Am I one of the few people who feel all this is sorta futile? I was reading the UT this morning and an article was saying that only like 30% or so graduating high school even meet college or basic UC minimum requirements to attend.
I think the main problem is when a child is young, you can “force” them to study, work hard, etc…and turn things around…
Once they hit their teens, if their home and friend environment aren’t up to snuff to stress the importance of school/academics/education/future/jobs, you are pretty much fighting a losing battle if they aren’t worried about what college to go to, but what food to eat or if they should join this or that gang…etc…
or if they should “hook up” and sleep with that boy, etc…
All these cases are sorta loss causes IMO and until you change the desire of the kid who wants to get out of his dump, or at least have more positive role models that they “can” get out, I think the large majority will fail. Seems like a waste almost to even send them to school…maybe teach them a trade/craft, etc…instead.
From what I’ve seen, only Sports and Music/entertainment/movies seems to really get the slum kids out and even then, after they play or get famous, they lose most of their money as well…
For the few who show genuine interest, I agree that more should be done since they’re the ones who can get out of their bad hood, but a lot of kids (at least from what you read), seem do the school thing up to high school because that’s just where their friends are and what is required of society, but once they hit 18, they’re pretty much completely worthless to society in terms of productivity. Maybe just pay them to not attend since it’s a waste of money anyways.
I think the downside of private schools is that a lot more kids are probably hard core so if you’re trying to get into Harvard or Stanford, they probably won’t accept that many from your smaller private school and just 1 or 2 top kids.
