Carlos Doesn't Remember (3/20)

So today in class we listened to a podcast titled "Carlos Doesn't Remember". This was about an extremely gifted kid who couldn't live up to his potential due to his economic standing in the social hierarchy. Carlos was a poor kid who would have amounted to nothing if it wasn't for his advocate Eric Eisner. Together they managed to pull Carlos up by his boot straps and got him into first a prestigious elementary school. The problem was, he felt like he didn't fit in due to his economic standing. Throughout the podcast it talks about the struggles Carlos faces, but the worst is his own family getting in the way of his education and keeping him in poverty to take care of his mother and his sister after being offered a scholarship to the most prestigious high school in the country. Along with Carlos' story, it also brings light onto eye opening facts about kids in these low income areas and their affiliations with gangs. The entire podcast is not meant to be inspiring but a sad wake up call to how America as a whole are failing students who deserve a better life.
This is related to outside life because it is an eye opener to us privileged kids in Sparta. Even if your life "sucks" you will almost never have to worry about foster care or being neglected in the school system or being stalked by rival gangs. These places like Sparta are the oasis for the rest of the screwed up and unfair world we live in. This podcast helps bring us a floor lower on our ivory tower and make us think "oh shit". But oh well, us Spartans will never have to worry about that, and we should be thanking every lucky star in the sky.