Journal Response #6

Chapter eight is packed with emotion. How does the struggle of the USA with their education system relate to Sonny's internal struggle building his rockets? What do both have to do to be successful?

There is so much to learn in this world and so little time in our lives to learn it all. In this time period the United States is struggling with an education system that they believed to be incomparable to that of the Soviet Union. They were attempting to launch rockets into space and they were pushing their students to new levels of learning. At the same time Sonny and the other Rocket boys begin their work on their own rockets. These two things have a lot in common because they both deal with a lack of knowledge. The United States had no idea how to improve the education system and Sonny had no idea how to build rockets. I think that the US and Sonny doubted themselves a little to much. They payed to much attention to what everyone else was doing. They were also both trying to achieve something big that had never been done before. They were making history. To be successful, I think that they should have provided higher level classes and encouraged the youth and the younger generations to work towards improving their knowledge.