The Weakest Link--Education in America is only as good as education in Mississippi (universities, degree)
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Nickel and Dimed and Rachel and Her Children are also great books on the topic; I haven't thought about those books in a while, but I remember that they opened my eyes....
Mississippi has ALWAYS lagged behind the rest of the nation in terms of education. In fact, most of the Deep South has lagged behind. Attitudes towards education have been relatively disturbing towards education. It dates back to the days of slavery. Someone mentioned that Mississippi's high Black population has something to do with it. Although the correlation is there, there is something else to understand. Mississippi has historically lagged behind in education. Mississippi has been a traditionally rural state. However, not in the sense that Iowa or Maine was. Mississippi had a very aristocratic system. Please remember that Mississippi's large Black population is there only for one reason...SLAVERY. Blacks were only there because they were slaves. Slaves weren't allowed to learn how to read or write. Poor White people were often illiterate too. The people who did educated were mostly rich White elites who owned most of the land and the slaves. Those who had the money saw no reason to build schools, even for the poor White population. Not to mention, education was looked down on by some poor Whites. This attitude lagged on after the Civil War.
A better question to ask is this. Why is it that high school dropout rates among Blacks in Massachusetts and Maine are much lower than among Blacks in Mississippi? In fact, during WWI, Blacks from northern states scores higher on mental tests than Whites from southerns states.
A big part of this has been cultural and social, as well as historical. Historically, the south has always lagged behind in education. There have also been social attitudes towards education that haven't been so nice among some residents.
In fact, Thomas Sowell wrote a a collection of essays about this. It is called Black Rednecks and White Liberals. It talks about why there has been relatively low achievement among many African-Americans. Black Rednecks & White Liberals History News Network
Another thing to think about, while one is on the subject of race, is this: I've been around many Africans who have come to this country. Most of the Africans I know do very well in school. Race and educational attainment might have a correlation, but it's NOT CAUSATION. How do you explain African children coming here and doing very well, or African college students coming here and doing very well in school?
MS also has a higher rate of people in poverty than MS so that probably explains why.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Momma_bear
I saw that article but the question that remains in my mind is "Why does MS have a higher rate of child poverty than other states?" It's impossible to pontificate on possible solutions until the source of the problem is identified.
The problem is poverty and there's been tons of material written about it and there's no easy solution. MS attitude toward education and poor achievement records aren't exclusive to just MS. It's also a problem in many other southern states as well. You notice it on a national level, but just from reading the article and reading the thoughts from people who oppose it you see that it's also highly ideological.
MS also has a higher rate of people in poverty than MS so that probably explains why.
The problem is poverty and there's been tons of material written about it and there's no easy solution. MS attitude toward education and poor achievement records aren't exclusive to just MS. It's also a problem in many other southern states as well. You notice it on a national level, but just from reading the article and reading the thoughts from people who oppose it you see that it's also highly ideological.
Poverty is part of it. In this case, it isn't a matter of ending poverty, but ending the cycle of poverty.
Poverty is part of it. In this case, it isn't a matter of ending poverty, but ending the cycle of poverty.
Exactly. If I had to guess I would say that MA has a higher rate of social mobility than MS which allows for people to break into the middle class. I think it can be boiled down to political culture as well.
Exactly. If I had to guess I would say that MA has a higher rate of social mobility than MS which allows for people to break into the middle class. I think it can be boiled down to political culture as well.
Political culture definitely plays a part. Boston has its moments of corruption. However, Boston was the first city to have public schools.
Institutions don't work for kids - they need hugs and love as well as food and shelter. Think about the children adopted from orphanages all over the world. They often have lots of problems because they were left to *rot* in orphanages. There is not enough personnel to care for children in the way they need to be cared for.
Better to start programs that actually work with the parents on how to help their children. You cannot assume that because a parent is poor, s/he doesn't love the children s/he has.
You're right, of course. But when I see how some of the kids have been left to raise themselves, it's hard not to take a harsh view. It's been a long time now that I've been working to help improve things, and while we don't have the vicious ravaging caused by the crack epidemic, now with the economy so bad, the decay has just been left to decompose. It's difficult to stay inspired.
