Very rough draft Forum

[m dot m]

I threw this together today after a weekend of replaying what if scenarios about the lsat. I have no clue about how to go about this ps (what to add/take out) even after reading all the articles, so any thoughts would be great. Might even need to blow it up and start over?


It’s the middle of second period and Jorge hasn’t shown up yet, again. Finally, with ten minutes to go he walks in the door with his eyes on the ground. As he sits down I walk by and ask him to see me after class. As everyone else shuffles out the door, I ask him why he’s late nearly every day. He proceeds to tell me that he and his mom were evicted from their apartment last week and have been staying with a friend across town. City health officials knocked on the door and announced that the building was being condemned and that they had ten minutes to leave while they began putting red tape across the doorway. They are still waiting for some sort of reciprocity. He has always walked to school and is afraid to leave while it is still dark outside. So he leaves at dusk and walks for two hours before he gets to school.
Jorge is just one of many students I work with everyday as a teacher at xxxxx Charter School. Each of my students is unique and has their own set of problems and aspirations. I would love nothing more than to be able to solve each problem and see each goal achieved, but I know that’s unrealistic and simply impossible.
Still, I teach because I believe in helping to change the lives of the next generation at least slightly. I cannot be a superhero to them all, but I can and have helped. I have established a school newspaper, started an intramural sports program, organized field trips, led student government, and coached soccer. In just one year, I was able to take the boys’ soccer team from a winless season prior to my arrival, to the city championship game. My professional successes have been especially meaningful because of the wait I had to endure to achieve them.
For three years I paid my dues and got by as a substitute teacher, waiting for my chance to have my own classroom. I was denied job after job because of lack of experience. I wasn’t hired because of fear that I couldn’t handle three subjects at once. I now teach six each day. I was denied a position because my Spanish is not perfect. I now teach students in each class that speak no English. My current position has not been what I had expected or what I was promised, but it has not stopped me from making a difference in as many young lives as possible.
I’ve been able to find someone to take Jorge to school in the morning, but I haven’t been able to do anything to help him and his mother deal with the Economic Development Agency so they can receive their relocation aid. This situation has become typical for me. I can provide help to my students, but am limited in the amount of things that I can do. So, I am left with a feeling of inadequacy at falling short of providing the kind of help my students truly need.
Like many people, I entered the teaching profession with illusions of grandeur that I could somehow save the world one child at a time. I thought that through my hard work and dedication alone, students would learn about history and proceed onto college and a better future. However, I have learned that there are no superheroes. I cannot save each of them, at least not from the constraints of a classroom. I know that a law degree will not give me super powers, but it will provide me with the tools that are needed to help provide students like Jorge a way to handle their most severe problems.
I do not see law school as a way to save the world, but as a way to better serve my community. An education at King Hall will allow me to provide the additional aid students like Jorge need by preparing me for a career in public interest law and family law. It’s important to me to learn how to provide this kind of assistance at a school that emphasizes public interest. UC Davis has impressed me as such a school, as evidenced by its strong clinical programs, notably the Family Protection and Legal Assistance Clinic. I look forward to employing my talents to serve in an alternative fashion outside the classroom.

[jjames]

If you want to email me you personal statement we could swap and give each other feedback?

guitarchix4@aol.com