Racism? It's Not How Good; It's Skin Color

Yeah, I mean this guy looks positively German.

 

Yes, which is exactly why academically selective public schools exist. For JUST THIS REASON. They are open to all, there is no requirement to live within the catchment area for that school. America has them, we have them in my country (every capital city has several, and smaller cities and towns run selective classes within the comprehensive school). If the UK doesn't have such schools, you have a legitimate complaint.

Having said that, when such schools and/or programs exist within reach of all but the most remote rural families, there is nothing further which needs to be done to the school system generally.

 

That study has missed the point. And that point is .. whether parents are educated or not, rich or poor, it's their focus on education which matters. The teaching of a work ethic and self-discipline does not require educated parents. It requires determined parents. That there are more educated parents doing this is simply a function of their own personal work ethic and self-discipline. A side effect, not the actual cause.

It's a cop out to read side effects as cause. Far too convenient for those not interested in such invested parenting.

 

Nope. Your sneaky tactic did not work.

No one is falling for it/You running up in here with an ancient, prehistoric photo of organisms who look nothing like today's Eurasians who get exalted in America/uplifted in America since the early-1970s and feel entitled to this discrimination lawsuit.

Show us some pictures of the avg, successful Asian-Americans. I guarantee they will have the same skin color as northern-European Caucs plus the same hair texture as well. That is what matters in these times of today!

 

It must remain a right for a child to get a k-12 education, regardless of economic background.

 

And who are you going to rob to pay for it? And who will you have teaching them the truth? The government? A prescription for the mass production of automatons serving the status quo. That’s not eduction, nor liberty, nor self-fulfillment; it’s a living death.

 

I can’t understand why you don’t trust your government. You voted them in.

 

The world that you are asking for is actually taking a huge step back. An educated society benefits us all.

People like you make me sad. You really don't give a damn about your fellow American.

 

Yet more irony: Those people he voted in are the same people telling him to not trust government. You can't make this stuff up.

 

You have to start with sure start programs if you want to allow the poorest anything near an equal opportunity which they will never get. About ten years ago UK research discovered that by age 5 there was a one year development difference between the richest and the poorest children and that is massive. They found it came from the poorest not being able to afford as good food, being unable to offer them education opportunities both in toys and visits, living in a household with more stress - that is all I can remember at the moment apart from the big one - the parents own academic achievement which allowed them by that to educate their child just in passing the time of day regardless of homework. Parents were more than willing to do anything they could to help their children when given the help they needed. Brown started sure start programs in the UK and we were beginning to see results when the Tories came in and shut them.

The US has the worst social mobility among the developed countries seconded by the UK.

 

Early childhood education programs do have a positive impact, but the American experience with something called 'Headstart' was that this initial boost was dissolved away by the age of eight, as disadvantaged children went into their normal -- bad -- school system.

The problem, I believe, is that the really poor children grow up in a positively toxic social environment. It's not something that can be fixed with higher welfare payments.

We should not assume that the typical poor child has parents who are keen to educate him, feed him properly, take him on trips to the zoo or museum -- but just don't have the money to do so. That would be relatively easy to fix -- just increase (in the UK) child-support payments.

Doing the latter may or may not be a good idea, but we shouldn't assume that if we do so, Glasgow or East End housing estates will then become like Surrey.

It's a hard problem to attack: the Right doesn't care about the poor, and the Left idealize them.

 

LOL,

 

Not even a nickel’s worth, and even then, only to the extent they can benefit me. Otherwise, they’re on their own. Best wishes.

 

The brain is a fantastically-complicated system, with many opportunities, in its development, for deviations from the norm. Sometimes the rest of us benefit from these deviations -- thank goodness for Isaac Newton.

One of these deviations is in the capacity for empathy with others. Such empathy is a common human trait, and although it might seem to run counter to Darwinian selection, it has probably had a positive effect on the survivability of our species. As society has evolved, so has the extension of this emotion to include wider and wider circles.

This capacity for empathy varies among individuals, and is in part biologically determined. In this, as in much else, we are shaped by our genes.

At one extreme, we have the condition known as sociopathy. Probably autism will be found to involve a deficiency here as well. (At the moment, we know very little about how the brain really works, although progress is being made. All of our current categories and theories will no doubt be seen as primitive within a few more decades.)

