More On Success, and Luck

Morning Edition:

How a poor Dominican kid from an impoverished South Bronx neighborhood can make it to college can be seen in two different ways, says cultural historian Jim Cullen, author of The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation.
"Some people would look at a story like Juan Carlos' and say he's proof the system works," Cullen says. "Other people look at the story of a Juan Carlos and say he's the exception — and therefore he's evidence that there's a problem."
Given the poor quality of education the vast majority of kids living in poverty receive, Cullen says, access to higher education for them is a matter of luck and good fortune.
"A college degree has become, in effect, the lottery ticket of American life," he says.
Reyes agrees. Back in front of Heritage High, he ponders the question he's always asked himself: Why did he make it out of the South Bronx, when so many of the kids he grew up with didn't?
"Many would say that I am the compilation of the American dream," he says. "I mean, I grew up in an inner city of the Bronx. And quite frankly, [I'm] lucky to not fall into the wrong place at the wrong time.
"But I don't think it's a coincidence that eight out of 10 of my friends don't have a college degree," he says. "In fact, they don't have a high school diploma."
So, Reyes asks, where's their shot at a college education? Where's their American dream?
These are the questions that now make up Reyes' life's work: to counsel poor, inner-city kids about the importance of a college education — and to convince them that their dreams are not far-fetched, but within their grasp.

If only more people gave such issues a little more thought.  For me, a college education was baked in.  It wasn't because I thought I needed it to do whatever job I was going to do when I got out.  It was because I was expected to go.  Paying for it wasn't an issue.  My grandfather paid my entire tuition, but if he didn't, I had a scholarship to a state school to cover the entire cost.  If I didn't have that, I could have gone ROTC.  And in reality, if I didn't get the college education and had instead been given the opportunity, I could have learned on-the-job the same (actually greater) competencies for the engineering jobs I've had than I did in four years of college.  I've been extremely lucky, not just in the opportunities I've been given, but in the natural skills I've inherited.  While lots of people manage to make it up out of poverty to higher rungs on the ladder than me, way more don't get the chance.  I'd like to see more of them get a few lucky breaks, or just some of the opportunities I've gotten.