This Must Be Significant in Some Way

[Unkotare]

Had an interesting moment of contrast and social/economic/educational coincidence today.

 

[Pete7469]

 

[SweetSue92]

Had an interesting moment of contrast and social/economic/educational coincidence today.

One can only note these things in August-October.

By May or June, teachers can only say, "I had an interesting moment....." at the end of the day before falling asleep, tearing their hair out, crying, pouring a glass on wine....or perhaps all of the above in stages.

 

[Unkotare]

So, during the school year I work at a very urban inner-city high school in a program specifically for a very challenging at risk population of students. It is a great challenge, and I enjoy working with the kids a lot no matter how trying it can sometimes be. I have come to respect the challenges they face and how hard they work to overcome them. During the summer, in addition to private tutoring and freelance writing assignments, I work at a test prep institute in a very wealthy community for a very wealthy students. The students pay top dollar for very intensive summer programs preparing them for various standardized tests and entrance exams. Well, the other day I was teaching a class of kids from very wealthy families, good kids, very hard-working, very respectful, but not struggling in the way that my other students do. It just so happens that as I looked out the window of this very large opulent institution I saw some grounds keepers trimming back hedges and cutting grass and what not and sure enough they were Former student of mine from the urban school district where I work during the school year. Here I was in air-conditioned comfort teaching a very small class very rich kids, good kids mind you, and outside the window where the other kids from the other side of reality. It made me pause and think.

 

[Unkotare]

After class I popped outside and we had a good chat. I had a few bottles of cold water in the car that they welcomed in the heat.

On any given day I usually move through both sides of such things, but it was sort of disorienting seeing them both in the same time and place.

 

[Correll]

After class I popped outside and we had a good chat. I had a few bottles of cold water in the car that they welcomed in the heat.

On any given day I usually move through both sides of such things, but it was sort of disorienting seeing them both in the same time and place.

So, how were they doing? Landscaping can have a lot of upward mobility, oddly enough.


Or it used to, at least.

 

[Unkotare]

After class I popped outside and we had a good chat. I had a few bottles of cold water in the car that they welcomed in the heat.

On any given day I usually move through both sides of such things, but it was sort of disorienting seeing them both in the same time and place.

So, how were they doing? ....

Just working for some $$$. They have no illusions about planting flowers around the school grounds as a career step.

 

[SweetSue92]

So, during the school year I work at a very urban inner-city high school in a program specifically for a very challenging at risk population of students. It is a great challenge, and I enjoy working with the kids a lot no matter how trying it can sometimes be. I have come to respect the challenges they face and how hard they work to overcome them. During the summer, in addition to private tutoring and freelance writing assignments, I work at a test prep institute in a very wealthy community for a very wealthy students. The students pay top dollar for very intensive summer programs preparing them for various standardized tests and entrance exams. Well, the other day I was teaching a class of kids from very wealthy families, good kids, very hard-working, very respectful, but not struggling in the way that my other students do. It just so happens that as I looked out the window of this very large opulent institution I saw some grounds keepers trimming back hedges and cutting grass and what not and sure enough they were Former student of mine from the urban school district where I work during the school year. Here I was in air-conditioned comfort teaching a very small class very rich kids, good kids mind you, and outside the window where the other kids from the other side of reality. It made me pause and think.

Make no mistake about this. Those wealthy kids might be better off with a job in the long run, a place where Mommy and Daddy cannot control the work that is done, cannot rewrite their college entrance exam, and cannot control the schedule. Everything in these wealthy kids' lives may look put together on the outside but you'd be surprised. Anxiety and depression is rampant.

 

[Unkotare]

...Everything in these wealthy kids' lives may look put together on the outside but you'd be surprised.......

???

Why would I be surprised?

 

[Unkotare]

...

Make no mistake about this. Those wealthy kids might be better off with a job in the long run, a place where Mommy and Daddy cannot control the work that is done, cannot rewrite their college entrance exam, and cannot control the schedule.......

It is presumptuous to assume "mommy and daddy...control" everything just because a family is wealthy, and it is delusional to think it would be a better deal for them to trade places with the kids I work with during the day in the city. The kids from the city would never say something so foolish.

 

[SweetSue92]

...

Make no mistake about this. Those wealthy kids might be better off with a job in the long run, a place where Mommy and Daddy cannot control the work that is done, cannot rewrite their college entrance exam, and cannot control the schedule.......

It is presumptuous to assume "mommy and daddy...control" everything just because a family is wealthy, and it is delusional to think it would be a better deal for them to trade places with the kids I work with during the day in the city. The kids from the city would never say something so foolish.

I didn't say it would be better for them to trade places. I said it would be better for them to have a job--and most particularly, a job that requires hard physical labor, especially for the boys.

 

[Unkotare]

...

Make no mistake about this. Those wealthy kids might be better off with a job in the long run, a place where Mommy and Daddy cannot control the work that is done, cannot rewrite their college entrance exam, and cannot control the schedule.......

It is presumptuous to assume "mommy and daddy...control" everything just because a family is wealthy, and it is delusional to think it would be a better deal for them to trade places with the kids I work with during the day in the city. The kids from the city would never say something so foolish.

I didn't say it would be better for them to trade places. I said it would be better for them to have a job--and most particularly, a job that requires hard physical labor, especially for the boys.