But it's a spectrum. Where someone falls on this spectrum is not their choice. And, the social matrix in which they find themselves also no doubt also plays a role. If you have cold, indifferent, selfish parents, you will be affected by their example. (And, as with IQ, there may be a strong genes/environment correlation.)

Again, this is not a choice on the part of the individual. You choose neither your genes, nor your parents.

So if you're lucky enough not to suffer from this disorder, do have sympathy for those who do suffer from it.

 

British research and action did show that the parents were more than willing and went to classes organised for them.

If their schools are toxic then clearly that is disgusting and must be changed. Inner London changed from getting about the worst education results to about the best by adjusting their education system.

Obviously sure start or something similar is just the beginning and any country which pretends to be offering equal opportunity needs to work on this. Denmark has very good social mobility but I think it was from there I heard it took two or three generations to get someone up from the poorest. None the less any country which pretends to be offering equal opportunity, which pretends to be a democracy ought to be working on this.

 

Nonsense, but I feel your pain—Bill taught me.

 

Your post in itself is racist.

 

Oh, of course, you will think it is racist for my scholarship to intrude upon our White Privilege.

Tell readers, are you one of those type who feels that only we White people made America, great???

LOL

Your post is once again, illogical, since you foolishly call me racist because I want to give back what we White people hath stolen for 400yrs and counting.

 

I don't want an affirmative action brain surgeon or airline pilot.

 

Sure, there are parents like that. And I happen to think that Labour did a pretty good job, within their limitations, with respect to education when they were in power -- they were not in the grip of 'progressive' nostrums about education -- some of their leaders were teachers and knew the value of, say, phonics.

Sadly, not all parents are like that. Any teacher can tell you stories of angry parents who storm into schools and threaten the teachers, if the latter dare to discipline their precious little monster. And it's rude, disruptive children who are one of the biggest problems in schools. They are what make some schools 'toxic'. They keep the others from learning, they set a bad example (which boys, at that age, are very susceptible to), and they drive teachers out of the profession. But the Left always set up a howl when anyone proposes dealing with the problem.

The school which, in my opinion, is a model is Michaela School in Brent, set up by Katherine Birbalsingh. It's a Free School, and the hard Left went crazy trying to stop it from being created. We need to create two, three, many Michaelas. We also need to reexamine the content of the National Syllabus, which is another discussion.

 

Well, YOU may not want one, and I may not want one -- but in the interest of fairness, wouldn't it be worth while trying to arrange it so that supporters of 'affirmative action' could THEMSELVES have affirmative action doctors and pilots?

I think this would be a win-win for everyone. Supporters of affirmative action would feel virtuous, putting their lives on the line for their beliefs. Opponents of affirmative action would be spared what they fear is the result of this policy. (Plus there would eventually be advantages in terms of the political composition of the electoral rolls as well, but we needn't go into that.)

I wonder what our progressive friends think about this idea?

 

I know there are programs which, if started at an early age, have supposedly had some success with behavioral therapy for autistic children. But in general empathy is not something that can be taught, not even by Slick Willy.

It's largely biologically-determined, although the social environment can influence it. But by the time one is an adult, if you don't have it, you don't have it.

It can be advantageous to be able to pretend to have it, however, and there Slick Willy would probably be a pretty good teacher. As Harry Truman is supposed to have said, "In politics, sincerity is everything. Once you can fake that, you've got it made."

 

There you go....you self identify as an elitist snob by referring to your self-imagined "intellectual prowness". If you feel you owe reparations to anyone, go ahead and pay it. You are absolutely free to do so. That would be your individual responsibility. Instead, you see people as collectives, not individuals. There are several descendents of slaves that are multi-millionaires today. Are you going to give them a portion of your money???

As for me, the majority of my ancestors were Quakers. Several were Union Veterans. One, a farmer, lost the use of his right arm by a rebel minnie ball in that war. Do you feel that as a collective those men should be compensated?

So, instead of paying the compensation yourself (after all, it was laid upon your heart) you want government to dictate what everyone else should do. That is the strategy of every leftist elitist in the country.

 

Likewise I don't want race baiting affirmative action elitist politicians dispensing my hard earned money to soothe their guilt.

 

More nonsense—Guess my jeans aren’t 502’s