Final Blog Post

Through this experience, I gained a lot of real-world knowledge, gained connections I will revere for a while, and expanded upon my own sociological imagination. Most of what I learned came as a result of my solution and research. For example, I found out the scope of education inequality in Chicago and across America, and discovered just how important it is that that gap be closed. Also, in terms of real-world knowledge, I discovered the usefulness of after-school programs on both statistical and individual bases, and figured out how important reading is for all children, especially those who come from lower-income households. From my expert, I found out the dire straits that kids from these backgrounds find themselves in as they begin and attempt to move through school. In general, throughout this project I learned about how important it is to help lower-income kids get a better education, which programs can do that, and how hard it really is for those kids to get an education with or without said programs.

During the semester, I started slowly on my Genius Hour project. I thought that since I had such a large block of time to work on and finish the project, I could get away with messing around at the start of the year. This cost me at the end of the semester, though, because I had to put a lot of time in over the past few weeks getting my remaining sources, finishing my annotated bibliography, carrying out my solution, and readying my presentation. Despite the rush I forced upon myself to finish the project, however, I was still able to learn a lot through the process, and especially while carrying out my solution. As I'm sure you already know, my solution involved helping at an after-school program with lower-income kids. The kids were very receptive to me and we had a lot of fun playing board games and sports together. These connections were so powerful I will be going back to the program again in the future to continue working there. But perhaps the most important thing I learned from this process regards my sociological imagination. I was able to develop it, and in doing so, take on a slightly different world view through helping lower-income kids. Throughout this project, I fought back from a rough start and helped kids out, but the main thing I did was learn, from both the experience and even the kids, too.

Genius Hour Newest Update

I've almost finalized what I will do for my solution: I will go to Rowe Elementary, a charter school that brings in a lot of kids from lower-income families, and will help after school either tuesday or thursday (or maybe both). I will also put together old books from my house, probably around 500 of them, and will donate them to the school. In terms of sources, I've finished my annotated bibliography for my first five sources and am already close to at least three more. For my interview, I will either interview a teacher from Payton or from Rowe.