American Creed

Elizabeth Romero

Ms. Bernard

AP Language and Composition

03/06/23

American Creed

In the film American Creed, Deidre Prevett says, “The message was education is the key to success and to better yourself.” I agree with this statement because education is a big part of someone’s life and it can help them conquer their dreams. In the film, Deidre Prevett, Condoleezza Rice, and Eric Liu believe that education can help someone achieve their goals and can help them escape poverty.

As said in the film, Prevett discusses why she values education as an educator herself. A quote she says is, “What I’m doing now is kinda paying forward.” Her being an educator and helping kids with their education follows it on to the next generation. It allows kids to not only learn more for their future but help them succeed in life in a way where they can follow up on the path they want to take. In Deidre Prevett’s story, she continues to follow it by discussing how her family got out of poverty by having oil on their lands. With that oil, 5 generations of her family were able to go to college and become educators. She quoted, “I’m living my American dream. That’s to be an educator”. By going to college and having an education, she was able to escape the poverty her family went through. She became an educator and that continued to grow as she teaches other students why education is important.

Condoleezza Rice was the secretary of state, she got several positions that came from the help of education. Education helped her with her path of self-improvement and in the film, she said, “If you could be educated … for Black American families, education became the Holy Grail … that access to education was going to change everything”. I think Rice is implying that education can help improve and better a person’s life. Education is a major part of one's life to help one conquer their dreams. Education also helped Rice and her family get through poverty as said in the same quote. Once her family knew, they had a chance to have an education, they took it and used it to their advantage. She was very successful at school and that led to her success outside of education.

Eric Liu's story starts when his family came over here to the U.S. They went to college here in the United States and that benefited Eric Liu. Eric mentioned, “I had the good fortune to be born American”. He was able to live a middle-class experience due to his parents being college educated. I can relate to this because my mother went to college here in the United States and it has benefited me and my siblings’ future. We are educated and have a middle-class experience just like Liu. Education has helped lots of people in the world and even future generations. It is very beneficial and useful in order to conquer and follow your dreams.

These films have shown us the importance and aftermath of having an education. In the film, Deidre Prevett, Condoleezza Rice, and Eric Liu believe that education can help someone achieve their goals and can help them escape poverty and I agree with them because their stories have shown me the impact of education.