Yahoo! Voices has released my latest piece:
Chaos Overwhelms the Poor
10/18/2013
“Personal failings” and “an environment that is not conducive to success” so interact that many poor folk come into a state of self-generated, self-perpetuating crisis. Personal failings can be outgrown, however, and untoward circumstances transcended.
For the moment, this is my definitive expression on the subject.
Thanks to the reader who sent me this link:
I am preparing a substantial response and should have it ready to publish a few weeks from now. In the meantime, I thought others might be interested in the original article.
It is frustrating to me that the page titles online often differ from the hard copy headlines.
[O]nly 9 percent of 9th grade students in DC graduated from college within five years of finishing high school. Moreover, if you’re a DC student who just makes proficiency on the DC CAS, that level of proficiency translates to only a 16th percentile score on the SAT.
This is a remarkable admission from a public school system in a public document.
Recalling what I’ve written in other recent posts, just yesterday I noted in my diary that “the public schools are a ladder.” The Chaos Factor, however, militates against any and every institution.
The plan in D.C. is to isolate first-time ninth graders from overage students, so that the highest ratio of those who want to succeed can do so, without being distracted and bullied by those who have shown they do not intend to succeed.
Continue reading
For the past four decades, the “marshmallow test” has served as a classic experimental measure of children’s self-control: will a preschooler eat one of the fluffy white confections now or hold out for two later?
Now a new study demonstrates that being able to delay gratification is influenced as much by the environment as by innate ability. Children who experienced reliable interactions immediately before the marshmallow task waited on average four times longer—12 versus three minutes—than youngsters in similar but unreliable situations.
The article explores the issues in some depth.
(Reblogged 01/08/14.)
At work on Tuesday 05/08/12, the radio station they had on the PA played Genesis’ “Giving it all away.”
People see things different ways given their personal circumstances.
I know nothing about Phil Collins personally. But in all likelihood, were he to “give it all away” as he understands it, he would probably have a lot left.
Not I.
All I own is the contents of two heavy bags. Giving it all away would be a simple gesture. And afterwards, I would have nothing.
———— ♦ ————
That afternoon, as usual, as soon as I got to my bunk I sat down and got out my medications for the evening. The guy assigned to the bunk above me was a newcomer, real clean-cut, a Jake Pavelka lookalike.
“Got any goodies in those pill bottles?” he asked.
“No,” I answered.
“It’d been cooler if you’d said yes,” he said.
As usual, I put my meds back in my zipper bag when I finished, and, as usual, I locked it.
Because of guys like him.
Trojan Horse Productions 