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Go to many inner-city neighborhoods if you wanna see a lack of a work ethic.
nooo, the west Philly/North philly kids are all highly motivated don't you know? Its the lazy kids on the main line who don't care about their futures cause they will just be another welfare generation anyway.. right?? isn't that how it happens?
nooo, the west Philly/North philly kids are all highly motivated don't you know? Its the lazy kids on the main line who don't care about their futures cause they will just be another welfare generation anyway.. right?? isn't that how it happens?
Kids are only as motivated as their parents are (for those most part). This isn't always true of course. I would say West Philly kids are WAYYYY more hard working than North Philly Kids. Not all of North Philly of course. But kids in Strawberry Mansion, West Kensington, Hunting Park etc. They have no other options in life really except to get involved in a life of drugs and crime. I wish Temple would open some type of charter school or school that would give kids a good education and help out the unfortunate youth in struggling areas much like UPenn has. Upenn has done amazing things for west philadelphia and temple is starting to do amazing things for north philly. It's gonna be at least another decade until this area is on the path to recovery. The lower stretches of North Philly already are like Northern Liberties, Spring Arts, Spring Garden, Fairmount (which has always been a great neighborhood), Francisville, Callowhill, Brewerytown. Some great neighborhoods where gentrification is really starting to root in deep and once the area is gentrified it spreads to surrounding areas.
There are multiple kinds of hard work. A lot of suburban kids don't have to work part-time jobs to help make ends meet and/or have extra spending money, but it takes a helluva work ethic to rise to the top of one's class and gain admittance to top undergraduate (and later graduate/professional) programs. I agree that the ones who are complacent and don't end up doing great things despite their advantages (and there are certainly quite a few) deserve to be condemned for being the lazy, spoiled brats they are.
I would never pretend that I have had even a remotely hard life. I am quite blessed and am extremely grateful for the privileges and advantages I got to grow up with. But that does not mean I didn't put in a lot of elbow grease to get to where I am today, and, given that I'm not ready to slow down anytime soon, where I will be ten years down the road.
I've known poor kids with horrific chips on their shoulders. I've known rich kids with severe entitlement issues. I've known a lot of different people, and I've personally found, over the course of my admittedly short life, that work ethic and social class are two very separate things.
Last edited by ElijahAstin; 03-06-2012 at 06:40 PM..
Kids are only as motivated as their parents are (for those most part). This isn't always true of course. I would say West Philly kids are WAYYYY more hard working than North Philly Kids. Not all of North Philly of course. But kids in Strawberry Mansion, West Kensington, Hunting Park etc. They have no other options in life really except to get involved in a life of drugs and crime. I wish Temple would open some type of charter school or school that would give kids a good education and help out the unfortunate youth in struggling areas much like UPenn has. Upenn has done amazing things for west philadelphia and temple is starting to do amazing things for north philly. It's gonna be at least another decade until this area is on the path to recovery. The lower stretches of North Philly already are like Northern Liberties, Spring Arts, Spring Garden, Fairmount (which has always been a great neighborhood), Francisville, Callowhill, Brewerytown. Some great neighborhoods where gentrification is really starting to root in deep and once the area is gentrified it spreads to surrounding areas.
The Penn Alexander school is NOT a charter school though. It's a neighborhood public school that receives assistance from Penn in the form of a small per student subsidy, and program partnership with the Graduate School of Education. A good neighborhood public school with a defined catchment area is much better for a neighborhood than any charter school. The Penn Alexander school was part of an effort to keep Penn faculty in the neighborhood and generally stabilize and improve the neighborhood around the school (as a break from their earlier approach of walling up the campus and hiring a huge private police force, which didn't really work out). But the first part of that effort, years before the school, was a mortgage assistance program for Penn affiliated people, paired with physical investments in neighborhood amenities (movie theater, retail, etc).
Definitely a good model for Temple to follow (and they already are to some degree), but the area around Penn was also much much nicer to begin with than the area around Temple, so it's a tougher task in North Philly.
The Penn Alexander school is NOT a charter school though. It's a neighborhood public school that receives assistance from Penn in the form of a small per student subsidy, and program partnership with the Graduate School of Education. A good neighborhood public school with a defined catchment area is much better for a neighborhood than any charter school. The Penn Alexander school was part of an effort to keep Penn faculty in the neighborhood and generally stabilize and improve the neighborhood around the school (as a break from their earlier approach of walling up the campus and hiring a huge private police force, which didn't really work out). But the first part of that effort, years before the school, was a mortgage assistance program for Penn affiliated people, paired with physical investments in neighborhood amenities (movie theater, retail, etc).
Definitely a good model for Temple to follow (and they already are to some degree), but the area around Penn was also much much nicer to begin with than the area around Temple, so it's a tougher task in North Philly.
Agreed. And I didn't really know what Penn Alexander was so thanks for the info. I don't think Temple has the shear power that UPenn has to pull off something like this. The areas of Lower North Philadelphia however are gentrifying quickly and it is moving pretty quickly up North. I would say within the next 20-30 or so years the area around Temple will be pretty much gentrified and Professors will want to live there so something similar to Penn Alexander will be in demand.
