Oldham County Educational Achievement (violent crime, lawyers, neighborhood)

[tomocox]

Recently, there has been quite a discussion about whether all Oldham County Schools outpaced the better JCPS schools. There are many factors to consider in order to honestly and truly compare any educational system whether private or public, but one significant factor is how well students do on college entrance exams as those do weigh so heavily on most college entrance applications. I encourage the nay-sayers who doubt my passionate remarks complimenting Oldham County Schools to look at the Kentucky Department of Education findings and the attached link to an article in the Courier-Journal. A similar article about the weakness of JCPS scores appeared approximately two weeks ago in the same paper.

Please link to: Students top U.S., state on ACT

[nik]

Those numbers can be very misleading because I'm guessing that the socio-economic composition of the Oldham and Jefferson county schools differ.

[tomocox]

You are right, but which came first, the chicken or the egg? But then, I came from the poorest of the poor, and my parents expected me to achieve and I did. My class of 54 from one of Kentucky's poorest rural counties has risen to the top and I won't tolerate anyone making an excuse that their children can't. I did, 52 others in my class did too. Oh, yeah, one that didn't never got the chance. He was killed in an industrial transportation accident the year after we graduated. But from that class of mostly poor boys and girls, there are at least 4 lawyers, two doctors, 6 teachers, a member of one of America's think tanks, and the list goes on. Don't give me lame excuses any more. Yes, the parents of Oldham County provide better opportunity for their children, but they earned it and they demand it from their kids. No child deserves to be told that they have an excuse.

[nik]

It's not an excuse, it's called humanity. I came from a poor rural area, too, but I was safe every day. I didn't have to worry about violent crime in my neighborhood. I also had 3 meals a day. I have done a lot of volunteering in city schools (Chicago) -- tutoring, mentoring, etc. I'm not saying that those kids DON'T want to succeed -- sometimes the odds are stacked pretty strongly against them. It's hard to study late into the evening after you work an 8 hr shift after work washing dishes as one of my mentees had to do in order to feed herself and her siblings.

[tomocox]

I hear you, at every angle, I understand your point, but that is exactly my point. So long as they have excuses and get to choose guns and gameboys verses education and quality living, they will never ever have security. It is hard for people to understand that my love is not hatred, but if you ever were on a sports team, then you know a good coach is a firm coach. Our children are not being held accountable and therefore we are building a nation of loosers and that does't exclude the well-to-do.

As far as the child washing dishes, I bleed for that child, but her parents don't. Our history tells us that dishwashing child has a darn good chance of being a special adult. She is not the typical child who has excuses made for her.