Reply #266: And this is the interesting thing about your outlook, Muddle... [View All]

[IrateCitizen]

I think those who challenge those notions should try living poor and black and urban for a time.

Here, you're finally acknowledging that public education does NOT exist in a vacuum -- when your other posts on this subject actually say the exact opposite. You are expecting the educational system to work without addressing any of the very real and deep SOCIETAL inequities that exist in these communities.

The two discussions cannot be separated. You cannot expect an educational system to truly work so long as students in poorer districts are receiving less funding AND worse curricula due to mandatory testing requirements than those in more well-off districts. You cannot expect that situation to work when parents are unable to get involved in their kids' education because they have to work two oppressive, low-wage jobs just to pay the rent and keep food on the table. Any expectations of vastly greater success of the educational system under such gross inequities is simply misguided -- unless you are content with seeing a great number of those kids abandoned for the betterment of a lucky few.

My parents taught for several years in Prince George's County, MD back in the 1960's, before they moved back to PA where my mom grew up. There were problems back then, but I never heard them say anything about the situation being hopeless -- even though they had sixth graders bringing knives to school.

My wife taught her first two years in Co-op City in The Bronx. She told me that if she had stayed there any longer, it would have totally burned her out on teaching. My wife is an excellent and dedicated teacher, but she received absolutely ZERO support from the administration or parents, and as just a teacher she couldn't do it all by herself.

Perhaps the difference in experiences between my parents some 35 years ago and my wife less than 5 years ago has something to do with the increase in inequities between the two situations -- a form of class segregation every bit as destructive as "separate but equal" was in the South, but more insiduous. I would also say that any realistic expectations of success within the educational system cannot be truly expected until this new segregation is shattered -- and any attempts otherwise will be little more that the equivalent of putting a band-aid on gangrene.