Comments on: Social Mobility

By: gwendolyn high

gwendolyn high — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 21:25:47 +0000

My sisters’ and my primary education spanned the available US spectrum. Each had its perks and potholes. Private/parochial offered the best educational resources and opportunities (but a skewed, archaic and myopic view of the world). Public schools provided the most practical experience of dealing with humans (but almost no academic value), and the under homeschooling I gained the most enduring understanding that I am ultimately responsible for not only what I know but what I do with what I know. Having lived all three, I would say that none should be expected to “cure” the issue of social mobility nor any other sub-optimal condition populations encounter. In this sense, society might be considered merely another kind of ecosystem where the degree of ‘success’ achieved by each individual is going to be result of all the factors acting on that individual and the consequences of the choices of all the other individuals with which one interacts. For my youngest sister, homeschooling was definitely not the optimum educational option. I hated public school, but learned critical lessons there. It seems to me that the most successful educational format/content/structure must almost by definition be tailored to the individual. Yet all things achieved/implemented/imposed through the manifestation of Society (government) are inherently generic compromises. Doubtless, some compromises are better than others and to seek to achieve them, as Harry has explored, is a laudable and necessary process. My experience suggests, however, that without persistent responsible action of parents and students (above all other actors), there can be no successful preparation for life, much less for mobility.

By: dippy

dippy — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 20:49:44 +0000

fresh start?

By: Kragen Sitaker

Kragen Sitaker — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 19:48:22 +0000

You write: Well, for some of those parents, those who are seeking unfair advantages for their children, or who cannot bear to have their precious children mix with the lower orders, it will do nothing. But for the large number of parents who simply want an adequately good school for their child it might do quite a lot. I’m a little puzzled by the dichotomy you propose between, on one hand, classists and “those who seek unfair advantages for their children”, and on the other hand, “those who simply want an adequately good school for their child.” In my view, those who simply want an adequately good school for their children are unfit to parent; if they aren’t willing to go to great lengths to educate their children as well as possible, they shouldn’t be parents in the first place. It is unfortunate that I do not have the money or time to provide all the nation’s children with an excellent education myself, but I think the nation will be noticeably better if I take the time and money I have to educate at least my own family as well as possible—- where I can have a greater effect, in any event. I think this deserves praise, rather than condemnation as “seeking unfair advantage”, and I think it often implies private schooling when you have the means, or more often homeschooling or unschooling. For the record, I have no children as yet—- only brothers and sisters; and of my primary education, I attended pre-K, kindergarten, part of first grade, and fourth and fifth grades in private schools, and the rest of the time in public schools. I think my parents did the best they could to foster my education, but I wish they’d been able to do more.

By: harry

harry — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 18:33:18 +0000

It’s a school which, having been shut down because it was deemed ‘failing’ (by the govenrment) has been re-opened, usually with a new management team (principals, etc) and mainly new teachers but…. and here’s the kicker… basically the same composition of students. There aren’t a great number of them, and they are all (I think) in inner-cities: and the record of improvement is not that great. cheers, Harry

By: debbi

debbi — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 18:19:54 +0000

Question from the USA: what is a “new start” school?