Talkin' Bout My Education

In a round-table discussion at Tierrasanta’s Junipero Serra High School, which boasts a racially and socioeconomically mixed student body, several students candidly shared their thoughts and feelings about their education, their lives and their futures.

Participating in the discussion were: Linda Chau, 18, a senior who plans to attend the University of California at Los Angeles and then law school at UC Berkeley. Her parents came to the United States from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. Maria Mendenhall, 17, a senior who plans to study environmental science in college. Ronnie Simpson, 17, a senior who hopes to get an athletic scholarship to college. His father is a Navy petty officer headed for the Persian Gulf. Leticia Gutierrez, 16, a junior who plans to attend college but isn’t certain where. Her parents are from Mexico. And Antoine Wilson, 16, a sophomore, accomplished athlete and academic high-achiever, who plans to attend college but has not yet decided where, or what he’ll study.

San Diego Magazine: Do you think you’re receiving a good education in San Diego?

Linda Chau: I do, overall. My parents are from Vietnam, and they didn’t even get to go to high school. I’ll be the first in my family to go to college. I like my high school. There are hard classes, classes that really make you think, that force you to study and learn. The thing is, it’s really up to the student to learn. The opportunities are there for a good education, but you have to want one.

Ronnie Simpson: I agree, it’s all about what you put into it. But teachers are an important part of that, too. They do have the ability to motivate you. Some teachers can really make a difference.

Leticia Gutierrez: Yeah, you have to take advantage of your education while you can. I have family members in Mexico who don’t have school at all. There are a lot of countries that don’t have school. I’ll be the first one in my family to graduate from high school. Schools in San Diego are good, for the most part. They provide such a great opportunity, but unfortunately, some people just don’t take advantage of it.

Maria Mendenhall: My mom told me once that when she was my age, her high school counselor wouldn’t even talk to her. I want to be a doctor; I need counseling to guide me through this so I know where I’m going. And I’ve had that. There are more resources available to kids now than there were when my mom was in school.

Antoine Wilson: I’ve been kind of blessed, I guess, since grade school because I don’t really study much. I have a history of getting good grades, and I’ve never had to work that much. But I know that’s going to change when I get to college.

Mendenhall: I do think some of the students here aren’t taking advantage of their educational opportunities. And they’re not very aware of what’s going on in the world. They don’t realize how good they have it sometimes. There are so many opportunities for people my age now. In school, I’ve learned about such things as Brown vs. the Board of Education and Plessy vs. Ferguson. I’ve learned how schools were segregated. A lot has changed in this country from then to now. We’ve made advancements.

SDM: What’s your favorite thing about high school?

Chau: I like that it’s like a small community. There’s friendship; there’s camaraderie. It’s like a college, too, in that you can pick your classes and pick the clubs and activities you want to be in. There’s something for just about everyone at this school.

Simpson: High school is like having a job—that’s the way I look at it. You don’t get paid—but then you do, in a way, because you are setting yourself up for the future, and I like that. It’s fun, too, being with so many different people your own age.

Mendenhall: I really like the variety of classes. I love that you know almost everyone. I know I’m going to miss that in college. I think colleges probably just have too many people and are just too huge to really give you that sense of community you get in high school.

Wilson: The coolest thing about high school is that you get to start picking your future. This is really where you start growing up. I hated middle school, though. High school is more fun, because I think I have a better sense of myself now than I did then.

SDM: What’s your least favorite thing about high school?

Simpson: The talking down to people, saying bad things about other people. That goes on too much. There’s too much meanness. I’ve been criticized all my life, but it doesn’t bother me; I am who I am. I’m a good student, a good athlete, a good person. I get good grades. I play football and basketball. I don’t let any of the outside influences bother me or change me.

Wilson: I don’t like it when people judge you before they even know you. I hate to see kids my age wasting their lives. You don’t get a second chance, man. This is it. High school is really important for how the rest of your life goes. I hate to see kids just wasting their time here. When I see them skipping school or doing drugs or whatever, I just wonder, “Why do you even bother going to school, dude? What’s the point?”

Chau: My least favorite thing about high school is the testing. I know I’m going to have to do more of that in college, but I don’t like it.

Mendenhall: It’s sad to see how many troubled kids there are. I see lots of depression, and it’s obvious that, usually, when a kid is depressed it’s because of something going on at home. Most troubled kids become troublemakers. It’s sad because sometimes things are happening in their lives—like bad parents or what-have-you—and they can’t do anything about it. Seeing that, and seeing kids bring weapons to school, are the things that bother me most.

SDM: On that subject, do you feel safe at your school? How big an impact did the school shootings at Santana and Granite Hills high schools have on you?

Simpson: The shootings were huge. I know they were for a lot of my friends, too. I thought we were next. We [Serra High] actually did have a kid who brought a gun to school, but they caught him before he could do anything. That was shortly after the Santana shooting. I was pretty worried about the whole copycat thing.

Chau: I was very scared. There wasn’t a person in this school who didn’t at least think about it after it happened. But I was also angry at the media. I thought they exploited the shootings.

Gutierrez: The shootings really made me realize the importance of being nice to everyone. Not that the shootings were in any way justified, but I know part of the reason they happened was because of how kids who are different are sometimes treated.

Wilson: But for a kid our age to have that much anger in him—to go out and kill other kids, just pull off this random shooting—it tells you how much society has changed. Our generation is really bold; they’re doing more crimes. I think we have a lot of good in our generation but also a lot of bad. I came here from Ohio when I was 6. I grew up without a father in the home like a lot of kids now, but I have a very devoted mom. She did it herself, basically. I’ve seen my mom hurt, I’ve seen her cry, and I know, after seeing how hard my mom has worked for her kids, that when I have kids I’m not gonna leave. You have to be there for your kids—the mother and the father—that’s what it’s all about.

Simpson: I’d say the values have definitely changed a lot in society since, like, the ’60s and ’70s. Parents were stricter than they are now. Have you seen that movie Pleasantville? That’s kind of how it used to be, man. It’s more laid-back now, I think. There’s less discipline now, and I think that’s had a huge impact on my generation. I mean, seriously, check out the music we listen to, the stuff on MTV. I mean, Puff Daddy and Jay-Z and stuff like that. These people have no respect for women. And these guys are our role models. Kids my age want to look like these rappers, they want to act like them, because it’s the only way they can fit in with the crowd.

Mendenhall: Kids in this school, and kids in general now, try so hard to act cool, to act tough. It’s that whole gang thing. It’s everywhere—even the good kids, the smart kids. But they’re acting this way because they’re hurting inside. There’s a lot of pain inside, and fear. There’s just less love in society now. Parents are away more, and it’s just harder for people to come together.

Wilson: There’s a lot of peer pressure at my school, but it doesn’t influence me. I do what I do, and eventually I think my peers respect me for it. These rappers who sing about drugs and “ho”s—dissing women and all that. They’re making millions of dollars, but they don’t care about the black community or any other community. They don’t care what kinds of messages they’re spreading. They don’t care that most people who listen to them are my age, or even younger.

Chau: A lot of students just don’t care about the world, but it’s usually because they’re not getting as much love and attention as they should. Every kid deserves love and attention. This generation has so much potential, but so much of it is being wasted. The bottom line is, you can get a good education if you want it. It’s up to you.

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