On Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:12:54 -0800, Jim Clark wrote:
Hi
The article and comments gave some representative case studies of
challenges
that disadvantaged students face, and they are considerable. This issue
got
quite a bit of media attention in Canada several years ago when a large
scale
survey came out on university attendance. One of the things I have often
wondered about wealth-education connection, however, is what happens if you
look at the data across several generations, rather than just one. How
many of
us, for example, came from modest backgrounds but are quite successful
today?
Vivyan Adain of Hamilton College in a 2001 "Harvard Educational
Review" article talks about her own experience in rising from poverty
to the professoriate and how factors in the 1990s were going to cut off
opportunities for others to take her path; see:
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/projects/labor/documents/AdairHarvardEducationalReviewArticle.pdf
Clearly her children will have advantages that she never had.
The statistics on our children would put them in the well-off category, but
in
such cases, that reflects the on-going benefit of our having made the leap
through education. And as people like us are moved out of the
disadvantaged
group, does that produce the kind of reported growth in the gap between
segments of society in university attainment? If each generation of
remaining
disadvantaged students is more challenged to succeed, of course, that makes
the
unbelievable amount of debt mentioned in the article even more disturbing
(disgusting?).
I know that there is scholarship and research on these issues but this
is outside of my field of expertise. However, it is important to keep
in mind that in the last decade in the U.S. the rich have gotten richer
and the poor have gotten poorer. And resources for the poor to get
out of poverty through education, such as Pell grants and other financial
aid programs, are either cut back or targeted for cuts. For example,
consider what happened in Alabama; see:
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/12/nearly_5000_college_students_l.html
For context, it might useful to read the following article that reviews
about
the last 100 years of education and its funding: see:
Levine, A., & Levine, M. (2012). Toward Universal Higher Education, Maybe.
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 82(3), 437-446.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1939-0025.2012.01173.x/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false
An interesting "side-effect" of Pell grants is that the promise of obtaining
one might have beneficial effects while students are still in grade school;
see:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/promising_pell_grants_early.php
But maybe these will just be empty promises to poor children.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
"Mike Palij" <[email protected]> 23-Dec-12 9:29 AM >>>
The NY Times has an article focusing on three females who attempt to
go to college (most notably, Emory) but whose background emphasizes
the continuing differences between rich and poor families, especially
today as the rich get richer. See:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html?_r=0&nl=todaysheadlines&adxnnl=1&emc=edit_th_20121223&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1356274850-k/G1zhyfGER281QyDHuz4A
Where are tomorrow's student likely to come from?
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