ACLU sues State of Michigan over quality of Highland Park schools

[Detroitnerd]

Yeah, it's the parents fault. They could have raised those children any way they wanted.

And homosexuality is a lifestyle choice...

[Detroitej72]

Yeah, it's the parents fault. They could have raised those children any way they wanted.

The parents do shoulder some blame here. My family didn't have much money when I was growing up so my mom made a point to read to me at a very young age. We would go to the Detroit Public Library and pick out a couple books.

As far as the folks here not wanting to help the kids, what is your solution, keep passing them until they graduate? Then when they have no skills to hold down a job, what do we do? Toss them in prison?

[Detroitnerd]

The parents do shoulder some blame here. My family didn't have much money when I was growing up so my mom made a point to read to me at a very young age. We would go to the Detroit Public Library and pick out a couple books.

No, man, I totally agree. The parents are totally to blame. I mean, they can't read, they're poor, they're the permanent underclass, and they still get to have kids? We should be sterilizing these people as soon as they're born. They'll never amount to anything, so why should they have the right to have kids?

As far as the folks here not wanting to help the kids, what is your solution, keep passing them until they graduate? Then when they have no skills to hold down a job, what do we do? Toss them in prison?

No, man, you don't get it. We can't do anything to change the situation, because then who would we blame for the problem? Don't shift the blame onto me! I want to keep blaming those parents until the end of time! Why fuck with something when it works?

[Detroitej72]

No, man, I totally agree. The parents are totally to blame.

I said the parents shoulder some of the blame, not all, for the reasons you stated.

We, as a civilized society need to step up and take care of the children whose parents fail them. Otherwise the cycle will never end.

[Detroitnerd]

I said the parents shoulder some of the blame, not all, for the reasons you stated.

We, as a civilized society need to step up and take care of the children whose parents fail them. Otherwise the cycle will never end.

You don't recognize satire, do you?

This whole "parents fail" thing is used as a sop to deflect from a failing system. The fact is, we simply don't put a priority on educating inner city children. There is no successful model for educating inner city children. So, instead of recognizing that, it's much easier to say: "I blame their parents."

You know: Sometimes, the same parents who were graduated from the same failed school system just 15 years ago...

But, yeah, just keep blaming the parents. Good way to avoid any anxiety-causing analysis of why we routinely fuck over a good percentage of our young people. Why, oh, why can't the most completely fucked-up poor people raise their children as if they were tutors hired to prepare the children of Bloomfield Hills for the Roeper School?

[Scottathew]

This whole "parents fail" thing is used as a sop to deflect from a failing system.

The system, in part, is failing because of the parents.

The system needs to be fixed. However, parents need to step up as well. If you don't have the time or resources to raise a child, then wait until you do.

While a public school system is there to educate, it does so in partnership with parents, not in absence of.

[Bham1982]

Social scientists agree that the majority of childhood learning takes place outside the classroom, and is weighted heavily towards pre-k age development.

So, yes, parents share a big chunk of blame. Not 100% of blame, but a big, fat chunk. There are plenty of schools with similar levels of poverty in very close proximity to Highland Park that don't have this problem.

The Bangledeshis, living maybe 10 blocks east, and just as poor [[and often with parents who can't read or write English) somehow don't have this problem, and go to the same quality schools.

[Lowell]

One more thing, ACLU lawyers do not make tons of money. This isn't call Sam or Joumona money. True enough it will cost public money to defend this suit, but if it brings justice for the children of Highland Park it will be money well invested. No one will be hitting the jackpot and pocketing millions.

Every child that becomes an educated tax-paying functioning member of society and not a prisoner housed at $35K a year offers a huge return on investment.

[Bham1982]

Why, oh, why can't the most completely fucked-up poor people raise their children as if they were tutors hired to prepare the children of Bloomfield Hills for the Roeper School?

Are you aware that federal No Child Left Behind legislation includes free year-round tutoring on demand for children in high-poverty schools? And that the free tutoring is woefully underenrolled? Schools have to beg parents to use the tutoring, with pizza parties, raffle giveaways and the like.

Obviously most parents give a damn, regardless of income, but there is a signficant cohort of parents who don't. There is nothing the schools can do about this. If you switched Highland Park and Bloomfield Hills kids [[switched the teachers, facilities, and programs) I bet you would have the same outcomes for both cohorts.

[Detroitnerd]

Are you aware that federal No Child Left Behind legislation includes free year-round tutoring on demand for children in high-poverty schools? And that the free tutoring is woefully underenrolled? Schools have to beg parents to use the tutoring, with pizza parties, raffle giveaways and the like.

I'm sure you learned this from an unbiased information source, such as John Stossel...

Obviously most parents give a damn, regardless of income, but there is a signficant cohort of parents who don't. There is nothing the schools can do about this. If you switched Highland Park and Bloomfield Hills kids [[switched the teachers, facilities, and programs) I bet you would have the same outcomes for both cohorts.

Then why have schools at all? We've been doing this all wrong. If schooling doesn't affect outcomes, it sounds like a perfectly good libertarian argument for no mandatory schooling at all...