Monday Moaning: Class Selection
It is not the first time I am moaning about the way we teach our children these days but today I heard something that just made my skin crawl. There is obviously a story on the flip side and more than one way to look at things. Today I will cover them all to give all of you a starting point to get to your own conclusion of thought.
I said in the Moan two weeks ago that Education has become a selection process. To weed out those who have a future of top jobs and the work horse. At the same time, as today kind of came to light, there is some distinction between who has money or not.
Despite saying so, a parent will do everything to give their child any advances for his or her future. That said, the working class might just run into a wall that way. It is very simple minded coming from me, but I know hard it is for a parent with little money to help their child reach the top. On top of that, a hardworking class parent in my days were usually people without much to no education.
This means that every thing I learned at school was due to my very hard work as I never had a parent to ask help from. Everything I learned was way above their heads.
This class distinction has in some form became a selection today.
These day if one has hardworking parents they are people who work their asses of pretty much day and night, if one grows up with more siblings it means time spend with a parent is not much. Even with smart parents kids have to again work hard for high grades. Nothing wrong with that, but there is a small kink there as well that can make a huge difference in later times.
A hardworking high paid parent can easily buy and yes buy help to help their children gain an advantage. The simplest form is an extra tutor or the kids software these days that became very popular that starts a child at ages of 3 and older to learn things we were taught at age 6. In the end a parents with little money to spend have bitter choices to make.
This might seem small as an advantage but it has great impact the moment they come to school. Due their above average knowledge they gain momentum in class where kids without that feel inferior.
Can this idea kind of suppress growth of those less fortunate.
I know form experience, I had to really pull all my own stops to make up from those who had an advantage.
These days is nothing new.
The title is called Class Selection and I will tell you why.
For example we have a system in place where we select students on their overall knowledge and select classes to put them in. 1A 1B which one might hold the smarter kids? My school was like that though it made it seems it didn’t. But when talking to other students in the same year you could feel a slight difference in speed. And at the end of the year one found one class loose more students than the other.
It still doesn’t say much as I do not have the evidence neither do I hold any true knowledge of it being true. This is based on simple calculation and experience. And we are not the only one doing so.
In the end hard work pays of and a little help from a wheel barrel with a little cash can get you al long way.
Now for the reason of Moaning today.
Today my nephew came to me with a question about Powerpoint. Now everybody knows what I mean but this little man is only 9 years old. And the simple question was what it was and how to create one. The reason for this question stomped me a little.
I need to do a book report and those who made a Powerpoint got higher grades up to 20 of a 100 points more.
The reason My anger slightly levelled up was that Powerpoint is not a free software. Second it takes knowledge on how to use it, though it might not be much, someone has to teach you.
And we are talking about 9 year olds. Now his parents belong to the working class. Having two siblings doesn’t have him spend a lot of time with a parent. Second that one works his ass of to pay the bills since not having a high paying job. Diplomas and papers mean everything but what if you never got the change.
To me this is just like my old days. Working hard and having to find all on my own. And with that little knowledge though not a piece of paper to proof so I will try and help him. At the same time I see him being weight down by a lot of pressure to keep up with the rest.
Teachers do see this and they do all they can to help but in the end the education books and way of teaching is thought up by someone smarter behind a desk. Though I wonder if he truly is smarter. So it is not all on the teacher as they only follow procedure and the speed the software tells them to.
Even if this means a child not to coop with the pressure, it will slowly be selected out of the program.
I said selected as it pretty much just can’t compete anymore and flows out of class. Re-doing a year of just drop out. This kind of pressure is high and I know all about it.
Still it makes me wonder who and how the others made such report. What if parents do not have the means to pay for the software used. Or lack knowledge all together to help. What if a parents has to work two jobs to stay afloat and need to a point their attention equally over other siblings.
Any body who would say that a parent should than only have one child should be ashamed of themselves as that is the thinking of a elite class if you ask me. That kind of selection is in my opinion short sighted. Get a better job. Fine in this economy it is easy to switch jobs without any papers. Again some of us will be in a disadvantage.
Does one see what the title means now. How CLASS selection is started very early in life an only gains more and more ground. Lower class have no to little means to help their of spring to gain an advantage.
Can this mean that gaps between smart and dumb, rich and poor, workhorse or riding horse become clearer and bigger.
I hope we find a way to gather our resources and build a society on equal ground no matter what pedigree we come from or what ever our backstory may be.
Can we take away the deciding factors.
Sure those who work hard can get somewhere. But those who work hard and have a heart end up doing their best for nothing.
It is a kill or be killed world. If knowledge can be bought than how much is knowledge worth when it isn’t based on self thinking.
How much of the selection is by nature?
Best Wishes
Ranting Crow
Ranting Crow 