I was thinking about what I have been learning in psych classes. When an individual comes into hard times there are 2 ways to react. 1. keep trying, don’t give up. 2. blame everyone else in what is called -— learned helplessness.
This morning I thought that it could be reasonable to conclude that the education system is reinforcing bad parenting and teaching children learned helplessness by not letting them struggle through a problem and by taking out ALL competition in the early years. It’s just an idea, of course.
Oh, it is already documented that smaller classes are better all around. No need to spend more money.
And, on a related point, money is not the biggest problem facing these schools.
If you have critical masses of kids who don’t know how to behave, or don’t want to behave in class, then not much learning will take place. If critical masses of kids think that doing well in school is “acting white”, then similarly, not too much education will happen.
Considering the environment in these schools is not conducive to learning, and, that unfortunately, the homes many of these kids live in are chaotic, and not conducive to keeping up with homework, among other things, then you end up with critical masses of uneducated kids.