Reply to Low income kid scores perfect on AP Calc test-great story of the day

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]All from his own hard work...[/b]

"Cedrick, the son of a Salvadoran maintenance worker and a Filipina nurse, had scored perfectly on his Advanced Placement Calculus exam. Of the 302,531 students to take the notoriously mind-crushing test, he was one of only 12 to earn every single point....from Lincoln High, a school of about 1,200 students in the heavily Latino Lincoln Heights neighborhood."

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-calculus-wiz-20160127-story.html[/quote]  Congratulations to this kid on his achievement.  However, op, it is always from the kids own hard work.  No one can do  the studying or the learning for any child who achieves without regard to income level.  If you don't put forth the effort, you will not succeed. I say this as someone who has lived on both sides of the income spectrum. [/quote]

OP here.  Yes, all kids who achieve do work hard. However, let's not pretend that those with means can afford the enrichment, after school tutoring, educated parents that help, typically go to a high achieving school, etc....  This kid had after tutoring in a sense that his math teacher stayed and helped *all* the kids, but his parents weren't educated, the school he goes to is rated only a 6 with an 85% FARMS rate  (and in dcum land this school would be considered horrible), and I"m guessing he is from a low SES family given what his parents do for a living.

It's extraordinary when kids can achieve these kinds of feats, but even more so when they come from disadvantaged backgrounds...not because they are not smart, but because the odds are so stacked against them when compared to those kids with means.

I also say this as someone who has lived on both sides of the income gap.[/quote]

NP. What I thought was interesting is that the teacher inspired the kids to take math as seriously as a sport. In this country, we don't bat an eye at kids in sports practices for 2-3 hours every day, but we don't encourage this type of hard work in academics, particularly in STEM subjects - not at such a grueling pace anyway. But the truth is, that's what is sometimes required to master the concepts, and the kids who put in this type of hard work are the ones who will succeed in engineering, physics, computer science, analytics, etc. - with a far better chance of having a good career than anyone focused on athletics. [/quote]

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