Reply to Public education: competing interests, philosophical divide

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a high SES person with kids of color, this site and many of these highly sought after DC schools are tough to handle. Many people here assume their kids are being pulled down by kids like mine because we dont live on the hill or in ward 2. (Sorry, We dont wear our ivy league degrees on our shoulders.) Schools use achievements of kids like mine to show off their "success" in closing the gap when in reality, my kids would be achieving without their help. I sometimes wish the school would publish some of the test scores from families like mine... so you can see a lot of us "lottery" folks have kids that blow the roof off your kids' test scores."

If you don't think most people can figure out the difference between skin color and SES, then I feel sorry for you.

In any event, I don't believe all low SES kids are capable of achieving.  Some can. Others are gifted, and probably not having their talents recognized. But there is too much lead exposure, fetal alcohol syndrome, and other issues that impact brain development at much higher rates than higher SES kids. Schools can fix some elements of being disadvantaged, such as through Head Start, but schools can fix physical damage to brains.

Note, I'm not referring to AA kids. This can be true for kids of any skin colors, depending on their circumstances. [/quote]

Yes, yes, and yes again!!!! Want to read more about the impact of Lead in paint, especially in DC go back and google old Washingtonian article. Used to work in social services and we frequently talked about how lots of the poor impulse, aggression, and violence issues in DC was linked to lead but no one studied it and followed the kids for educational impact. There is only so much remediation that can be done, do your write off those kids, NO but you provide appropriate education and acknowledge where they are at. Rhee's and her follower's ideology that all kids can go to college if they have the right teacher in the classroom was foolhardy, we should accept the different nature of all of our students and educate them to ensure some level of success in life. Having high school students who are reading at a 4th grade level struggle through texts on grade level is not beneficial for anyone, bring back a modernized-level of voc. education and allow principals and teachers more flexibility to adapt the curriculum or at least offer different levels of classes. Classroom differentiation can only stretch so far. [/quote]

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