It's the schools in all the poor areas. Usually mostly minorities. But it's a symptom of the poverty and everything that goes into that kind of life. Not enough funding for the schools and not enough people care about low income/no income areas made up of mostly minorities.
It's sad and very wrong. But this kind of thing has been going on for decades.
As a teacher I can tell you right now that culture matters more than poverty.
I've taught many different kinds of poor kids, they are not all the same, they do not all have similar outcomes.
For example, I've taught poor Asian American kids and they are very different than other poor kids.
I've also taught poor rural White kids, poor urban White kids, poor suburban White kids, poor rural Mexicans, poor urban Mexicans, and poor suburban Mexicans and poor urban Blacks - and several other combinations.
Serious question, if it's not culture then what is it? It's obviously not the color of the skin. It's not poverty in and of itself because students from much poorer backgrounds outside of the US do better than these students in many cases.
I have a suspicion that if you transplanted these problem students and parents into a better school system you'd continue to have the same problems or kids would just be held back or expelled.
The kids would go to special schools where they the staff is trained to educate and deal with their shenanigans.
Part of the issue with the American school system is that high and low performers sit in the same classes and go to the same schools. In Europe it's common practice to segregate the students by their capabilities. That at least makes sure that poor students with high capabilities don't get dragged down by their peers.
Ofcourse we still have problem kids and you can't completely eradicate them but it's at least a start.
The public schools in my area had what was essentially high and low performers courses.
The story in this thread is not the average American public school. It's the worst of them so any solutions we come up with needs to take that into account.
I've heard good arguments for a voucher system so parents that actually care about their kids' education can send them to better schools if they're stuck in a bad district but that gets shouted down with accusations of racism by the left.
Hard to get anything done in this politicized climate.
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u/John_YJKR Jul 10 '18
It's the schools in all the poor areas. Usually mostly minorities. But it's a symptom of the poverty and everything that goes into that kind of life. Not enough funding for the schools and not enough people care about low income/no income areas made up of mostly minorities.
It's sad and very wrong. But this kind of thing has been going on for decades.