes more poverty. In my ideal world, all students would have exactly the same chances in school. This will never work because the rich, who can offer their children anything, would not want to pay enough to make sure that the poor children have the same chance. And , they are not willing to let their child only have as much as the poor kid gets. This is because they know that education is key to success and that if everyone had the same opportunity, they would no longer have an advantage. I think if everyone were able to see the importance of equal opportunity that they would all want to support it. If they understood that equal opportunity for all means that this will be a better country, they would also support paying the extra for better schools for everyone. My emigration to this country has helped me to see that equal opportunity should be the American way. My idealism comes from a secular source, as opposed to a religious source. I believe that if America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, then we should be making sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to learn. For example, in the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that â€Å"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal† (Jefferson, â€Å"Declaration of Independence†). Immigrants to the United states sometimes believe more fervently than those born here in the idealism of the society. We believe in truth, justice and the American way and that there is an American dream. I believe it and I am willing to act on it. I spend my extra time volunteering at the Agency Center for Children and Families aster school program. These are disadvantaged children who need the chance to be equal life everyone else. I am also motivated by social idealism. I believe that it is only right for every member of society to have the same advantages and disadvantages. People are all the same at the most basic levela dn all of them should have the same opportunities to make their lives better. It seems that if they all had the same opportunity, then the world would be a better place. My thinking is that if everyone had the same opportunity we could eliminate poverty and crime and make everyone happier. Cole quoting from his friend Anna Freud said that the essence of service is to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, see the need and then work toward meeting it. Therefore I think that the other think I learned from Cole’s book was how important it is for me to help out at the after school program. I have been where they are, unable to learn because of an uneven playing field, and I want to help them eliminate this. That is my service to my community. The author argues that sometimes we do this out of charity and sometimes out of Biblical mandate. I do it for neither reason and for both. I do not pity the people I help at the center as one might expect when discussing this as an act of charity. I can empathize, understanding that they are now someplace that I have been, trying hard to succeed when the odds are not very good. It is instead a sense of duty that leads me to these actions. If someone had not helped me, then I would not be able to help these people. Furthermore, I do not believe that it is a Biblical mandate, but I do think that most people agree that the Good Samritan had it right and when you can help another person, you should. Another form of the sense of duty is an obligation to Christ’s teachings that we should â€Å"do unto others as we would have them do unto us†.. While I can understand why Cole, from a Catholic perspective would call this a Biblical mandate, I am also willing to acknowledge it as a basic human instinct, a sort of â€Å"you attract more flies with honey than vinegar† sort of argument. If we want good things to happen and we want changes to happen in life, then we should use good things to make them happen. Be good to other people so that they will in turn be good to other people. The more people help one another, the more they will have sympathy for the plight of other people and be willing to take the steps that are necessary to make radical changes and perhaps get us all to a level of equal opportunity. In the meantime, using Cole’s theories of personal gestures and encounters, I am working to make the world a better and more fair place for the people that I encounter at the Center. His theory is that we can impact lives one at a time or several at a time when we make an effort. Though I want to effect lots of people, one of the best ways I can begin to do that is by effecting one person. If my work at the after school program can help just one child to learn more and have more opportunity, to be closer to equal despite the flaws in the system, then I have done what I needed to do. I have made drastic improvements in my world. This fits again with Anna Freud’s theory that Cole is very f ond of, â€Å"someone reached, something done. † This is the perfect description of what I hope to accomplish at the after school programs. I want to connect with one single person, more if possible, but one is enough and help them to find equal opportunity whether that is by opening doors to education or just helping them to see within themselves what they can achieve if they work hard. Too often part of the reason people fail is that they don’t believe they can succeed or don’t know how to succeed. If we can make a slight individual difference in one or two lives, by showing these students that we care, them we have reached out goal and the idealism is refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to work toward the next success. The program that I have been volunteering with in called the Center for Children Families. They are dedicated to all manner of helping families, including helping to arbitrate divorce cases so that children are not a battleground during divorce, have been in abuse situations, have undergone trauma of some sort and those who just need a safe place to be after school because they would otherwise be latch-key kids. The programs are designed to give children the love and attention that all children deserve. They also provide respite care for parents who might be on the verge of hurting their children and they also help teenage parents with parenting classes. The group tries to be non-judgmental and to provide assistance in a positive manner that does not make people feel badly about needing help. In my opinion. they have a really good impact on the community and they are doing an excellent job. They give good feedback and try to help community members understand how they can improve their lives with a little hard work. Now that I have worked with the center, I believe that one way that they could better achieve their goals is to make sure that people are aware of the programs that they offer. Many people think that if you have to ask for help you are a bad person. It is important to make people understand that being poor or having no opportunities does not make you a bad person. I think it would also be helpful if the center could make it more clear to people that they are trying to ruin people’s lives or take their kids away. Lots of people seem to think that if you admit to needing a parenting class that you are somehow getting yourself into trouble or that it means you are a bad parent. Maybe if we could get people to have parenting classes before they even have kids, it would help to cut down on the incidents of child abuse and neglect. Maybe some parents really don’t know that they shouldn’t give their kids pizza and soft drinks for every meal and that children need play time and need to be read to. I think the center tries really hard to make people understand that they are on their side, and that they want to help them out. I think the more that they can do to show this to people, the better their services will be used. It seems like people are afraid that requesting help makes them look weak. The reality is that knowing when you need help is a sign of wisdom and people need to understand that. They also need to know what they can do to make the world a better place for their children: Like reading to them and making sure they do their homework. That’s one of the things that we help with during the after school programs, making sure that children get their homework done for the next day. All in all, my experience working at the center ahs been a good one. They have some very good ideas that it would be cool if other organizations supported as well, like they have a diaper closet to allow people who need them to get some help with diapers when money is tight. I especially like this because though there are lots of programs to make sure that a baby gets fed, this is one of the few I’ve seen that is designed to help them stay clean.