SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

It’s a tough job but somebody has to do it

I don’t know how many of our readers follow the comments in our blog, but just so’s you know - an ongoing (and ongoing and ongoing) argument has been ongoing seemingly forever. That is the question of whether demographics are destiny - in other words, is it impossible to teach low socioeconomic kids to a high standard. 

Margaret Wente has just written an interesting column on this topic, showing just how intransigent the differences are between well-educated affluent Canadians and poorly-educated lower-class Canadians. Their entire lifestyles are radically different, including what they eat, their divorce rates, how they exercise, and what schools they send their children to. 

On the one hand, it is probably unfair and unrealistic to expect schools to completely overcome such entrenched problems. On the other hand, we can’t just throw up our hands in despair and condemn unlucky poor kids to oblivion.

It seems to me that the best shot at lifting kids out of poverty is to equip them with good basic skills - especially the ability to read, write, and add up. Without these skills, they have virtually no chance. With these skills, other things become possible.

The good news is - poverty need be no barrier to teaching low socioeconomic young kids basic skills. While it may well be harder (they change schools much more, their vocabularies are impoverished, they lack familiarity with the conventions of print, and so forth), it is definitely possible. We know this because a handful of schools are doing it.

A modest proposal: schools should make teaching the three R’s their number one priority.