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Are we supposed to believe there are not brainy kids in poor neighborhoods who are not being sabotaged by teachers who fundamentally believe in social Darwinism even if they don't know the term.
This is why I think we should have a National Recommended Reading List so smart kids can find relevant information and ideas better than they get from stupid teachers not good enough to be hired in rich neighborhoods.
What would lots of well informed poor kids do to dumb rich kids? LOL
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With few exceptions, you can directly correlate good elementary schools with wealthy neighborhoods.
It's the parents.
They won't stand for crumbling, unsafe buildings, outdated supplies, bad principals, ineffective teachers. And by and large they bring their children to school clean, well-fed and rested, with their completed homework in their backpacks.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by psikeyhackr
Are we supposed to believe there are not brainy kids in poor neighborhoods who are not being sabotaged by teachers who fundamentally believe in social Darwinism even if they don't know the term.
This is why I think we should have a National Recommended Reading List so smart kids can find relevant information and ideas better than they get from stupid teachers not good enough to be hired in rich neighborhoods.
What would lots of well informed poor kids do to dumb rich kids? LOL
I don't know that smart, interested kids are "sabotaged" in poorer schools.
In fact, I volunteer in a few title 1 schools and am pleasantly surprised at the effort put forth by the teachers to try to get kids to succeed. They don't always have the resources to help those who are falling behind, but it seems there is a LOT of recognition for students who are successful. A lot of encouragement.
With few exceptions, you can directly correlate good elementary schools with wealthy neighborhoods.
It's the parents.
They won't stand for crumbling, unsafe buildings, outdated supplies, bad principals, ineffective teachers. And by and large they bring their children to school clean, well-fed and rested, with their completed homework in their backpacks.
And if the school system can't deliver the facilities, etc. those kids end up in private schools. DC and Baltimore City are two examples.
Let’s do our best to remove the wealth of the areas they serve (I know this is difficult!). What are top school districts doing differently than the median-, or lower-end districts? Would love to hear actual examples from your area.
they have parents that chose to live there based on it being a top school district.
Parental involvement, but there's so much more than that, so this isn't a blanket observation.
I've taught in both, and from only anecdotal evidence, I'd say parental involvement. Many parents were involved in a low-income district where I worked, but I'd say overall, just not as a general rule, primarily due to TIME constraints: Parents overworked, often at more than one job, just couldn't devote extra time. I know. I talked with so many of them when I could get in touch.
When parents aren't as involved, sometimes students think school isn't as important, and without mom or dad harping about school, well, video games, tv, and friends are more fun than school work.
I could never get a parent volunteer in the lower-income district, but in an affluence area, nearly every student had a parent or even grandparent ready to help, and I think it comes down to TIME. When you work 2-3 jobs, putting food on the table and keeping a roof over your head holds priority.
Parental involvement, but there's so much more than that, so this isn't a blanket observation.
I've taught in both, and from only anecdotal evidence, I'd say parental involvement. Many parents were involved in a low-income district where I worked, but I'd say overall, just not as a general rule, primarily due to TIME constraints: Parents overworked, often at more than one job, just couldn't devote extra time. I know. I talked with so many of them when I could get in touch.
When parents aren't as involved, sometimes students think school isn't as important, and without mom or dad harping about school, well, video games, tv, and friends are more fun than school work.
I could never get a parent volunteer in the lower-income district, but in an affluence area, nearly every student had a parent or even grandparent ready to help, and I think it comes down to TIME. When you work 2-3 jobs, putting food on the table and keeping a roof over your head holds priority.
Almost but not quite right. It's not that well off people have more time. In fact they tend to have less because they are working their butts off.
Rather they choose to put time into things that matter, like the education of their children, than other things. It's really not about wealth; it's about "give a damn." People who "give a damn" generally are better education, and are better off financially, than those who don't. You can give people schools. You can give people financial aid. You can give them support. But you can't make them give a damn. They have to bring that themselves.
I don't know that smart, interested kids are "sabotaged" in poorer schools.
I had a nun tell me, "You will get into a good high school but you won't do well."
She was mad at me because I refused to be a patrol boy even though the official school policy was that it was voluntary. The nitwit nuns never taught science even though I saw a shelf with enough science for an entire class. In 8th grade we had Algebra books but they never taught it.
There is no way for either of us to know what goes on in every grade school in the country, but I don't doubt that there are plenty of crappy ones around the country.
I took the IQ test to qualify for MENSA. Almost everything I learned about science in grade school was indirectly the result of reading science fiction. No adults ever recommended it, I just stumbled across it as far less boring than what came from teachers. In high school I got straight A's in math and sciences, straight D's in religion freshman year. Payed cash for reservations in hell.
The truth: demographics. Intelligence is a function of genetics*. People will be dumb and people will be smart regardless of classroom instruction. No matter how much money is spent on classrooms, teachers, programs and learning resources, people dumb as a rock aren’t going to excel. With regard to the expensive private schools, they focus on instructing on test taking and there tends to be a bump in performance on the standardized tests, but it’s not significantly different than the average public school in an area with the same demographic. While everyone is different when people are grouped racially and ethnically trends emerge. When studies show Asians perform the best in math it is not because they are given more instruction or more resources are spent on them. It’s a genetic trait (intelligence is in the eye of the beholder. IQ measures intelligence according to the definition of the test writers. Everyone has their own metrics as do I).
*Intelligence has to be cultivated which is best done when a kid seeks to acquire knowledge on his or her own according to his or her own interests with modern resources like the internet which make it possible. Given that schools force kids to memorize biased information to pass tests and kids are programmed with a specific thought process, education and schooling is actually an impediment to intellect and we have people who are genetically smart but all think the same and repeat the same nonsense they are taught starting in preschool.
Last edited by john620; 07-12-2019 at 10:08 PM..
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