What was Marita's Bargain?

     “In the mid-1990s, an experimental public school called the KIPP Academy opened… in New York City.”  (Gladwell, 2008) Children from low-class families were put into a lottery and signed up with the school if they were willing to put in the time and effort to become an accomplished scholar.  Marita was one of these students.  She signed up for this school and was accepted.  For school, she woke up at 5:45 am.  She started school at 7:25 am, and remained there until 5:00 pm.  She came home, worked on homework for most of the night, and went to bed around 10.  Throughout the summer, she went to school for three weeks.  With the help of the school, the children significantly improve their math scores by the time they leave the school.  Most children who at first do not seem like college bound students, become college bound students.  Eighty percent of the academy’s graduates go to college.  How do the children do it?

     The students make a bargain when they sign up for the school.  Marita did not know the full realm of how much she would have to sacrifice; she only wanted to make her mother happy.  She lost all of her old friends.  With the academy’s homework demands, she had no time for a social life.  She worked on schoolwork, and that’s pretty much all she did.  Sometimes she even skipped dinner just to finish homework.  The bargain she made was to give up all her free time and social life in exchange for a chance to improve and become an accomplished scholar.  Most of us would not think of doing such a thing, but most of us attended good schools. 

     Up to this point the bargain does not sound very appealing.  However, the bargain has some virtuous points too.  By making a bargain with KIPP, Marita will help improve her learning skills.  She will more than likely go to college, whereas before she may not have.  She gained new friends that were more on her level.  She will probably obtain a respectable career in the future.  She gained so much from making the bargain, but she lost so much too.

     When I started to read the chapter about Marita, I realized I was like her in so many ways.  I did not go to a “privileged” public high school, but I did take college prep courses.  Sometimes the homework was not the easiest, but I did what I had to.  Because I live in the country, I had to wake up around 5:30 to catch the bus at 6:30.  I would stay up working on homework sometimes until 11 o’clock.  I watched less and less television as high school progressed.  Sometimes I stayed home from visiting relatives, so I could catch up on my homework.  I never went out with my friends.  I lost three of them after I graduated. 

     On the plus side, my dedication to school compensated itself with a merit-based scholarship (that pays full tuition) as well as other scholarships and grants.  With my high grades, I also was able to apply for the honors college, which has benefits such as being grouped with academically motivated peers and early scheduling times.  In a way, by coming to college I made a bargain too.  My social life made not be the best right now, but my academic life is going along fine.

     In conclusion, Marita signed up with an advanced school called KIPP, so she could become an accomplished scholar.  She made a bargain, which was to give up almost everything in exchange for her to work on homework.  I hope someday this all works out for Marita, and she does not regret any of it.  I am hoping the same for me as well.  I am already starting to see some changes.  I am slowly gaining new friends, and my television hours have increased enough to watch my favorite shows.  Like Marita, I have been given a chance, and now all it will take for the both of us is hard work and dedication.  As the Chinese put it, “no one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.” (Gladwell, 2008)