"NOYB" wrote in message
link.net...
In the real world, it's been established that the 3 most important
factors
in getting good grades a

1) Competent teachers.
2) Being around peers who value education
3) The big winner: Parents who are educated and pass along their
expectations to their kids. Doesn't matter if the parents are together
or
divorced, as long as they are a strong presence in the lives of their
children.

There's no reason to assume that some schools have bad teachers all
across
the board, but it's a safe bet that if all your students are getting
lousy
grades no matter how hard you try, and you're a good teacher, you're
going
to go elsewhere. Nobody likes to work hard and get no results.

Inner city kids are at a disadvantage in parts 2 & 3. The only way to
stop
the cycle is to "seed" the group with people who can function as role
models. How do you do that without giving some kids a little juice?
Yeah,
affirmative action has problems, but what's YOUR solution to the truths
I've
given you here? Bus those awful colored kids to your school? :-)

That's already being done in Lee County, Florida. They call it "school
choice"...but it's really just an attempt to integrate the various
socioeconomic levels. My wife's friend lives across the street from a
school. However, her kids did not get their "first choice" in the "school
choice" program (the one across from their house)...nor did they get their
2nd, 3rd, or 4th choices. Instead, the kids were bussed to a school 15
miles away. They had 7 year old kids having to wait at 6-something in the
morning, in the dark, so they can get bussed 15 miles...right past a
school
that they *should* be going to in the first place. Now, the mom and dad
are
paying to send 'em to private school.

There's a theory in education today where it's believed that if you
surround
a "bad" kid with enough "good" kids, the good kids' behavior will rub off
on
the "bad" kid. Unfortunately, the school administrators ought to listen
to
their great, great, great grandparents for ideas..."a bad apple spoils the
bunch".

How odd. A few weeks ago, my son had 5 friends over to watch a movie. When
it was over, I asked them why they all got good grades. They said the main
reason was that they all helped each other when they didn't understand
something. They acknowledged that parents' expectations were important, but
also said that because we're all really old, our knowledge wasn't as
important as just wanting to do well.