Holler If You Hear Me By Gregory Michie

Is the U.S Education failing students? Many can agree to it based on a variety of factors. Poverty and parenting are big reasons why a student may not perform academically well. In the memoir Holler If You Hear Me by Gregory Michie, it revolves around a teacher that details his experiences teaching in the west side of Chicago and the impact of poverty and racism that it has on his students. Throughout the memoir, parent involvement and poverty play significant roles in the academic performance of his students.

From an early age, Michie’s father wasn’t present for most of his life. It was only his mom raising him for most of his early life. When reminiscing about his early teenage life, he recounts that “ he moved in with his aunt because [he] and [his] mom were having some problems, and that’s where a lot of stuff started” (16). After moving in, he got involved with gangs and started selling drugs whenever he could. The lack of a

Many students in the real world can agree that they had a similar life going up. A study of the impact of parental involvement on academic achievement found that the more parental involvement, the more the students are likely to become productive members of society as well as excel in academics.” This statement is true because a student will excel more in school compared to someone whose parents have little involvement with their academic performance. In the book, Michie does his best as a teacher to give his students the best possible education they can receive so they can progress further in school. When talking about his environment growing up, he brings up his father and how “ he was never around for me and that life would’ve been different if he was” (42). His father doesn’t know what it was for him growing up in the roughest parts of Chicago. Abandoning one’s child from a young age is the worst thing a parent can do. A father is necessary to build a strong healthy