Why Do the Rich Kids Do Better?

[Markle]

Not that some major improvements haven't been established over the past twenty years, but..
The prison industrial complex and the test publishing industry made a killing while students were forced to pass standardized tests instead of learning things they and their communities found more important.

 

[Unkotare]

Because we have reports every week of some fucked up teacher abusing children.

You fuckers are worse than priests!

What have you seen with your own eyes?

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Why do rich kids do better?

Right off hand, I would say that it is because none of them have mother's who poop out kids by a bunch of different men in order to get welfare money.

 

[Lisa558]

Your inner city schools are really tough places. Is it tough for the students there to give a shit about Caesar taking a shiv in the back on the Ides of March? Or do their circumstances in their schools give them a lot of empathy for JC?

True for poor, inner-city schools NOW.

But it wasn’t always that way. Eighty years ago, the children of impoverished, uneducated immigrants studied like the dickens. And the material they covered, oh my! I’ve been clearing out my parents’ house, and despite living in tenements in the 30s and 40s, they were reading the classics by 7th grade and already tackling basic algebra.

I also found some of Nana’s grade school books. She was reading Longfellow and mastered the capitals of every state in 6th grade - 100 years ago!

So you can’t blame poverty. It’s the VALUES, taught by one’s parents, and the goals one sets for oneself (influenced largely by the instilled values).

 

[Unkotare]

Because we have reports every week of some fucked up teacher abusing children.

You fuckers are worse than priests!

 

[Dadoalex]

No.

So you teach exponents to a kid who can't do their times tables?
Sentence mapping to a kid who can't read?

How's that working out for them?

 

[Dogmaphobe]

I sure hope you aren't teaching your kids about unkotare.

 

[Unkotare]

You want to rule your classroom with no outside oversight

.....

Bullshit. There is a great deal of very frequent oversight.

 

[Markle]

True for poor, inner-city schools NOW.

But it wasn’t always that way. Eighty years ago, the children of impoverished, uneducated immigrants studied like the dickens. And the material they covered, oh my! I’ve been clearing out my parents’ house, and despite living in tenements in the 30s and 40s, they were reading the classics by 7th grade and already tackling basic algebra.

I also found some of Nana’s grade school books. She was reading Longfellow and mastered the capitals of every state in 6th grade - 100 years ago!

So you can’t blame poverty. It’s the VALUES, taught by one’s parents, and the goals one sets for oneself (influenced largely by the instilled values).

 

[Lisa558]

Wow! Thank you…..my point exactly.

These days, the vast majority of 18-year-olds about to “graduate” (cough-cough) from inner-city high schools couldn’t get these right.

 

[westwall]

Bullshit. There is a great deal of very frequent oversight.

Oh? From whom? Fellow lackeys?

 

[Markle]

Wow! Thank you…..my point exactly.

These days, the vast majority of 18-year-olds about to “graduate” (cough-cough) from inner-city high schools couldn’t get these right.

My Mother's Father came to this country around the turn of the last century from Denmark with a 4th-grade education. My grandmother never worked outside of the home. They had three kids and all three went to college. He worked menial jobs, frequently more than two at a time, and worked through the great depression.

Over the years he bought and maintained a number of apartment buildings in Chicago leaving them with a fine retirement with nothing planned from Social Security. My grandmother started to receive a spousal SS check each month and she thought it was ridiculous! BUT, she kept and spent that, it was her money. They were married for over 50 years and she lived well to 102 due to the ownership of those apartment buildings.

 

[Lisa558]

My Mother's Father came to this country around the turn of the last century from Denmark with a 4th-grade education. My grandmother never worked outside of the home. They had three kids and all three went to college. He worked menial jobs, frequently more than two at a time, and worked through the great depression.

Over the years he bought and maintained a number of apartment buildings in Chicago leaving them with a fine retirement with nothing planned from Social Security. My grandmother started to receive a spousal SS check each month and she thought it was ridiculous! BUT, she kept and spent that, it was her money. They were married for over 50 years and she lived well to 102 due to the ownership of those apartment buildings.

Alas, it’s not the same country as it was 100 years ago (or even 50). The caliber of the population, and the expectations of them, have dropped significantly.

My mother’s father’s story is much like yours: he came to this country as a teen, not speaking the language (same with my grandmother - she came as a child), and he too worked menial jobs through the Depression to put food on the table. Yet his children both went to college (as did my dad and uncle on the other side).

They didn’t cry as to how poor they were, nor let what Hitler was doing in Europe deter them from their goals.

I‘m amazed when I read my grandfather’s letters as well. Here he was, arriving in America without a word of English, and without any formal education beyond 6th grade, yet he eventually wrote beautiful English letters - grammatically correct, high-level vocabulary, complex sentence structure, and not a word misspelled.

