Andrew Simmons

In “The Dangers of Telling Poor Kids That College Is the Key to Social Mobility”, Andrew Simmons, a high school teacher who teaches in a poor area of Los Angeles, argues that students should be taught to go to college in order to have “an intellectual awakening”. The writer’s purpose is to persuade and inform his readers to accept his view on the flaws of the education system. According to Simmons, teachers promote higher education by focusing on the economic advantages it could bring instead of the actual education that is offered. Because teachers focus on the financial benefits of college, students in poor areas focus on their potential wealth instead of their future education while students in wealthier areas focus on their future careers

He is biased and only focuses on how higher education’s image hurts poor students academically, but not all students in general. Simmons writes about how poor students are told by others that higher education was the only way to earn a good living and be successful, but does not show that wealthier students are also taught to look at college in that way. The only evidence Simmons has that shows what students in wealthier economic areas are being taught is the two years that he spent in a private school. He does not have a lot of experience or knowledge about how higher education is taught to wealthier students and is ignorant of the fact that they are taught to look at college in the same way that poor students are. All students are urged to succeed in life and were taught that college was the only way to do it. I was taught this idea, too. The idea that college is the key to earn a good living was ingrained into my brain. When I became a senior in high school, I had no idea what major to choose, but I knew that I was going to go to college. This idea of higher education made me focus on what came after graduating from college that I had not considered what I was going to do to get to that point. I agree that the different economic conditions would cause students from different backgrounds to focus on one benefit of higher education over another, but all students face the same pressures to attend college which can hurt them all