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So today was my first day mentoring an inner city minority student (12th grade) in lab in order to get her working on some real science that she's never had the opportunity to have access to in her life. Let's go over the checklist in educational background for someone entering the 12th grade in this program:
Have you ever taken chemistry? No
Have you ever taken physics? No
Have you ever taken biology? A little bit
--So what does DNA do? I have no idea
Do you know algebra? No
Ok how let's start off easy,
How many micro- and milli- liters are in a liter? No clue
How many milli- grams are in a gram? What does 500 milligrams look like in numbers on a scale that reads in grams?
If you divide 10^6 by 10^3 what number do you have left over? How about 10^-3 divided by 10^-6?
Shocking America. Wake up. You've failed your underprivileged youth. This 12th grader stands no chance, the buck was simply passed along to someone else while she was allowed to pass all the way into 12th grade when her math skills are borderline 3rd/4th grade level. How does anyone who has never studied basic physics/chemistry and doesn't even know what DNA does stand a chance at getting into college when her dreams are to become a doctor? At some point, we need to wake up and say the failure ends right now. For all of the whining about how minorities in underprivileged areas are leeches on tax payer dollar handouts, you'd think people would want to break the cycle of failure that leads to it in the first place. It's not this girl's fault every single adult in her life up until now has completely failed her in an epic fashion. And you wonder why so many people get caught in the cycle of failure that drains inner city youth? Look in the mirror. Everyone is responsible for this failure that leads to the same cycle all over again of poverty and crime. Fail America.
So the Teachers unions have no blame? what about the NEA? What about the lack of School Vouchers? What about the parents who just dont care? it is not the fault of this nation, its the fault of the morons in DC and the the parasites who keep the education system under the control of the government instead of letting kids and parents have the choice on where to send their kids and money.
I know everyone loves vouchers. They may improve individual outcomes, but they don't help systemic ones. My city has de facto vouchers. Public schools under about grade 6 are pretty good (scholastically) and popular with local parents. School demographics reflect the neighbor communities, and scores have been increasing significantly year over year for the past 5 or so.
Once middle school hits, flight starts. Middle class (and up) parents either move to another district or send their kids to private school. Parents start looking into grants and everything else to fund private schools if they are committed to the city. Some of the parents are public school teachers in the district.
It is a well established fact that parents with means or resources exit the school district in middle school. As a result, the middle schools and high schools do not reflect the community at all. And they perform poorly. There is no balance at all, because the schools aren't diverse in terms of achievement/ability or anything. It is a very tough road.
On the other hand, we have tons of excellent private schools....
I guess only time will tell if the demographics will shift.
It'll never happen. GWB's and Ted Kennedy's No Child Left Behind set standards that the black community hates. Vying to soon replace NCLB is the Common Core Initiative - Common Core State Standards Initiative | Home
We'll be having this same depressing discussion in another 10 years.
The real bad part of what you said is that Blacks from Africa DO real well here in the US so some American Blacks hiding their failing in life to racism don't have a leg to stand on.
The real bad part of what you said is that Blacks from Africa DO real well here in the US so some American Blacks hiding their failing in life to racism don't have a leg to stand on.
The difference is that Black Africans have a totally different narrative than Black Americans. Black Africans coming here have a different perspective on America, and coming by choice.
The real bad part of what you said is that Blacks from Africa DO real well here in the US so some American Blacks hiding their failing in life to racism don't have a leg to stand on.
It is time to state the obvious here. We are getting a subset of upwardly mobile Africans.
Let's put it this was, if you were super rich, you don't need to leave home for better opportunity. Life is pretty good for you.
If you are super poor, it will take you 100 years to save up for the ride to the US. This leaves you with people who are middle to upper middle class who share the opportunities and experience that other middle class people do. They are well equipped to succeed, because we are getting the best and the brightest.
Nobody is responsible for this lazy waste of humanity than the the kid herself!
Quote:
Originally Posted by fibonacci
So today was my first day mentoring an inner city minority student (12th grade) in lab in order to get her working on some real science that she's never had the opportunity to have access to in her life. Let's go over the checklist in educational background for someone entering the 12th grade in this program:
Have you ever taken chemistry? No
Have you ever taken physics? No
Have you ever taken biology? A little bit
--So what does DNA do? I have no idea
Do you know algebra? No
Ok how let's start off easy,
How many micro- and milli- liters are in a liter? No clue
How many milli- grams are in a gram? What does 500 milligrams look like in numbers on a scale that reads in grams?
