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3 Rules right Poor Teens

I was told 3 things ...

Graduate High School
Graduate College
Don't Enter The Military
 
How does this article make you feel as an educator? Do you think these are things that can even be taught in school? Or in an economics class?

https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/...teens-should-follow-to-join-the-middle-class/

Finish high school (minimum).
Basically don't get pregnant.
Get a full time job (any).

It is ever so difficult to correct for dysfunctional socialization. You might be able to do something in a boot camp or tough boarding school. But otherwise? Those mothers are totally negligent and out policies have increased the feeling in many, that society somehow "owes" them something. Illegality of residence in the US makes this much worse and having allowed two generations of persons to live here illegally has made the total situation much worse. But, what is new?
 
There’s a fundamental flaw here in that the idea seems to be to lift everyone above average, which is more than ridiculous (and if you can’t work out why, you probably won’t succeed ;) ). While the concepts listed in the article are obviously going to be related to general success in life, listing them as things people can simply choose to follow or not is silly, they’re as much symptoms of more complex and varied issues and complications.

There’s always going to be people at the bottom so a key focus needs to be ensuring that the bottom isn’t too low down. Nothing wrong with encouraging people to strive for and achieve much more of course but that alone is destined to failure. Of course the problem is that all of the people we hear talking about this have either never been at the bottom or have bene lucky enough to have improved their situation (often the ones who fail to understand why everyone else can’t do the same).
 
There’s a fundamental flaw here in that the idea seems to be to lift everyone above average, which is more than ridiculous (and if you can’t work out why, you probably won’t succeed ;) ). While the concepts listed in the article are obviously going to be related to general success in life, listing them as things people can simply choose to follow or not is silly, they’re as much symptoms of more complex and varied issues and complications.

There’s always going to be people at the bottom so a key focus needs to be ensuring that the bottom isn’t too low down. Nothing wrong with encouraging people to strive for and achieve much more of course but that alone is destined to failure. Of course the problem is that all of the people we hear talking about this have either never been at the bottom or have bene lucky enough to have improved their situation (often the ones who fail to understand why everyone else can’t do the same).

Here is the issue. These 3 "rules" are very attainable. And this could lift the bottom. The article is clear in that these arent the only factors, but they seem to have an unusually high weight on future prospects. It is certainly higher than everyone going to college.

All 3 of these are choices you DO make in your life. You don't neee an A or 3.0 to graduate high school. Just graduate. Get ANY full time job. And don't get pregnant.
 
A few kids can rise above such a childhood. Most can not.

I don't agree with that. I would bet that the kid just needs one person to be a good example. Isn't that the role of the teacher?
 
So until now schools never taught these kinds of things?
 
I don't agree with that. I would bet that the kid just needs one person to be a good example. Isn't that the role of the teacher?

Teachers do a good job of being examples of the three principles in the OP. Whether the students choose to follow that example, or the example set by their parents, is up to them.
 
There’s a fundamental flaw here in that the idea seems to be to lift everyone above average, which is more than ridiculous (and if you can’t work out why, you probably won’t succeed ;) ). While the concepts listed in the article are obviously going to be related to general success in life, listing them as things people can simply choose to follow or not is silly, they’re as much symptoms of more complex and varied issues and complications.

There’s always going to be people at the bottom so a key focus needs to be ensuring that the bottom isn’t too low down. Nothing wrong with encouraging people to strive for and achieve much more of course but that alone is destined to failure. Of course the problem is that all of the people we hear talking about this have either never been at the bottom or have bene lucky enough to have improved their situation (often the ones who fail to understand why everyone else can’t do the same).

Well put. The only thing I'd point out is that "lifting everyone above" isn't ridiculous - it's impossible :)
 
I don't agree with that. I would bet that the kid just needs one person to be a good example. Isn't that the role of the teacher?

Teachers only have a short time with a student. Parents have been influencing their children for their entire lives. It's very, very, very difficult for a child to rise above their crappy parents because that's normal to them. Fighting parents, sleeping around, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, no discipline, no hugs and kisses --- when it's ingrained into you that that's just how people live, then that's inevitably how YOU will live. Very few people break the cycle.
 
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