Going Beyond The Outsiders

The text I read was titled, "Healing 'Brick City': A Newark Doctor Returns Home". The connection that I felt it had to "The Outsiders" was to value your education and to not fall to negative peer pressure. This common with Ponyboy valuing his school life and always reading, but towards the end he starts to think he has to be a hard core greaser and forget school. He receives so much help from the gang and his brother but it took a project that he could write his feelings in to motivate him again.

An example from the article that made me think of Ponyboy school life is the line, "And I always has hopes and aspirations of doing more with my life, but I often say you can't aim for what you can't see. Growing up, I was surrounded by so much negative peer pressure and negativity, it wasn't long before I became a part of that fabric."  This connects to The Outsiders because when Ponyboy was about to go done the wrong road with education because of what was going wrong around him, he got flipped around to go down the right road. Ponyboy was acting more like other greasers instead of caring about his grades and wanting to leave the hood. His brothers and his friends help him realize that he can escape and to aim high and not give on his dreams. This is just one piece of evidence that shows how they both value education.

Another example from the article states, "And I started back in high school and... earned straight A's in high school, went to college, and went down a different side of the fork in the road towards education." This connects to The Outsiders because Ponyboy realized in high school he can have a better life and started to work for it. He also realized he had to go down the right path with education but not forget his past along the road so he wrote about it. Also the other characters in The Outsiders didn't value their education for one way or another and most of them don't have a good job most don't even understand simple things like poems. Ponyboy went down a different path than the other greasers and he needed help to stay down that path, the path that would lead him to a better life.
   
Overall they are connected through the fact education can change lives and help people go down the right path. Though I do prefer The Outsiders way of portraying that from showing drop-outs and Ponyboy almost becoming like other greasers. The second text was more of the negative look on how education can change lives and was as specific as The Outsiders was. Though both text are inspiring to students and maybe some adults to value their education because it will change your life for the better. In the end they value education and tell us we should value education too.