“The only way it even conceivably can work is to give young poor kids the same sort of boost up that young affluent kids get, which is to make sure these kids get an excellent preschool education, make sure these kids get tutoring, make sure these parents know at what time in the circuit they are supposed to prepare their kids for what."
I say: No, No, No! This is not society's job. It's not the govenment's job. The parents should be responsible. Society needs to stop reinforcing this idea that "someone else" will take care of my kids; someone else will educate them. Until SOCIETY insists that education comes first, nothing will change. I was "low SES" growing up. I never had preschool or tutoring, nobody told my parents when to prepare me for what. I taught myself to read at 3. I went to Kindergarten at 4 because my parents didn't know what else to do with me. In contrast, my sister (only 13 months older), didn't learn to read until 2nd grade, ended up repeating a grade. I graduated second in our class. She graduated in the bottom 10%.
Same parents, same upbringing. Kids are just different! It's not discrimination if it's true. Again, the sports analogy: if you had a gifted quarterback or point guard, would you make him (or her) sit on the bench while you're least talented player tried to catch up? No, you'd put the least talented player on a lesser team and teach him basic skills. Fair? Not necessarily but that's life. Same thing should be true in school. Instead of lumping kids by age and trying to teach them all the same thing, schools need to reach kids where they are and teach them what they need. But, again, until SOCIETY makes this a priority, the money and power won't be there to make it happen.
Okay, off my soapbox now.
This article really left a bad taste in my mouth, as you can tell.