Now we have kids, native English speakers, who can’t write a simple sentence or spell worth a damn.

We’ve fallen a long way, baby.

 

[Coyote]

What have you seen with your own eyes?

More to the point….what actual data is there?

There are 4,007,908 teachers in the US.

Yet the entire profession is painted as horrible based on a few videos, testimonials etc of the bad ones.

 

[westwall]

More to the point….what actual data is there?

There are 4,007,908 teachers in the US.

Yet the entire profession is painted as horrible based on a few videos, testimonials etc of the bad ones.

And terrible test scores, and students who can't do simple math, and students who can't point to which continent they live on on a globe, and children who can't read or write, and students who don't know simple history, or civics, but damn, they sure are good at administering blow jobs!

 

[Mac-7]

Bullshit. There is a great deal of very frequent oversight.

How did the black teacher get away with bullying white students?

 

[Coyote]

And terrible test scores, and students who can't do simple math, and students who can't point to which continent they live on on a globe, and children who can't read or write, and students who don't know simple history, or civics, but damn, they sure are good at administering blow jobs!

In all seriousness (let’s not battle ideologically over this please), they aren’t all learning about about blow jobs…you are taking one extreme example.

What really is the problem?

What do kids learn in school today? We have at least two members who are currently K12 teachers and directly involved: SweetSue92 and Unkotare .

What is the curriculum these days? What are kids learning or not learning. I’m interesting because my schooling was in the 70’s so my experiences are far removed from what kids learn and need to learn to succeed in todays world. I don’t have kids or grandkids so I don’t have second hand direct info either. I know there are arguments that we need to go back to “reading, writing and arithmetic ” but today’s world and it’s challenges are a far cry from my childhood, my mother’s childhood and that of my grandparents.

 

[Coyote]

How did the black teacher get away with bullying white students?

Because out of 4,007,908 teachers, you are going to have some who are bad.

 

[Foxfyre]

Many people make assumptions about the potential and ability of students without understanding context. If you look at the results from wealthy districts vs more economically challenged areas, the difference is clear but not necessarily the causes. Having had extensive experience with students from wealthy suburbs and inner city schools I can tell you that real differences are on the individual level, not as generalized groups. Some of the key influences include:

• parental involvement
• time
• living conditions
• availability of extra help

The families of wealthier students can, and very often do, provide tutoring outside of school to help their children get ahead. As well they should. However, if the family of a student from a different background can't afford to do the same, it is NOT a reflection of the capacity of that student.

Few students get tutoring despite evidence it can remedy learning loss

Schools have federal money to pay for it. Yet only about 1 in 10 students is actually receiving high-quality tutoring.

www.chalkbeat.org

My parents were not what you would call poster children for good parenting. We weren't poor as going hungry or without necessities, but my father was not the best provider so we had very little in the way of 'extras' that wealthier families generally provide their children. But I was encouraged to be creative with modeling clay and water colors, was allowed music lessons and they bought me a used trumpet so I could be in band along with the necessary required clothes to be in chorus. And I grew up with books. Lots of books. I was given books and went regularly to the library and read voraciously. And I had excellent teachers who never indoctrinated but simply taught us how to learn real subjects, think creatively, expand our point of view.

As a result I never felt disadvantaged, scored well on the ACT & SAT tests, have enjoyed a wildly eclectic but interesting and rewarding career, was able to give my own kids some advantages I didn't have which good parents do for their children.

It isn't the money. It's the values, habits, attitude, and vision of good parenting. People who are drunk or drugged out most of the time are not able to do good parenting. People without solid values, good habits, sensible attitudes, no vision are not going to inspire or encourage their kids.

 

[westwall]

In all seriousness (let’s not battle ideologically over this please), they aren’t all learning about about blow jobs…you are taking one extreme example.

What really is the problem?

What do kids learn in school today? We have at least two members who are currently K12 teachers and directly involved: SweetSue92 and Unkotare .

What is the curriculum these days? What are kids learning or not learning. I’m interesting because my schooling was in the 70’s so my experiences are far removed from what kids learn and need to learn to succeed in todays world. I don’t have kids or grandkids so I don’t have second hand direct info either. I know there are arguments that we need to go back to “reading, writing and arithmetic ” but today’s world and it’s challenges are a far cry from my childhood, my mother’s childhood and that of my grandparents.

My schooling was in the 1950's. The curriculum today, is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than it was back in the 1950's. I still have my 1927 Los Angeles Unified School District High School chemistry textbook, and it is SUPERIOR to the current college level chemistry textbook. Why is that? I don't know. I just know what the results are. I have used my textbooks to teach my daughter and she is dual enrolled in high school, which is a joke to her, and college, where she is actually being challenged.