Home By Marquel All in the Family. Everybody pulled his weight

All in the Family. Everybody pulled his weight

[embedyt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZngGIw5ONWE[/embedyt]Marquel, TPVs NYTimes Meritocracy Section correspondent, was trying on Mephisto shoes when he read A New Push to Get Low-Income Students Through College.  Michael Bloomberg’s charity announces an effort to reduce the number of poor students who excel in high school and fail to get through college. Anyone who knows New York high schools, however, knows that excelling in most of them merely means that you can count to ten using your fingers and that you can read C-A-T and fifty percent of the time realize it’s not the same as can’t. Why these students who “excel” in such barnyards should be treated like the valedictorian from Stuyvesant High School is a mystery known only to Bloomberg and his ilk, students from the bottom of their competitive high schools who just squeaked by in college.

But Marquel wanted to know how they were going to mechanically structure this push of so called top students (from non-top schools). He talked to Bloomberg people, and then de Blasio’s.
“Are you just going to take the top student from crappy schools and assume he or she is competitive with those coming out of the elite schools?” I asked. “Have you done this before?”
“Sort of. During the Bloomberg Administration, we let some students take the SATs with the help of their parents. Since a lot of parental factors had produced the problem it seemed logical to give the students a bit more parental interaction as a small boost.”
“And the results?” I asked.
“They all did far worse than what their PSATs would have predicted.”
“So the parents were dummies, huh?” I asked.
 “Let’s just say they were more of a hindrance than a help.”
“So what’s the plan for this year?” I asked
“We’ll pick the same top student from each school but instead of their real parents, we’ll use so-called “testing parents.”
“Who will they be?” I asked, “and will they actually be in the room helping the student while others are going it alone?”
“You’re implication is unfair. For sixteen years more fortunate students have had constant help from their parents. These kids are going to get help from their testing parents for one or two days max. The testing parents will be math and English teachers who are not allowed to give the answers, just indicate the better answers”
“Yeah but the other kids are now competing against fully educated adults” I noted.
“We think it’s fair in the long run considering our goals.”
“Which are?” I asked.
“To make sure our college entrants aren’t composed of just elite families.”
“So to make sure that the kids going to college aren’t just smart kids, you want to add some dummies?” I asked.
“I said elite, not smart.”
“But aren’t the kids who score high on the SATs smart kids?” I asked.
“Not necessarily. They have the advantage of SAT prep courses.”
“But so do the kids from most of our lesser schools as well. Apparently they just don’t perform as well ” I countered.
“Because of their families. Now they’ll have new families for two days.”
“Are they going to go off to college with their testing children?” I asked.
“I don’t think so. The colleges are expected to take it from there.”
I went to City Hall and inquired.
“Yes we are cooperating with the program. We think it’s a good idea but you must remember this is a class problem.  Entrenched élites against the disadvantaged, many new immigrants.”
“That’s horseshit,” I said. “Stuyvesant High School is filled with immigrants. They outnumber those born here and they largely outperform everyone else.”
“Those are largely Asians.”
“And East Asians,” I added
“Asians.” He said simply.
“What’s wrong with Asians?” I asked.
“They have very tight families. Very academically oriented. Lots of direction.”
“I don’t see anything wrong with that. Isn’t that good?” I asked.
“Not for the non elites.”
“Now you’re calling new immigrants elites?” I asked. “Don’t you mean non dummies?”
“I hardly think that’s appropriate,” he said.
“Appropriate or accurate?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
***
BY MARQUEL: All in the Family. Everybody pulled his weight
 

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5 COMMENTS

  3. The guy is making fun of how we tend to patch up things here. Who are those people from the Corps of Advisors? It seems more of an effort to give some jobs to some hundreds of people than to fix a major problem which cannot be fixed in the first place with a little bit of philanthropy. Be it Bloomberg philanthropy.

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