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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
 What if we give parents training of how to optimise their kids education outcome. Both my parents grew up in poverty in South Asia and I went to a predominantly white working class high school and I never met a parent who didn’t genuinely care about their kids. At worst they dropped out of schools themselves due to having a terrible time there, and they just now still have animosity to the system.  [/quote]

And how do you provide that training to the parents?

Inter generational poor families tend to have fallen into a cycle of dropping out of school and having children early. The parents don't see a value to school because they don't have anyone who is a role model for doing well in school or graduating. When people are able to graduate from school and move into different types of jobs that pay more or allow them to get jobs that pay enough to be removed from welfare, the families move away.

I read a report on white families who have had multiple generations receiving disability payments. The report pointed to kids with ADHD or LDs that the families used to justify the child receiving disability payments because they could not succeed in school. Mom and Dad, or just Mom, were receiving disability for some type of injury and Grandma and Grandpa were receiving disability. Every family that they followed need the kids disability money in order to be able to pay the bills. And even then families were going out and pan handling in order to buy cigarettes.

The cyclical nature of poverty is nasty and hard to break. It takes a good amount of work and effort to do well in school and find a good job. the trades all require someone put in the effort to learn a specific skill set and then earn a certification. College is not an easy option for many people. Asking young people who come from backgrounds where all the adults in their lives have dropped out and barely work or live off of welfare or disability to navigate learning a trade or going to college is asking a lot. And it starts a lot earlier then Kindergarten.

The education gap exists because kids are arriving at K without having been read to or played with or talked to or allowed to explore in a way that prepares them for K. Kids are arriving not knowing their sounds or letters or colors or shapes or numbers. They have not been taught how to behave in school. They are hungry, tired, and poorly dressed. They are not ready for school physically or mentally or emotionally. But we hold them to standards that some MC and UMC struggle to achieve.

You can't develop a different teaching method or approach because if you suggest anything that is slower then a school in MC or UMC neighborhood you are being racist, never mind that the lower SES kids are starting in a totally different place. We can't seperate out ESOL kids and develop a program that is more targeted and focused on their needs because it is racist. So the gap just grows and grows. [/quote]

I posted previously that I was a poor Asian immigrant. I grew up watching Who’s the Boss, Family Ties, Different Strokes, etc. My mom was the housekeeper of a doctor family. I never went to the doctor’s home but my mom would tell us stories about their family. I knew that these people who lived the life I wanted all had jobs that required college.

I lived in a predominantly black neighborhood. I looked up my old school and it is rated a 1 on great schools and is 100% free lunch. I did test into a gifted program and attended a magnet high school. My magnet high school had a lot of smart black students.

I was shy and a good listener. Teachers always liked me. I think these poor kids need someone to believe in them whether it is a parent, sibling, teacher, mentor.[/quote]

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