The wonderful thing about teaching is that you get to start anew each year. The students and teachers tend to start the year in a hopeful mood. Some years the hope lasts into September. I hope this is a good year!
Why do some cultures/regions stay poor for decades? Why do some/many trust fund families regress to upper middle income in 30-50yrs? Why do some regions like Bos fail to create valuable new cos. or wealthy young alums (dropouts don't count) despite allegedly "good" colleges like MIT or Harvard?
Much of SiliconValley is a test bed of upward mobility.....lots of white guys from middle income suburbia and mediocre public schools who did rather well; some Indians....big diffces btwn engineers and sales guys...not a lot of kids from "best" HS/undergrads (who actually graduated) at truly top echelons of net worth...why are girls and Chinese such underachievers amongst top pay ranks of SV?
Past 40-50yrs smartest kids from decent suburban public HS in Midwest have fled to colleges in Northeast and CA; and then on to careers in CA and NYC, leaving Chic w/a lot of (at best) above-avg kids of Midwest...and in past 10yrs SV has outgunned Manhattan in attracting smartest from anywhere who seek economic freedom....ultimately, career opps outgun schools or accident of where one was born/raised, esp in an online era
Too static/passive a view to think of "formal" education as anything but a brief two-way intermediary street, arguably superseded by one's DNA/family values/dinner table "education" and lifelong (largely online and on-job) self-learning skills
In my mind, tolerating the status quo is like ignoring the rot from a gangrenous limb. You may think you can put off taking care of things, but left alone, the rot will eat into the larger organism. I want my country to be better than that. Refusing to allow parents to neglect their children by putting them in orphanages is one place to start. Purely from an economic perspective, if parents know that their kids will be taken from them and that their own benefits wil be cut if their kids aren't on grade level, maybe there will be an effort to spend more money on books than on shoes. It's worth a try. Can't be much worse than what we have now.
With these types of suggestions, I always think about how it would apply to my nephew.
Because of a condition that the doctors at Stanford were never able to diagnose, he still struggles at age 5 with basic physical movements and cannot talk yet. It is believed that is higher brain functions are all intact, just not his physical functions.
His parents are an engineer and an architect who have gone to extreme measures to find the right therapists, teachers, physical environment, etc to give him the chance to succeed.
He is still below grade level and will be for a long time, possibly forever. While he does have a disability, there is technically no identifying condition for his disability. While you can look at him and his situation and say "this is different", trying to describe in legal terms what exactly makes his situation different from the children in Mississippi is far more difficult. "Below grade level" as a sole criteria would clearly mean he would be removed from his parents.
With these types of suggestions, I always think about how it would apply to my nephew.
Because of a condition that the doctors at Stanford were never able to diagnose, he still struggles at age 5 with basic physical movements and cannot talk yet. It is believed that is higher brain functions are all intact, just not his physical functions.
His parents are an engineer and an architect who have gone to extreme measures to find the right therapists, teachers, physical environment, etc to give him the chance to succeed.
He is still below grade level and will be for a long time, possibly forever. While he does have a disability, there is technically no identifying condition for his disability. While you can look at him and his situation and say "this is different", trying to describe in legal terms what exactly makes his situation different from the children in Mississippi is far more difficult. "Below grade level" as a sole criteria would clearly mean he would be removed from his parents.
As I said in a subsequent post, the option of putting children in orphanages due to the inability of their parents to properly care for them is not going to happen. Even if it did, the criteria would have to be more than just the children being below grade level.
Our state lags behind in almost every indicator, not the least of which is the effectiveness of the Child Protective Services administration. There are not enough case workers or foster homes for all the children who need to be removed for outright abuse and neglect. Removing children because their families don't teach them is not even on the list. We have had a couple of parents jailed for failing to ensure that their children attend school, but even that was more to make a point rather than to punish the parents. They don't always understand why a 9-year-old doesn't need to miss 40 or 50 days of school when there is no reason for it.
Remember though, the failure of the child is the teacher's fault. That's what our state leaders are saying now that they are pushing new teacher accountability standards. I suppose it shouldn't matter whether or not they actually go to school.
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