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you know the whole "hold the carrot in front of a donkey" to motivate him fable?
I think the allure of college is holding the carrot WAY too far away for black students living in ghettos. They don't think they'll ever reach it. In their eyes, studying now is certainly not helping them in the interim before college. There's no immediate payoff.
I think if we could bring the carrot closer, like a trade they could do after school let out for the day where they could make money IMMEDIATELY, I think that would motivate the students to study harder. They could see all their hard work pay off right away.
I doubt that this "carrot" is going to motivate many, some who are fricken illiterate.....you know...... cannot read and write.
Many of the trades take a lot of skill and education, look at how much things like cars and plumbing have changed. Lots of these people will be very incompetent even if they do manage to get into the trades, will be very crappy workers.
I mean, some of these people are better suited working in jobs like sanitation or janitorial (nothing wrong with either), lots of the jobs illegals do.
Maybe in other countries, but here, you can take out loans and get financial aid for school.
My story: My first 2 or so years of college were funded by my family, but that was it. I dropped out of school, lived at home, worked and saved money. I applied for financial aid. I was able to put myself through school using a mix of my own money that I saved plus financial aid.
My friend's story: An African American friend. She used loans to get through her undergrad, worked two jobs and paid those loans back. Then she put herself through grad school, got a job (paralegal), didn't enjoy the work, saved MORE money and put herself through grad school AGAIN for a second time towards a different career.
I doubt that this "carrot" is going to motivate many, some who are fricken illiterate.....you know...... cannot read and write.
Many of the trades take a lot of skill and education, look at how much things like cars and plumbing have changed. Lots of these people will be very incompetent even if they do manage to get into the trades, will be very crappy workers.
I mean, some of these people are better suited working in jobs like sanitation or janitorial (nothing wrong with either), lots of the jobs illegals do.
You can have a full-time job not being able to read and write. I know it seems ludicrous, but it's possible.
A family member of mine tutored the adult illiterate. One of his students was a Frenchman who lived in the U.S. for 20 years but never got a license because he didn't know how to read English. Yet, he still had a job and made a decent salary.
A client of mine who was a 45-year-old illiterate African American lady was able to hold down jobs and rise to supervisoral status never knowing how to read or write. She WATCHED what other people did, memorized it, and she was able to learn enough to get by.
I'm not advocating that being literal is not necessary, I'm just saying that if you have a will, you don't need to be able to read in order to make it. Nor does it mean that if you can't read as a child that you won't be able to learn as an adult.
Not in the slightest. It says that there is a framework for the OVERALL success or failure of a group. You separate the individual factors from the overall factors. You then notice the same patterns that appear. If it looks like that all your neighbors have fathers in prison and mothers on crack...there most likely is a common thread. You find that common thread. Typically it occurs in poverty stricken areas. Crack is not an epidemic where I grew up. Not too many fathers in prisons where I was raised. You go down to the less affluent part of town, the story is reversed.
The individual stories are different. Why is YOUR father in jail (he stole xyz)? YOUR mother needs help. Thus you apply what you know universally to help others. Liberal policies take psychology, sociology, economics, and other disciplines to see what common factors exist between each personal story to create a narrative for the whole. Latter it applies those solutions to aid on an individual level.
This is in contrast for not looking what factors exist and simply blaming all poor people for being poor.
What came first?
Obviously if all your neighbors are in prison and addicted to crack, there will be higher poverty.
If everyone is hard working, deligent, honest and provides for their kids, there will be more prosperity.
And when people are poor because they spend most their life in prison because they felt like committing crimes, or they chose to use drugs, don't feel like working, have children they cannot feed -- yes you certainly can blame them.
Yes, and no. Liberals give too much credence to the conservative beliefs that Ayn Rand would love.
We are not the sole determinants in our own success. A society is interdependent. It's more complex than conservatives are willing to admit and/or understand.
It's really not all that complex. Schools are not expected to teach children to read and write much less learn math and science. They've become giant baby-sitting centers that seem to have the main duty of providing 2 meals to kids and making them feel good about themselves.
Laziness and sloth is rewarded with very generous welfare programs. Don't feel like working for a living? Don't feel like studying? Feel like laying around and getting high on drugs? Well don't worry - you will be given free housing, food stamps, Medicaid, even cash handouts for the rest of your days.
