6 ms·

> Poor kids don't do well in school because their families and their environment don't value education. Have you considered the possibility that the educationa

• vixen99 10y ago
  And if it did, how would that work or operate?
  • peller 10y ago
    What I was getting at is that the subject matter often isn't applicable to helping them solve their specific problems. Education (curriculums) shouldn't be one-size-fits-all.
    • Kalium 10y ago
      What subject matters do you think are substantially neglected by the American educational system that fails to reflect the needs of the poor? How should curricula be changed? What specific problems are unaddressed?
      • peller 10y ago
        Well I imagine the needs of inner-city-poor and rural-poor are often different, to pick two extremes. But I myself have never lived either of those lives, and I've only interacted with the rural-poor (through volunteer organizations). So, I can't really know their needs. But where I'd start, is with what I might call the "forbidden subjects" - stuff you and I probably learned from our families, if we were lucky. Interpersonal relationship skills, managing personal finances, and probably most importantly, mental patterns/attitudes/habits/priorities for more effective use of the mind. (Because complacency is effectively the "default state" of the amygdala. And combined with ignorance of the mind's ways, it can only stay that way.) If you can stomach some underground hip hip, here's a track by Dead Prez for one anecdotal inner-city perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8IUbVQRqAk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8IUbVQRqAk
        • Kalium 10y ago
          You know, my rural poor high school had a course covering personal finance, relationships, health, home economics, and so on. It was a required course for all freshman, who were 15 or so and not yet eligible to drop out. It did not accomplish nearly so much as you might hope. The underground hip hop complaints as relative to material mostly cover political questions and show that he didn't pay attention to the courses that would help "get our rent paid".
          • adamnemecek 10y ago
            > It did not accomplish nearly so much as you might hope. Exactly, I can't think of a single subject that actually achieves what it should when taught in the school setting.
            • Kalium 10y ago
              Really? Because basic literacy, civics, history, and mathemathics as commonly taught work roughly as well as they are expected to. The problem with the class I describe isn't that it didn't teach effectively. It's that the students largely didn't care to apply what was taught.
              • adamnemecek 10y ago
                The classes are never the suitable speed for all the students. When learning on your own, you set your own speed but you can't do that when in school. But note that all subjects are like the subjects you mentioned you took in HS. The mathematics doesn't actually go all that far. Note that all of HS mathematics can be summarized in those HS math review books that are actually not that thick. It's a travesty that fundamentally, you spend maybe like 4 years reading like 6-7 books?
                • Kalium 10y ago
                  The point is not to be optimal for every student - the resources required for such are not available and MOOCs are not an adequate replacement. The point is to lay a universal foundation in a series of selected subjects while socializing students. The model of turning a literate child loose in a library and letting them be for six or eight years should not be assumed as universally useful. It's not a good way to produce a shared general foundation for a modern democracy.
      • adamnemecek 10y ago
        The main issue is that you don't really learn anything in depth. You get some sort of very general overview but your knowledge still has so many gaps. If you make the educational system more efficient, when you leave the reformed high school, you might actually be somewhat proficient at X.
        • Kalium 10y ago
          It sounds like your complaint is that the basic primary/secondary educational system does not produce specialists. Have you considered the possibility that neither primary nor secondary education serves the purpose of specialist training, that being reserved for tertiary education? The purpose of the current design for primary and secondary education is to produce a general foundation atop which any sort of tertiary education can be built.
          • adamnemecek 10y ago
            My main issues are the lack of efficiency and lack of educational freedom. > The purpose of the current design for primary and secondary education is to produce a general foundation atop which any sort of tertiary education can be built. Yeah, it's not very good at that.
            • Kalium 10y ago
              It's relatively efficient compared to alternative currently available approaches. We have not reached a point where Khan Academy and Udemy can replace everything - or even a major part - of education after basic literacy and numeracy. The model of turning a literate child loose in a library and letting them be for six or eight years should not be assumed as universally useful.
        • dragonwriter 10y ago
          Most people agree with this. What becomes more difficult is figuring out what concrete steps make the educational system more efficient. OTOH, even that would still probably disproportionately benefit those with the best home environments and support to make use of the more efficient system, and increase rather than narrow the gap between the best and worst served. Efficiency and equality are largely orthogonal concerns.