Comments on: Schools can’t close parenting gap

By: E.Bates

E.Bates — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:07:55 +0000

For some reason, we live in a society that feels something is owed to one if he or she has dealt with any kind of unfortunate lose or difficulty. I am not saying that some don’t deserve help, but many students–single-parent families or not–feel that they should not have to work. Those from difficult backgrounds either feel it’s not worth it or they should not have to work. Parents need to come into the picture just like those in the opening post. I don’t think they need to beat kids, but showing that they care in the proper way is something that I see as lacking. Many parents are not taking on their roles the way they need to.

By: Bill Leonard

Bill Leonard — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:42:54 +0000

“Just ask the race hustlers and excuse-makers and grafters.”

Pedant that I am, I must suggest the actual criminal term is grifters. Otherwise, right on target.

Bill

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:46:44 +0000

Cosby is a sellout. Oreo. Uncle Tom.
Just ask the race hustlers and excuse-makers and grafters.

By: momof4

momof4 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:43:01 +0000

I respect the efforts of Bill Cosby and many others, but the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton model is still very powerful. No effort is spared to play the victim card and they have gained both power and wealth from playing it.

By: Engineer-Poet

Engineer-Poet — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:04:00 +0000

I’d LOVE to see the “Black leaders” really get on top of the behavior/discipline issues

What’s Bill Cosby, chopped liver?

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:17:45 +0000

momof4. Plus, you need actual victims. Which we have, courtesy of, as Shelby Steele said, liberal white guilt.
More accurately, he said that liberal white guilt had done something slavery, segregation and Jim Crow had not been able to do…destroy the black family.
Liberal white guilt teamed up with race hustlers who needed large numbers of disfunctional poor as cannon fodder with which to reproach…liberal whites and cause guilt.

By: Tweets that mention Schools can’t close parenting gap « Joanne Jacobs -- Topsy.com

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:55:25 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by PostRank – Education and JoanneLeeJacobs, D. Jason Fleming. D. Jason Fleming said: The racial achievement gap isn't racial, it's cultural. http://bit.ly/jDNam (But to the left, saying that is "racist") #education [...]

By: momof4

momof4 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:45:48 +0000

Why would anyone by surprised to find that kids coming from several generations of very young, never-married mothers are not doing well? No one in their families has been doing well for generations, academically, economically or emotionally (maturity, responsibility, etc.) I remember a faculty member describing her study of grandmothers who were the primary caretakers of their grandkids. Their average age was 34, with the youngest at 28, and a number had kids of the same age as their grandkids. There was often a great grandmother also in residence, along with 3 generations of rotating boyfriends. Jobs, if any, were minimal and sporadic. No father, if known, input was present. Abuse, crime and drugs were rampant in the community. The quality of the school (curriculum, safety, teachers etc) was the only chance these kids had, and they also faced negative labelling if they did well in school.

It IS the culture and I don’t mean just Black and Hispanic. Moynihan ran up the red flag at a 25% illegitimacy rate among Blacks (now 90%+ in some communities) and the rate among low SES whites is now at 40%, with 25% among the next higher group. The problem will get worse.

I’d LOVE to see the “Black leaders” really get on top of the behavior/discipline issues, as well as give explicit help instilling the habits that enable both school and life success, but I can’t see it happening. There’s too much political power in playing the victim card.

By: Bill Leonard

Bill Leonard — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:17:49 +0000

“Cultures differ, as Thomas Sowell said, and differences have consequences. That goes for subcultures, too.”

Ka-ching! Mr. Aubrey has it right again!

By: Margo/Mom

Margo/Mom — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:32:36 +0000

Whatever–I do not necessarily assume that single parent means divorced, it just happens that children of divorce were a concern at the time of Bronfenbrenner’s study and I happen to think that his findings raise some interesting questions. Of course the assumption by many is that single parent is an indication of sexual looseness, a want of family feeling and concern and if not the root of all evil, then certainly an indication of inferiority, as Richard plainly believes. It hasn’t been too long ago that a woman without a man was generally regarded as being a social burden, undesireable, or immoral.

My own experience, crossing multiple decades and in particular working with low income and urban families, suggests that “family” as a concept is far more nuanced. As Bronfenbrenner would point out, connections between the household family members and others outside it can have profound influence, even, some of them that have no direct contact with children at all. Imagine an employer, or an ancestor or former spouse who have been the cause of great stress and anguish–or support and comfort, to the parent with whom a child lives. Imagine a household in which mom is always home when the kid comes home from school and keeps the home spotless. The mom is terrified of the dad and afraid to step out without permission lest their be hell to pay (and frequently their is anyway). Imagine another home in which mom isn’t home until almost dinner time (in fact dinner waits for mom to get home and fix it), dad lives in another state, but grandma lives up the street and the whole family goes to church a few blocks away every Sunday. Which one would you rather drop a kid into?

Consider again, a kid who goes to school where parents are greeted warmly, introduced to the class when they are there to help out. The kids frequently run into their teachers in the grocery store. Some kids know their teacher’s kids from Sunday School, Scouts or summer camp. At another school parents must call ahead for an appointment when they want to come in. They are frequently talked about in the teacher’s lounge. Teachers think nothing at all about saying things like: “you may get away with that with your mother, but you are at school now.” At the end of the school day, the school becomes a vacant building and this is the only place children ever see their teachers.

Do you think that either of those situations might have an impact on kids?