And colleges today are nothing but degree mills. Many colleges have no admission standards and a 4 year degree no longer means someone can read and write past a third grade level or perform complex math equations.
Maybe in other countries, but here, you can take out loans and get financial aid for school.
My story: My first 2 or so years of college were funded by my family, but that was it. I dropped out of school, lived at home, worked and saved money. I applied for financial aid. I was able to put myself through school using a mix of my own money that I saved plus financial aid.
My friend's story: An African American friend. She used loans to get through her undergrad, worked two jobs and paid those loans back. Then she put herself through grad school, got a job (paralegal), didn't enjoy the work, saved MORE money and put herself through grad school AGAIN for a second time towards a different career.
Is it easy? no. Can it be done? Absolutely.
What if you don't qualify? Or you do but have to pay more in interest.
In fact, that's why we have the highest wealth gap out of any industrialized nation. It's not cultural. It's structural.
Good for your friend...just like my neighbor making it do a decent level...that's not the norm.
It's sad that we live in a society where lending and then being beholden to the rich is seen as okay. It's sad when sometimes that's not even a possibility.
You're reinforcing the idea it's structural by mentioning student loans.
It's really not all that complex. Schools are not expected to teach children to read and write much less learn math and science. They've become giant baby-sitting centers that seem to have the main duty of providing 2 meals to kids and making them feel good about themselves.
Laziness and sloth is rewarded with very generous welfare programs. Don't feel like working for a living? Don't feel like studying? Feel like laying around and getting high on drugs? Well don't worry - you will be given free housing, food stamps, Medicaid, even cash handouts for the rest of your days.
And colleges today are nothing but degree mills. Many colleges have no admission standards and a 4 year degree no longer means someone can read and write past a third grade level or perform complex math equations.
You're not an educator. The simplicity of your posts and lack of differential between reading comprehension and illiteracy allows me to honestly and vehemently say...you really don't understand.
Many colleges have no admission standards, even though the top schools are harder to get into now than ever before? Does that make sense to you?
Reading below the third grade level is illiterate, you've not posted anything where a large percentage of our college students are illiterate.
Obviously if all your neighbors are in prison and addicted to crack, there will be higher poverty.
If everyone is hard working, deligent, honest and provides for their kids, there will be more prosperity.
And when people are poor because they spend most their life in prison because they felt like committing crimes, or they chose to use drugs, don't feel like working, have children they cannot feed -- yes you certainly can blame them.
Poverty came first. Sharecroppers, slaves, unable to buy a home...Duh, poverty. Read the post. I find it ironic YOU posted the reading comprehension article.
Blacks who came to America as slaves pretty much didn't bring their African culture with them. They had no culture. They eventually adopted the culture of poor southern whites.
(As partial evidence of this, many blacks across the country still talk with the accent and verb usage as poor southern whites. (So much for "keeping it real" by "acting black")).
Anyway.
The Blacks adopted the poor southern white values such as marriage, christianity, family stability, etc. As values such as these started to fall apart in the white community, they REALLY fell apart in the black community.
See, blacks without a strong cultural history (i.e. American blacks), pick up the culture that surrounds them. As the divorce rate for white began to soar and single motherhood became more a norm, the blacks copied this in spades.
I strongly believe that if white culture would get back to where it used to be (not sure how probable that is), black culture would eventually follow suit. The more the parent culture (white culture) falls apart, the more black culture is going to fall apart. The more whites become arrogant and act entitled, the more blacks act that way as well. See, blacks want to have the same things as whites, so if the whites act a certain way, blacks copy it because they feel it makes them equal to whites when they do so.
I think the fact that we need welfare, food stamps, etc., is just a symptom of the problem and may perpetuate the problem, but I think the ROOT problem is the collapsing/rapidly changing/entitled values of white and black culture.
2 murders in 25 years in an inner city neighborhood?
Try again.
Just comparing my old neighborhood to compton, which has a median home price double that of mine.
There were 26 murders in compton in 2010, a 46 year low.
My neighborhood in Philly has had 2 in 25 years. 97% white.
Just stating the fact that maybe the simplest answer is this....
Blacks are simply more violent than whites.
Since you have proven that poverty isn't a factor.
Try again.
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