Push

One thing that bothers me so much in the book ‘push’ is the fact that throughout Precious’s seventeen years of living no one detected that she was being abused at home. The signs were clearly there if someone just took the chance to look into them. She was a bully, upset, distant, and a major sign was the fact that she was pregnant twice, her first time being when she was just twelve years old. It seems as if no one really cared enough which led Precious to believe even more that she was a nobody and there was no ‘good’ in people. The only thing she knew in life was hurt, which led to her driving emotion of anger. Precious was angry about her situation, angry at herself, and angry at others. This book sheds light on a lot of topics, since education is the field I plan on making my career, the topic that hits home for me, is the fact the Precious was pushed through the system. At seventeen she was illiterate, and didn’t even know her ABC’s. The teachers and school officials were obviously not thinking about her wellbeing or else, all of her issues would have been confronted and dealt with. This is a major problem that a lot of classrooms are dealing with even today! Precious went to school in an urban area; there were probably a lot of children in her classroom going through the same problems, if not more. Without the proper guidance and education these children are bound to fall into different statistics, and not grow to their full potential. Although the book ‘push’ takes place in the 80s, it unfortunate to say that the achievement gap between inner-city schools, and upper class schools are still the same, with urban schools straggling behind. This has to change, and we all need to take a stand and interest in the students a lot more. I truly believe that is Precious became a person of interest to a school official earlier in her life, the situation she was in would’ve gotten 10x better.