Growing Up On The Street Essay

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For many years, a person’s educational background has been linked to the community in which they were raised in. Many inner city kids grow up in neighborhoods’ in which they are surround by liquor stores, gun shops, drug and alcohol use, and abandoned buildings that convey a sense of despair and hopelessness. Drug dealers, prostitutes, and gangs are an unfortunate part of daily life for far too many students. The physical setting presents urban students with challenges and obstacles while it also provides a sense of family and community for many. The greatest obstacle that challenges urban students is often the "street mentality”. Unfortunately, growing up "on the street" often means growing up in an environment that leads young people, especially African-American and Latino youth, to internalize the notion that they are not destined to succeed in school. They also have the several individual who sees past what is taking place around and survive for a better life outside of the “hood”. Survival by any means necessary is a state of mind and a skill acquired by many young people growing up in these inner-city neighborhoods. Many pick the “street life” because all they see is fast money, but done see the punishment that comes along with it. Survival for others means a true education to get out of…show more content…
I witness individuals being killed daily behind drugs and other related street reasons. I always knew that I wanted to get up out the hood one day. I choose to go school and make the good grade so that could enter college. Like most African-American I was raised to have a street mentality in order to survive. But I never let it get in the way of my future. I come from a family of drug dealers, drug user, and even prostitutes, but I never let that stand in my way. Just because you come from a certain background doesn’t mean you have to settle for that

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