
The Other Children of Silicon Valley - kelukelugames
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/the-other-children-of-silicon-valley/433869/?single_page=true
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mc32
Dont judge everyone by SV standards. Lots of kids in America, black, rural
citizens, etc. Don't get anything before kindergarten. What people are doing
is comparing the poorest to the the expectations of tigermoms. Don't. Fist
thing is to teach patents they are the crux of their child's success. School
can't teach success if a parent does not offer support in return. Yes, some
will succeed despite that.

Yes we should improve educational opportunities for our own children, but much
of it rests on parents and their view on education. "why do we need to learn
calc?"

Also, to be clear, some affluent parents question the need for tigermom type
education so early and will " red shirt" their children/pupils.

Unfortunately, this article is more interested in exposing income disparity,
which is good, but its dressing it under scholatoc achievement.

~~~
jonathankoren
> What people are doing is comparing the poorest to the the expectations of
> tigermoms. Don't. [First] thing is to teach [parents] they are the crux of
> their child's success. [...] > Unfortunately, this article is more
> interested in exposing income disparity, which is good, but its dressing it
> under [scholastic] achievement

This is an incredibly patronizing statement, followed by an equally delusional
one. Let's unpack them.

The first one hinges on the assumption that poor parents don't understand that
"they are the crux of their child's success". With the notable exception of
the rare completely unfit parent, every parent already knows this. Parents
have known this since the beginning of time.

This is then followed with a dismissal of the how wealth inequality effects
education and thus lifetime gains. "If only the poors went to college!"

It's a very common sentiment, but that doesn't mean that it's right. It stems
from the mistaken belief that everyone gets what they deserve because society
is a pure meritocracy. It's the same sentiment where a multibillion dollar
company built on the backs of minimum wage labor tells their employees that if
they don't buy gum, they're money problems will be over.[1] Whereas in the
real world, "being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs"[2].

The reason why poor parents aren't sending their kid to preschool, is because
they don't have an extra $15,000 laying around in their bank account. The
reason why poor kids underperform in school can all be tracked back to wealth.
The distraction of hunger[3], lead paint in homes, and even under resourced
schools because... the schools are funded by local property taxes , thus
ensuring that the poor remain disadvantaged to the rich. (And if you seriously
believe it's all just effort, put your kid the poorest public school in your
area.)

[1] [http://www.nasdaq.com/article/mcdonalds-sample-budget-
sheet-...](http://www.nasdaq.com/article/mcdonalds-sample-budget-sheet-is-
laughable-but-its-implications-are-not-cm261920) [2]
[http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-
poor/](http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/) [3]
[http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_sarasohn/inde...](http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_sarasohn/index.ssf/2011/09/a_growling_stomach_tends_to_di.html)

~~~
jonesb6
"notable exception of the rare completely unfit parent"

If you think unfit parents are rare you should talk to a social worker, police
officer, or nurse, they will be able to bury you with heartbreaking stories of
what life is like for a very large number of people who are predominantly
poor.

~~~
jonathankoren
My point was more that even unfit parents tend to recognize the role of
parents. They're just not good at it. (eg "I'm a good parent! I take care of
my kids just fine!")

~~~
jonesb6
I'm more inclined to believe unfit parents are unfit because they care more
about themselves then their children. Their worried about their own problems
and not introspectively critiquing their own parenting...

Edit: totally misread your comment, yup I agree. I think I just took the
extreme of what you originally said (that unfit parents are rare), my bad.

~~~
jonathankoren
NP. I realized my language was imprecise when I wrote it. ;)

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matthewbauer
Has early childhood education ever been shown to be effective? From what I've
read, students with pre kindergarten were indistinguishable academically from
students without it by about 3rd grade. I think we could help ourselves out a
lot by focusing more on high school success and less on pre-K/elementary
school success.

~~~
mc32
The article admits as much but hedges this by saying it may help to counter
bad parenting by poor parents --which is dubious, since they offer no
evidence. It's more of a feelgood/guilt piece.

What we should do is have programs to make better parents. If they have
children, make them take nurture programs, etc. I know, they don't have
time... But they have time to want to raise children. When pregnancy and
parenting is by and large by choice, given they are talking about "families"
we should come to expect more from parents in rearing their children, poor or
wealthy.

~~~
sokoloff
The problem with such programs is that they are also discriminatory in some
ways. Set aside the differences in culture, just the amount of time and
logistics that some lower-income people spend just to live their lives. Add to
that the requirement to go to some kind of classes (or suffer some kind of
unspecified consequences if I read "make them" as having some kind of teeth)
and you can get to an unsolvable situation for some.

I volunteer occasionally at my young kids' public school and I'm saddened to
see the differences in time that parents [/guardians] spend with their kids.
It's readily apparent in the kids' behavior, even in pre-K and first grade.

~~~
mc32
For citizens it should be the duty az a parent, for immigrants it could be a
condition of admission into country.

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mhuangw
Education really seems like more and more of an arms race. Makes me kind of
apprehensive to have children if I end up getting sucked into this kind of
system.

~~~
beachstartup
seeing this madness is part of the reason i don't have kids, and probably will
never.

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wwwong
I'll just be blunt. Unfortunate that this tech boom has done almost nothing
for the black, hispanic and other communities.

...aside from mostly being pushed out of historic community neighborhoods.

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cbeach
Historically they were white

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rawTruthHurts
Up to which point in history?