If you divide 10^6 by 10^3 what number do you have left over? How about 10^-3 divided by 10^-6?
Shocking America. Wake up. You've failed your underprivileged youth. This 12th grader stands no chance, the buck was simply passed along to someone else while she was allowed to pass all the way into 12th grade when her math skills are borderline 3rd/4th grade level. How does anyone who has never studied basic physics/chemistry and doesn't even know what DNA does stand a chance at getting into college when her dreams are to become a doctor? At some point, we need to wake up and say the failure ends right now. For all of the whining about how minorities in underprivileged areas are leeches on tax payer dollar handouts, you'd think people would want to break the cycle of failure that leads to it in the first place. It's not this girl's fault every single adult in her life up until now has completely failed her in an epic fashion. And you wonder why so many people get caught in the cycle of failure that drains inner city youth? Look in the mirror. Everyone is responsible for this failure that leads to the same cycle all over again of poverty and crime. Fail America.
would have responded to all the questions the exact same way.However I am a very sucessuful Carpenter and think working for a living is rewarding. Creating things with your hands beats a mind full of junk you will never use, and at great expense no less,student loan scam anyone?
Why is it that so many of you C-D "Grade A hard workers" (TM) can't accept that some people choose a different life path than yours and still be successful. I don't begrudge those that don't go to college. I don't get why you dislike people that do.
So today was my first day mentoring an inner city minority student (12th grade) in lab in order to get her working on some real science that she's never had the opportunity to have access to in her life. Let's go over the checklist in educational background for someone entering the 12th grade in this program:
Have you ever taken chemistry? No
Have you ever taken physics? No
Have you ever taken biology? A little bit
--So what does DNA do? I have no idea
Do you know algebra? No
Ok how let's start off easy,
How many micro- and milli- liters are in a liter? No clue
How many milli- grams are in a gram? What does 500 milligrams look like in numbers on a scale that reads in grams?
If you divide 10^6 by 10^3 what number do you have left over? How about 10^-3 divided by 10^-6?
Shocking America. Wake up. You've failed your underprivileged youth. This 12th grader stands no chance, the buck was simply passed along to someone else while she was allowed to pass all the way into 12th grade when her math skills are borderline 3rd/4th grade level. How does anyone who has never studied basic physics/chemistry and doesn't even know what DNA does stand a chance at getting into college when her dreams are to become a doctor? At some point, we need to wake up and say the failure ends right now. For all of the whining about how minorities in underprivileged areas are leeches on tax payer dollar handouts, you'd think people would want to break the cycle of failure that leads to it in the first place. It's not this girl's fault every single adult in her life up until now has completely failed her in an epic fashion. And you wonder why so many people get caught in the cycle of failure that drains inner city youth? Look in the mirror. Everyone is responsible for this failure that leads to the same cycle all over again of poverty and crime. Fail America.
Unfortunately as a society we have allowed standards to drop. Today a Supreme Court judge wrote because children may be humiliated thousands of years of history must be tossed aside. We are not allowed to tell this girl she is lacking academically and steer her towards other pursuits that would be damaging. If you tell this to too many people of a certain group well that's racist.
I really don't know what can be done. I've done tutoring in the past in Baltimore and Rochester and I ran across what you just experienced. It is truly a disheartening experience.
The difference is that Black Africans have a totally different narrative than Black Americans. Black Africans coming here have a different perspective on America, and coming by choice.
This is true and in my experience is the main difference. Having some culture to fall back on is key too.
Unfortunately as a society we have allowed standards to drop. Today a Supreme Court judge wrote because children may be humiliated thousands of years of history must be tossed aside. We are not allowed to tell this girl she is lacking academically and steer her towards other pursuits that would be damaging. If you tell this to too many people of a certain group well that's racist.
I really don't know what can be done. I've done tutoring in the past in Baltimore and Rochester and I ran across what you just experienced. It is truly a disheartening experience.
That girl makes me mad. Her GPA was subpar, she needs to get over it. If she really wanted to go to UT, she should have worked harder in high school. She knew the requirements.
On an autocorrecting iDevice.
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