Have
you ever been given a label? Not a nice label though, for example, best friend,
girlfriend/boyfriend, or anything like that but something mean. You may not
mind at first, but after a while it can get to you and affect everything you
do. My community is my hometown of Joliet, Illinois and the home of my old high
school. The problem I am looking into is why my hometown being labeled, I have
always known it was not the best place to live or go to school, but the labels
have stuck. I want to know why these labels have not been lifted from the city
I live in.
The
first picture here is a picture of a nearby town’s high school. The high school
is located in the town, Bolingbrook, which is known as a wealthier town. Joliet
is located between Bolingbrook and another city named New Lenox, also a city
that is wealthy. The two cities have always looked down upon the city of Joliet
when it comes to school and sports. First, Bolingbrook showed they care about
their students by building this school, that makes it seem like Joliet does not
care about where their students study and how it looks so it gives a negative
impact on the city. The two cities, New Lenox and Bolingbrook, pay a lot for
their students to get a good education but they go above and beyond because
they have the money so of course Joliet looks like a bad school. When it comes
to sports, New Lenox and Bolingbrook, but especially Bolingbrook pays a lot
when it comes to sports. Being that sports are a big part of high schools, the
better you are makes everyone else look like they are horrible and in this case
Joliet would be the horrible team since they are stuck between the two better
schools.
This
house in Joliet may look like a normal, but a very affordable home. But
honestly, only a little bit of the population of Joliet can afford this home. Like
it was stated before, the two cities that surround Joliet are much wealthier,
so in those cities the houses are huge and sell for a lot more but Joliet tries
to sell for the similar prices. By doing this, some people cannot afford homes
all together or live in an apartment and when you come to Joliet from one of
those two rich towns, it’ll make you question what’s wrong with this city.
Trying to compete with the rich towns put a label on Joliet that they are poor
and incapable to house families.
This
picture represents the violence in Joliet. Unlike New Lenox and Bolingbrook,
Joliet has a lot of violence and crime. In the past, a lot of gangs had started
to have activity in Joliet, and it happened to stick there. People talked about
Joliet and how violent it was. In the school, security is a high priority with
metal detectors and stricter rules than both of the wealthier schools. From
listening to other people from both Joliet and New Lenox and the person from
Joliet says it is not fair to go after the whole city for a group of people
that messed up in the past. The person from New Lenox resident said that they
have not seen so much security in any other school than Joliet’s school.
This
secondary picture shows the diversity in Joliet. It is not all of the
population of Joliet but it is a sample of what the high school is like.
Because of the diversity in the high school, it is seen as a bad school. The
school is made up of mostly Hispanics and African Americans, and with the
language barriers in some cases, it’s hard to teach. In the wealthier towns, it’s
primarily Caucasian, it easier to get money for college and pay for schooling.
In Joliet, a lot of these families don’t have the money to send students to
college, and the school does all it can but it cannot send everyone to get a
secondary education, so the school looks horrible in everyone’s eyes.
My
second secondary resource is an article. The article is named, “Stories of
Success: High Minority, High Poverty Public School Graduate Narratives on
Accessing Higher Education” by Richard Reddick is about the worrisome among
schools that have high minority rates and high poverty rates. Joliet fits into
this article because of the high minority rate in the school and continuing to
come into the high school and the problems with money the school can’t get out
of. The article further explains how it is harder for these kids to continue
into a secondary education. Due to this, and just the location Joliet is at
being between two successful schools that make sending kids to college look
easy, gives Joliet a bad look to everybody. Throughout the article, Reddick
talks about how hard it is for these schools with higher minorities than others
that do not have to deal with high minorities. But in the article, it also
gives studies that were revealed in a school that helps the minority school’s
become more successful at helping students further their education.
Not
only is Joliet my hometown but it has always held labels given by other people,
especially people that have not lived in the city. Joliet looks to be getting
better but the names have not been lifted and I want to know why they continue
to see this city as a bad place.
Work Cited
Reddick, Richard J., et
al. "Stories Of Success: High Minority, High Poverty Public School Graduate Narratives On Accessing Higher
Education." Journal of Advanced Academics 22.4
(2011): 594-618. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Oct. 2015. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uky.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=8552e1fb-8644-4717-935f-2f04e0ae16eb%40sessionmgr4001&hid=4103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=76247535&db=a9h
Word count: 970
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