Quote:
Originally Posted by marihark
Actually, I had attended a taping of a talk show that mentioned one of the schools we passes - it was not too far from Times Square. On the talk show they also said "and other schools nearby". I was a visitor from out of state who found everything in Manhattan so expensive. My son (who attends public school) asked me the question, and I was just curious.
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The problem is that your "innocent" question is presumptive in nature. Your child may have posed the question, but:
1) You are not a child and have the ability to filter the question with your knowledge and experience.
2) obviously, you could not "filter", and the question was not simply that of an innocent child, but a question a child could conceive of ONLY if fed certain FACTS and/or PRESUMPTTIONS, which a child could NOT conceive upon with his own knowledge and experience.
3) For example, that the children in Manhattan public schools are "poor". The child had to have been TOLD this!! A child cannot conclude such a thing independantly.
4) you pose such a question, presumptively, without any supporting fact, and w/o any CONTEXT whatsover! The question is open and general, encompassing ALL Manhattan, and one would presume the entirety of NYC.
Your response is equally lacking context and substance.
The only fact asserted by you, is that you saw children at play, in a Public School yard, near Times Square. That is it! No other facts, context, nor substantiation. It would appear that based upon those facts and those facts alone, you presume them to be poor.
You need to explain your presumption and/or lack of factual contet and/or substantiation.
The reason is that you appear to be *thinking* and *acting* with a prejudiced mind and outlook. Most fearfully, it would appear that your are transfering that "prejudice" to your child, for if your child did in fact pose that question, a question which emantes from a certain prejudiced viewpoint. An innocent objective mind could not have concluded such a question w/o the presumption of those children being poor!!
Understand?
Similarly, your response that you are from out of state, attending a "talk show", in which one of the schools you passed was mentioned, along with other schools.
You fail to state the subject, nature and context, of the talk show. Why was the school mentioned? In what context was the school mentioned, etc....
You appear to again be presumptive in presuming that the respondents to this thread would be of a similar mindset and viewpoint of yours and your child, but with more knowledge and awareness to be able to answer your curiosity. One assume that the forum respondents are not poor, can afford to live in Manhattan, and do not send their children to public schools!
Did you assune that some of the parents of those children w/b in this forum, or did you simply assume that everyone w/b such as yourself? Viewing those children in the same context, whatever that might be, of the "talk show" and "out of staters"??
How do you presume that those children and/or their parents would take such an "innocent" question, if posed to them?
Your question was not "innocent", it was naive, presumptuous", and founded with prejudice, the sort of which (race, class, suburban) I do not presume, but only acknowledge the existence of.
Sorry, if you were taken aback by the response, but in a truly open forum, in which everyone is not like you, nor of the same or equal mentality or class, one should expect viewpoints which may clash and confront.
Thoughts, views and opinions of a froum are light rays of light emanating from a Prism, varied and never from the same angle!
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