Goes to show you how young he is and how little he knows, huh?
No, it goes to show how much you THINK you know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Burger
There's tens of millions of suburbanites ... and most of them work.
And the funny thing is that working and work ethic are not even remotely the same thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Burger
Go to many inner-city neighborhoods if you wanna see a lack of a work ethic.
First of all.. I was talking about THE NORTHEAST, and responding to somebody who was talking about how kids in the suburbs slash tires and other ish, agreeing with him and speaking about my personal experiences in the suburbs.
Secondly, only somebody who knows NOTHING about the suburbs would ever say kids in the suburbs don't lack work ethic. Here's the difference, and unlike you.. it's something I've EXPERIENCED FIRSTHAND. Kids in lower-income areas disrespect property and people and have a lack of work ethic because they say "f- it" after growing up where they do and they don't have nice things. Kids in the suburbs disrespect property and people and have a lack of work ethic because they're entitled.
You can throw around your teenaged girl digs all you like but the fact is that unlike you I know this from firsthand experience.
Quote:
Originally Posted by frankgn87
Its the lazy kids on the main line who don't care about their futures cause they will just be another welfare generation anyway.. right?? isn't that how it happens?
Actually, that's exactly what they are. Funny, guess you haven't been paying attention.
If those kids had their opportunities taken away and their money taken away, they wouldn't have a chance in hell in this world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HeavenWood
There are multiple kinds of hard work. A lot of suburban kids don't have to work part-time jobs to help make ends meet and/or have extra spending money, but it takes a helluva work ethic to rise to the top of one's class and gain admittance to top undergraduate (and later graduate/professional) programs. I agree that the ones who are complacent and don't end up doing great things despite their advantages (and there are certainly quite a few) deserve to be condemned for being the lazy, spoiled brats they are.
I would never pretend that I have had even a remotely hard life. I am quite blessed and am extremely grateful for the privileges and advantages I got to grow up with. But that does not mean I didn't put in a lot of elbow grease to get to where I am today, and, given that I'm not ready to slow down anytime soon, where I will be ten years down the road.
I've known poor kids with horrific chips on their shoulders. I've known rich kids with severe entitlement issues. I've known a lot of different people, and I've personally found, over the course of my admittedly short life, that work ethic and social class are two very separate things.
But I've found, as somebody who's technically grown up in both, that work ethic is something that is in the fabric of any real, healthy urban community no matter where it is. There's standards for what is considered a man that don't exist in the suburbs. There's situations that don't exist in the suburbs. You can feel it when you live there. You can feel the community and the grit and the hard-nosed nature of it.
I'm not saying that all suburban kids are lazy. I'm saying that for the majority of working class kids, they don't have the option not to have work ethic if they want any kind of life for themselves. If they don't work hard, they don't amount to a damn thing or "get out" of the neighborhood. A lot of suburban kids have no idea whatsoever how to be on their own. Things like the "Occupy" crap clearly show that suburban kids are going to possibly be the biggest burden on this country in the future. Not all of them of course, but collectively as a whole. For every person like summersm and HeavenWood, there's probably around 5 lazy, entitled, completely non-self-sufficient people.
I don't think it is possible for me to stop enjoying Philly haha. Lived in the area all my life. I've visited plenty of other places and I still love Philly the most.
I'm not saying that all suburban kids are lazy. I'm saying that for the majority of working class kids, they don't have the option not to have work ethic if they want any kind of life for themselves. If they don't work hard, they don't amount to a damn thing or "get out" of the neighborhood. A lot of suburban kids have no idea whatsoever how to be on their own. Things like the "Occupy" crap clearly show that suburban kids are going to possibly be the biggest burden on this country in the future. Not all of them of course, but collectively as a whole. For every person like summersm and HeavenWood, there's probably around 5 lazy, entitled, completely non-self-sufficient people.
While I appreciate the complement , I'm really no great rarity. At my Eastern Main Line public high school, I would say one quarter each of the kids were either dumb and lazy or bright and self-motivated, with the middle 50% embodying various combinations of intelligence and work ethic. Only the bottom quarter really fit the description of "lazy, entitled, [and] completely non-self-sufficient," although quite frankly, it's ridiculous that even 25% of my peers are likely destined to be heavy burdens on the state (or else their trust funds).
While I appreciate the complement , I'm really no great rarity. At my Eastern Main Line public high school, I would say one quarter each of the kids were either dumb and lazy or bright and self-motivated, with the middle 50% embodying various combinations of intelligence and work ethic. Only the bottom quarter really fit the description of "lazy, entitled, [and] completely non-self-sufficient," although quite frankly, it's ridiculous that even 25% of my peers are likely destined to be heavy burdens on the state (or else their trust funds).
You don't know! You didn't live it! LOL@!
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Lived in the area all my life. I've visited plenty of other places and I still love Philly the most.
