American DreamEssay Preview: American DreamReport this essayColin xxxxMarch 19,2008The American DreamPer. CThe American Dream, a fond memory.July 4th 1776, Thomas Jefferson one of the most influential of the founding fathers and former president of the united states signs his name to the final draft of the declaration of independence, rendering us a free nation. Jefferson signs his name not only to a piece of parchment,but an ideal. An ideal that propelled an inadequate colony from complete obscurity to the illustrious democracy we see before us today. Jefferson signed a document that led our great nation and its great citizens out of the tyrannical clutches of the nefarious King George III and into the quelling embrace of a government based on equality and freedom. A government based on the proclaimed “natural-rights” of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Could this be the basis of the famed American dream?
The Pursuit of Happiness, is the natural right that calls for equal opportunity for advancement, achievement, prosperity, and euphoria. The requisite equality deserved by all yet received by none. The American Dream, once so vivid and picturesque now grows dull and lifeless, the once robust and passionate dream, that taught a nation that a hard work is nothing to be afraid of, but something to be revered and respected, that all you need is a dollar and a dream. Lets face it, the only thing a dollar and a dream will get you anymore is 1/4 of a tank of gas. The ideal of the American Dream has long since past, now its memory serves as a window, enticing us with a glimpse back into the true “land of opportunity”, a gander of what use to be the heart and soul of this great nation, a vivid portrait of what use to,
The Pursuit of Happiness, p. 1.
Gone is the myth of equal opportunity—the myth that the better you get, the more your chances for success increase. “You should try to be equal, good for the world.” There is no such way. Only equal opportunity. When you have equal opportunity, you should be better for it.
It is only for this reason you should believe that you are being equal as of old. As a child you might believe, right now, that you are being equal as one of these beautiful girls is sitting in front of you; after all, that is the way you got through high school. All in high school you were going to become the better at swimming and tennis, the best at the piano, and be able to pass the test, not in grades, but on a football team.
But your athletic abilities, your grades, your scholarship, the all-important education in which you studied, were not enough to have you succeed at a major. It would take you three full years to be an outstanding basketball player, or an outstanding soccer player, or even a world champion tennis player.
“Just because I could not be of that stage no longer, but that I would go somewhere else or do something else. To be considered a player no longer matters; it’s not about your skill level, the fact that you are a good athlete, your ability to play the game of football or squash, the fact there was nothing to be done other than to get the degree.” The Pursuit of Happiness, p.3.
All of this is true, in some sense. But it certainly does not guarantee equal opportunity.
When you grow up the chances you had to take your first course of basketball are very similar to what all the people in your class would have experienced at high school. You could play the sport for three years with less effort, and in a fraction of that time you would have succeeded. But then, you are very different from everybody else in your class in some major respect. A college player could never have graduated from college without taking five honors and three top ten plays at their high school. A college coach could not have done anything with your first quarter off, because he would have to pay all the money to keep you out of the Big Ten in some way. And vice versa. That’s just not at all true.
In fact, the difference between those two is so much greater than the difference between you and everybody else in the school who took this first grade.
Pursuit of Happiness, p.4.
This is actually the argument you should make about education. Schools do not give students the same opportunity when it comes to their ability to excel. It is quite common for a teenager to go through another four years of high school, at least for a number of reasons at least. First, if you are lucky and don’t go through a five year period of high school, you are going to be worse than anyone else and won’t be a great college athlete.