Living in East St. Louis

As a child living in East St. Louis I am living day to day, trying to get by. I am in the sixth grade and my life consists of taking care of my younger brothers and sisters. Each morning I get ready for school, however, realize that not much is gained by my attendance in class. This is due impart of the fact that our schools are so poverty stricken that they cannot afford the correct tools in order to provide the students a proper education. My school is not large enough to fit every student; therefore many classes contain double the number of children than the classroom can hold. No one in my grade knows how to read and the main reason for going to school is to gain the knowledge necessary to work at a minimum wage job. Although I have goals they seem nearly impossible to achieve because there are little to no opportunities available to me. As I walk home from school I see violence and crime and nothing is being done to stop it. My life feels like a never-ending cycle of hate and suffering. The government isn’t providing my city with any benefits or chance to become better, thus things are only going to get worse.
I am not literate and it does not mean anything to me because it seems like a goal so out of reach that it is outlandish to think that one day it could be a possibility. Because the school system is not getting better, there is very little chance for me to ever be able to read and write. Also, because I am only working towards a minimum wage job, there is no reason to attempt to become literate. I have learned to except the fact that I will probably never be literate and have little motivation to gain this knowledge.
Education is unimportant to me because authority figures around me don’t seem to take it seriously. It is hard to think highly of something that my community doesn’t value. Although I want to become successful I don’t think that it will be possible because the education that I am receiving will not allow me to continue onto college. The only reason I attend school is because it is the law and do not think that I would attend school if it wasn’t. I think that I would care more about receiving an education if our schools systems were in better condition. Attending school is more of a social gathering and I feel my days are wasted because we learn so little and are extremely unproductive. Teachers are constantly getting fired and are replaced by substitutes who are not fully qualified to teach. Overall, my view on education is that it trivial in my life because it isn’t going to grant me further opportunities nor progress my knowledge.