You don’t know the students I’m talking about, so pull back on the generalizations.

 

[SweetSue92]

...

Make no mistake about this. Those wealthy kids might be better off with a job in the long run, a place where Mommy and Daddy cannot control the work that is done, cannot rewrite their college entrance exam, and cannot control the schedule.......

It is presumptuous to assume "mommy and daddy...control" everything just because a family is wealthy, and it is delusional to think it would be a better deal for them to trade places with the kids I work with during the day in the city. The kids from the city would never say something so foolish.

I didn't say it would be better for them to trade places. I said it would be better for them to have a job--and most particularly, a job that requires hard physical labor, especially for the boys.

You don’t know the students I’m talking about, so pull back on the generalizations.

Let's compare, then. In how many places have you taught? Me: two states, three districts, thirteen schools and 9 grade levels over 24 years. I have taught very, very affluent children and I have taught children so poor their strep throat was not treated and it went into rheumatic fever.

You?

 

[Unkotare]

...

Make no mistake about this. Those wealthy kids might be better off with a job in the long run, a place where Mommy and Daddy cannot control the work that is done, cannot rewrite their college entrance exam, and cannot control the schedule.......

It is presumptuous to assume "mommy and daddy...control" everything just because a family is wealthy, and it is delusional to think it would be a better deal for them to trade places with the kids I work with during the day in the city. The kids from the city would never say something so foolish.

I didn't say it would be better for them to trade places. I said it would be better for them to have a job--and most particularly, a job that requires hard physical labor, especially for the boys.

You don’t know the students I’m talking about, so pull back on the generalizations.

Let's compare, then. In how many places have you taught? Me: two states, three districts, thirteen schools and 9 grade levels over 24 years. I have taught very, very affluent children and I have taught children so poor their strep throat was not treated and it went into rheumatic fever.

You?

You really want to do this?

How about 15 schools, 4 countries, from elementary through graduate school and beyond, going into 25th year, serving students from every socio-economic background and from every corner of the globe.

You don’t have anything new to tell me.

 

[SweetSue92]

...

Make no mistake about this. Those wealthy kids might be better off with a job in the long run, a place where Mommy and Daddy cannot control the work that is done, cannot rewrite their college entrance exam, and cannot control the schedule.......

It is presumptuous to assume "mommy and daddy...control" everything just because a family is wealthy, and it is delusional to think it would be a better deal for them to trade places with the kids I work with during the day in the city. The kids from the city would never say something so foolish.

I didn't say it would be better for them to trade places. I said it would be better for them to have a job--and most particularly, a job that requires hard physical labor, especially for the boys.

You don’t know the students I’m talking about, so pull back on the generalizations.

Let's compare, then. In how many places have you taught? Me: two states, three districts, thirteen schools and 9 grade levels over 24 years. I have taught very, very affluent children and I have taught children so poor their strep throat was not treated and it went into rheumatic fever.

You?

You really want to do this?

How about 15 schools, 4 countries, from elementary through graduate school and beyond, going into 25th year, serving students from every socio-economic background and from every corner of the globe.

You don’t have anything new to tell me.

Okay so about similar experience--you with a few more countries thrown in. We both have long careers and I think that's impressive from both of us in this day in age. To be honest.

I think I do have something new to tell you, actually. I think teachers always have something new to tell each other, I hope so anyway. And that something new is: while there is no doubt the inner city youth are at many disadvantages, and there is no doubt they would love to trade places in lots of ways (and that's fair enough), most of your wealthy charges in the summer school probably do not have jobs that earn them money. And that puts THEM at a disadvantage in a lot of ways and for a lot of reasons.

They are in a generation riddled with anxiety and depression because of the way they are parented. The landscaping kids most likely by trauma; the kids in the classes by the ramifications of over-parenting. Misery results either way, does it not?

 

[Unkotare]

.......

They are in a generation riddled with anxiety and depression because of the way they are parented. The landscaping kids most likely by trauma; the kids in the classes by the ramifications of over-parenting. Misery results either way, does it not?

You are continuing to make assumptions about students you have never met.

 

[Unkotare]

.....most of your wealthy charges in the summer school probably do not have jobs that earn them money. And that puts THEM at a disadvantage in a lot of ways and for a lot of reasons......

You don't know that because you don't know them or their situations. It takes some control of the ego to stop yourself from making assumptions.

 

[SweetSue92]

.....most of your wealthy charges in the summer school probably do not have jobs that earn them money. And that puts THEM at a disadvantage in a lot of ways and for a lot of reasons......

You don't know that because you don't know them or their situations. It takes some control of the ego to stop yourself from making assumptions.

I have taught traumatized students, very very poor and disadvantaged students, and I have taught very advantaged students. Both. And so have you. Do I know every situation every child comes from? No, and neither can you, because there are billions. I am simply saying that looking down at urban teens with landscaping jobs and looking at wealthy students in summer school is not as simple as it seems. EVERY demographic comes with challenges and pitfalls. Some more, some less.

That's all I"m saying. Not saying I know all situations. And btw, how are you so very certain I don't know what it's like to teach poor city kids?

 

[Unkotare]

.....Do I know every situation every child comes from? No, and neither can you,....

Maybe that's why I'm not trying to tell you about your students.

 

[Unkotare]

.... I am simply saying that looking down at urban teens with landscaping jobs.....

Who's looking down at them? Are you?