Coyotes

I thought the book Coyotes was a good book. It opened my eyes to things I’ve never really thought about or even cared about. I know there are illegal immigrants in this country, but I never cared about them being here, partly because I never thought about why they were here or how they got here. After reading the book, I have a better understanding of how people from other countries view the United States, and the things we have in this country. Some of the illegal immigrants in Coyotes snuck into America for better paying jobs, so that they could provide for their families back in Mexico. Even though they weren’t paid the amount of money an American worker would have been, it was still better than what they were getting in Mexico. They came here not worrying about having to sleep on a floor with 10 other people, or what job they would have. They just knew that they would take whatever they would get. Although I know that coming into a country illegally is against the law, I understand now why a person would feel that they had to do it, and why so many people have done it.

Corridors of Shame

In class this week we watched a documentary called Corridor of Shame. The documentary showed schools in different rural areas of South Carolina that were very poor and receiving little help with making them a better place to learn. In the winter time the schools were too cold, they had sewage problems, the paint was chipping, and one school even had a snake inside one day. Growing up I went to public school but I couldn’t image going to school in those kinds of conditions. I mean sure once or twice the AC or heat went out, but it wasn’t a constant thing. I think that the students that have to go to schools like that are being cheated out of their rightful education. No one should have to try to learn in conditions like that. What makes me mad is that it’s not even the schools fault. They don’t have the money to make things better and when they tried to sue for it they only got a half ruling in their favor which hasn’t seemed to help. When the case is retried I hope the ruling is in favor of the schools this time. Watching that documentary really made me think about how lucky I was to be able to go to a good school. It also made me realize that I’ve kind of taken getting a good education for granted. Had I gone to schools like the ones in the documentary I don’t know what I would have done. One of the schools in the documentary was J.V. Martin Junior High in Dillion County. I was able to find some statistics for it. Here’s the link http://south-carolina.schooltree.org/public/J-V-Martin-Junior-High-077059.html