2008 Woodie Awards
The Myth of the American Dream
Is Working Hard to Achieve Your Goals Worth It?
Tania Rodriguez
Issue date: 10/9/03 Section: Opinion
I am sick and tired of hearing the phrase, ?I know I can be what I want to be.? No you cant!!! First of all I am sick of the American Dream and belief that the harder you work at something, the more rewarded you will be. Collogero from A Bronx Tale said it best, ?The working man is a sucker.?
Explain this; you come from a low income family that obviously has to live in a low income neighborhood and probably a state-run school. Your books are so out of print that the author is deceased. Your science teacher is a certified dance instructor whose idea of a science project is to have you stand on a chair and have you test the acceleration of your heart when it is elevated.
Meanwhile, your counterpart is given the best education. Their books are handed to them hot off the press. They compete to create the best robotic limb that can grab an apple.
Yet you were taught early on the American Dream, the belief that the harder you work at something the more successful you will be. You work your hardest and try your hardest to get through the public school system.
Many of you did not make it through high school and found the criminal life was more rewarding. Some of you found that welfare would not support your mother any longer and had to hit the workforce in order to survive and eat. The few of you that made it think that you can make it through anything ?if you work hard at it.?
You get to college and want to become an engineer. You did not even take physics in high school because your school did not offer it. You flunk out the first semester. There goes your dream. ?Ain?t that a shame??
We teach our youth that whatever they want to be can be achieved by hard work. Why do we brain wash them? It?s like depriving a plant of sun, water, or soil and then telling it, it will survive, flourish and grow if it ?works hard at it.? I do not need to be a botanist to know that that will NOT work! There are a few that defeat the odds and persevere for there are a few in every study. However, the majority does NOT.
Explain this; you come from a low income family that obviously has to live in a low income neighborhood and probably a state-run school. Your books are so out of print that the author is deceased. Your science teacher is a certified dance instructor whose idea of a science project is to have you stand on a chair and have you test the acceleration of your heart when it is elevated.
Meanwhile, your counterpart is given the best education. Their books are handed to them hot off the press. They compete to create the best robotic limb that can grab an apple.
Yet you were taught early on the American Dream, the belief that the harder you work at something the more successful you will be. You work your hardest and try your hardest to get through the public school system.
Many of you did not make it through high school and found the criminal life was more rewarding. Some of you found that welfare would not support your mother any longer and had to hit the workforce in order to survive and eat. The few of you that made it think that you can make it through anything ?if you work hard at it.?
You get to college and want to become an engineer. You did not even take physics in high school because your school did not offer it. You flunk out the first semester. There goes your dream. ?Ain?t that a shame??
We teach our youth that whatever they want to be can be achieved by hard work. Why do we brain wash them? It?s like depriving a plant of sun, water, or soil and then telling it, it will survive, flourish and grow if it ?works hard at it.? I do not need to be a botanist to know that that will NOT work! There are a few that defeat the odds and persevere for there are a few in every study. However, the majority does NOT.