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This is (anecdotally) not true for families in the highest income decile (in California). Kids are pushed harder to learn things earlier than when I was growing

This is (anecdotally) not true for families in the highest income decile (in California). Kids are pushed harder to learn things earlier than when I was growing up. For example, nearly all of my kid's classmates could read before they started kindergarten. All could do basic arithmetic. Now that he's in first grade, most can read chapter books and have a grasp of multiplication. My mom pushed me hard to get me ahead of my peers, but I didn't hit those milestones until a year later. The standards and expectations are extremely high now because it's never been harder to get a spot at a top 20 university—perhaps because a top 20 school is the best chance you can get to maintain your living standards.

kulahan 1y ago
I've not seen anything saying all kids are lacking in important skills these days, but rather they all seem (to me) to imply that we're on the way to an even more-stratified society. Smart kids will be just as educated as smart kids used to be - probably even moreso. Dumb kids will fall further and further behind, and the middle range of "kinda smart at a bunch of stuff" will disappear. With the extreme stratification of wealth follows the stratification of... everything else, really.
- BrenBarn 1y ago
  > With the extreme stratification of wealth follows the stratification of... everything else, really. That's one reason that the solution to educational inequalities may not lie in education policy at all, but in tax/economic policy. Maybe the most expedient way to improve education outcomes is to just take a large amount of money from wealthy people and give it to everyone else.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > Maybe the most expedient way to improve education outcomes is to just take a large amount of money from wealthy people and give it to everyone else Given the evidence in the article, wouldn't it make sense to try simply holding students to standards--the thing that caused the last wave of achievement gain--instead of another novel and divisive policy treatment?
- ryandrake 1y ago
  Everything is bifurcating now. Haves are having more and more, and have-nots are having less and less. Middle class jobs are disappearing in favor of a mix of 1. low-wage unskilled/service jobs and 2. "elite" jobs for the upper crust. There used to be a place in society for A, B, C, and D students, but now you're either top-college material or you risk being swept into a growing underclass.
JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> This is (anecdotally) not true for families in the highest income decile FTA: “High-achieving kids are doing roughly as well as they always have, while those at the bottom are seeing rapid losses.”
JKCalhoun 1y ago
This is generally true for all professional (white collar) families.
drivebyhooting 1y ago
How are they teaching 4 year olds reading and arithmetic? That wasn’t an option in my affluent area in SoCal. Somehow Chinese and some Russian kids can do it, but mine didn’t. Despite my paying $20k/year per child for preschool.
- daedrdev 1y ago
  I don't know, but I new a guy who had gotten a 5 in AP calc BC before entering high school. He was understandably depressed
- gtk40 1y ago
  I'm from a blue class family in a non-affluent area and I could already read going into Kindergarten because my mom spent a lot of time reading with me before I got to school. This was 25+ years ago.
  - drivebyhooting 1y ago
    You touch upon an issue near to my heart but I am loathe to utter it: women in workforce is robbing our children and country of a future. Disagree if you will.
    - tayo42 1y ago
      You probably get disagreement becasue your focused on one gender. No reason why we can't have stay at home dads. Unless you think that men can't be good caretakers or something about it being a women's job, then good luck, your on your own lol
      - drivebyhooting 1y ago
        Men are pretty bad at breast feeding or carrying a pregnancy.
        tayo42 1y ago
coliveira 1y ago
Yes, but what is the proportion of the population reaching those standards? High income families are a very small percentage of the US demographics.
- nostrademons 1y ago
  Depends where you set the bar, but GP's post explicitly said "Highest income decile", which means 10% by definition.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

kulahan 1y ago

I've not seen anything saying all kids are lacking in important skills these days, but rather they all seem (to me) to imply that we're on the way to an even more-stratified society. Smart kids will be just as educated as smart kids used to be - probably even moreso. Dumb kids will fall further and further behind, and the middle range of "kinda smart at a bunch of stuff" will disappear. With the extreme stratification of wealth follows the stratification of... everything else, really.

BrenBarn 1y ago
> With the extreme stratification of wealth follows the stratification of... everything else, really. That's one reason that the solution to educational inequalities may not lie in education policy at all, but in tax/economic policy. Maybe the most expedient way to improve education outcomes is to just take a large amount of money from wealthy people and give it to everyone else.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > Maybe the most expedient way to improve education outcomes is to just take a large amount of money from wealthy people and give it to everyone else Given the evidence in the article, wouldn't it make sense to try simply holding students to standards--the thing that caused the last wave of achievement gain--instead of another novel and divisive policy treatment?
ryandrake 1y ago
Everything is bifurcating now. Haves are having more and more, and have-nots are having less and less. Middle class jobs are disappearing in favor of a mix of 1. low-wage unskilled/service jobs and 2. "elite" jobs for the upper crust. There used to be a place in society for A, B, C, and D students, but now you're either top-college material or you risk being swept into a growing underclass.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago

> This is (anecdotally) not true for families in the highest income decile FTA: “High-achieving kids are doing roughly as well as they always have, while those at the bottom are seeing rapid losses.”

JKCalhoun 1y ago

This is generally true for all professional (white collar) families.

drivebyhooting 1y ago

How are they teaching 4 year olds reading and arithmetic? That wasn’t an option in my affluent area in SoCal. Somehow Chinese and some Russian kids can do it, but mine didn’t. Despite my paying $20k/year per child for preschool.

daedrdev 1y ago
I don't know, but I new a guy who had gotten a 5 in AP calc BC before entering high school. He was understandably depressed
gtk40 1y ago
I'm from a blue class family in a non-affluent area and I could already read going into Kindergarten because my mom spent a lot of time reading with me before I got to school. This was 25+ years ago.
- drivebyhooting 1y ago
  You touch upon an issue near to my heart but I am loathe to utter it: women in workforce is robbing our children and country of a future. Disagree if you will.
  - tayo42 1y ago
    You probably get disagreement becasue your focused on one gender. No reason why we can't have stay at home dads. Unless you think that men can't be good caretakers or something about it being a women's job, then good luck, your on your own lol
    - drivebyhooting 1y ago
      Men are pretty bad at breast feeding or carrying a pregnancy.
      - tayo42 1y ago

coliveira 1y ago

Yes, but what is the proportion of the population reaching those standards? High income families are a very small percentage of the US demographics.

nostrademons 1y ago
Depends where you set the bar, but GP's post explicitly said "Highest income decile", which means 10% by definition.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]