Minorities Place in Higher Education: They Don't Have one

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one’s failure will only lead to more of it. A problem especially prevalent with minorities as many fill remedial and college preparatory classes, leading to less opportunities to learn from their mistakes compared to being in a higher level class. Additionally, Kumar and Jagacinski claim that when students are faced “with further difficulty, they would eventually attempt to withdraw from the task and express negative affect”. This is frightening when applied to college as it can mean unprepared students will be more likely to quit and drop out if they start to feel defeated. This obviously is very detrimental to them as these types of students have often never been pushed to their limits academically before, the study by Kumar and Jagacinski “[implies] that they do not have the ability or intelligence to perform better than others”. Does this mean that if someone you know is a prospective college student with a tendency towards thinking everything will be easy, that they are destined to drop out of college? Of course not, humans, just like the education system, should be ever changing. Whether it is for better or for worse is a different question. All that is certain is that a college education is not ‘easy’ by any means, it is a mental struggle, a process of success and failure that requires active thought and action to improve and be prosperous. However, these important experiences are often not experienced by minority students as they are stuck in remedial classes from when they start high school, so they do not get the opportunity to be challenged mentally. Receiving a rigorous education in high school, while it may be challenging, is a good thing as it better prepares these students by preparing them ahead of time since they will experience these exact same feelings in college. The difference is having been predisposed to challenge, they will be less likely to drop out of college.

Many students enter college with bright dreams filled with success and happiness, but unfortunately with the rising difficulty of college, many students’ dreams and aspirations fall short of reality, especially minorities, because they are not prepared. Dana Kreig supports this in her article, “High Expectations For Higher Education? Perceptions of College And Experiences of Stress Prior to and Through The College Career” when she says “Increasing numbers of students are experiencing difficulty adjusting to college”. It is understandable, many of these students are on their own for the first time in their lives and being away from friends and family is hard enough but they also have to adjust to the academic challenges as well. A problem faced by many students, but especially by Latinos as they are very family oriented, and many members of their family, especially their parents, are not prepared nor are they okay with their children leaving home.With that being said, students are feeling more stressed than ever, and that is increasing the amount of college dropouts. This escalation of the amounts of dropouts, according to Kreig is only rising as “more recent data indicate that this number is increasing”. It’s a sad thing, but students wanting to go to college may want to think twice about that decision. It is all about whether they are prepared, but how can anyone ever be prepared for the great unknown that college has to offer? Going to college isn’t space exploration, while it may be impossible to plan for every detail college has, challenging oneself in high school and gaining a sense of independence early is crucial for a successful college career. This however, is unfortunately not the scenario for many minority students while in high school.

Since there are no simple answers for solving the problem of the lack of minorities in higher education, more and more students of color will be dropping out of college. Because it is clear that high schools will not acknowledge the long term harm minority students are face when they are taking college preparatory classes (which are anything but) or remedial classes, motivated minority students need to look for challenging classes which will prepare them for the future they deserve. A future we all deserve, one where we are given the opportunity to be successful and be happy. To anyone still on the fence, or to anyone still unsure about this subject, I ask one question: tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one and only precious life? I hope for many of the minority students in the country that their bright futures do not involve unhappy days of flipping burgers or pulling weeds. Education is a privilege, not a right, but for those living in the United states not having a college education is equivalent to being illiterate. Each human being has an unlimited amount of potential regardless of race, but when that potential is hampered with, that is when action and reform need to take place.