Heartbreak.

Heartbreak. ~ Crid at August 11, 2019 6:38 AM

I can empathize. In high school, I developed terrible study habits. I was always the smartest kid in the room. I could read and fully comprehend the lesson in less time than the teacher needed to teach it; certainly less time than my fellow students needed to comprehend it. I did my homework on the bus or in the preceding class. Sometimes I did my homework for the next day while the teacher was teaching that day's lesson. An hour of study at night was overkill.

Of course, having developed lazy study habits, I never took challenging classes. I picked classes that would enable me to cruise with little effort.

When I got to college, I was gobsmacked. My study habits were terrible and insufficient to get me through even the basic classes. My fellow students were smart, or smart enough, but had much better study habits.

I started out trying to correct things by studying longer, but that was not the secret. I worked it out in time, learning to study better. I found my own learning style and adapted my studying and my class choices to that. I joined study groups.

Unlike Kashawn in this story, I had a better foundation of knowledge. My mother regularly took us to the library as kids (that's a Kindle in a building for you Millennials). My parents were both educated. We discussed current events at the dinner table. My aunts and uncles exposed us to art and travel.

Still, I feel for the kid.

Still, I feel for the kid.

Conan the Grammarian at August 11, 2019 7:57 AM

Sounds to me like he is on the spectrum. The double injustice is that he probably took the slot of some Asian with a genius level IQ and the grades to match,

I’m not even sure he could make it in any legitimate major at a regular land grant school.

And yet Berkeley will keep him if they possibly can, until he either drops out or is issued a worthless degree with a six figure student loan debt.

After poachers have killed most of the adult male elephants, young males have been observed roaming in gangs and killing rhinos and causing general mayhem. Boys without a father in the house behave similarly. Fathers set boundaries for kids, esp boys. What caused the absent fathers? the welfare system.

Another culprit is mainstreaming profoundly disturbed or dim students. I have first hand knowledge of classrooms with such students being unmanageable because they know that they are not really required to do the work and goof around a lot.

When discipline is not enforced, fighting can rise to the level of endangering the teacher as well as the other students.

Interestingly, black kids in Catholic or Charter schools seem quite capable of behaving when there is a very strict discipline policy (school uniforms seem to have a good effect).

No one disputes that African-American, Native American and Pacific Islander students get disciplined at school at higher rates than white students. Similarly, white students are disciplined at higher rates than Asian-American students, and boys are disciplined more often than girls. Not surprisingly, students with behavioral disabilities get in more trouble than those without.

Really? No one?

Since the "higher rates" are on a per-person basis, that sounds about right.

Switch to a per-offense or degree-of-offense basis and you may have to dial back your outrage.

These "disciplined more" or "arrested more" statistics are always based on a per-person count - never a per-offense account. Maybe that's at the heart of our failure to fix the problem, we've framed the question wrong.

Maybe the question shouldn't be "why are more young inner city black men arrested," but "why do more young inner city black men reject established societal norms of behavior and how do we convince them to abide by those norms?"

I had a high school/college experience similar to Conan's. I managed to get things in gear and graduate with a 3.0 average. I went to a state university. I met a lot of students who had the opposite happen to them. They had been C students in high school, but became 4.0 students in college. The main issue was that they had to deal with drama in their home lives. But once they were out of the house, they were no longer distracted by their family issues and they could properly study.

I had a high school/college experience similar to Conan's. I managed to get things in gear and graduate with a 3.0 average. I went to a state university. I met a lot of students who had the opposite happen to them. They had been C students in high school, but became 4.0 students in college. The main issue was that they had to deal with drama in their home lives. But once they were out of the house, they were no longer distracted by their family issues and they could properly study.

Fayd at August 11, 2019 10:11 AM

My mother was somewhat the same way. Mixed grades in high school because of the turmoil of moving constantly during the lead up and beginning of World War II. Her dad was high ranking military.

However, stellar student in college, third in her class, manga cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

The kicker here, is no amount of good study habits, and rigorous course material, can make up for a poor intellect.

I have to wonder how I would have fared in college 75 years ago, with many fewer distractions, and opportunities to goof off? Radio but no TV?

I wonder if some day there will be a demand to replicate higher education as it existed in the 1930’s and 40’s with all our computerized learning advantages, but perhaps a closed system to cut off students from the massive distractions and time wasters of the Internet, multi media, and video gaming.
(The Amish and the Hasidim have a point, although most people are too dense to recognize the purpose of their closed communities)

This was undoubtedly the reason that education was still so good at the service academies right up through the 80’s while it was going to hell everywhere else. They could control the environment.

There will be no place for Kashawns of the world in such a place, but maybe that would be a fair trade off? Kids like this are never going to be an academic anymore than they will join NBA? Why is college seen as an entitlement, as opposed to the competition it was designed to be?

Adulthood is all about recognizing the viable options and distinguishing those from the fantasies.

Conan the Grammarian
" but "why do more young inner city black men reject established societal norms of behavior and how do we convince them to abide by those norms?"

They have established norms and behaviors. Those of other cultures. The problem is that they come from cultures that disdain learning.

"What accounts for the differing misbehavior rates? The best anybody can say is, "We don't know entirely.""

Nonsense. This is weaseling to avoid addressing the problem.

"I met a lot of students who had the opposite happen to them. They had been C students in high school, but became 4.0 students in college. The main issue was that they had to deal with drama in their home lives. But once they were out of the house, they were no longer distracted by their family issues and they could properly study."

That was me. My problem was compounded by divorce and moving around and changing schools. I had started in a private school, but halfway through the fifth grade, we moved and I got placed in a public school that was waaaaaaay behind where I had been in a private school. For the next two and a half years, I didn't study (at least not schoolwork) because there was nothing to study; I already knew everything that was being taught. Teachers occupied some of my time by having me tutor other students.

Then the eighth grade rolled around, and I was placed in a private school again. Now I was waaaaaaay behind. It was frustrating. I'd get a 76 on a test that I thought I aced, because I didn't have the assumed background of material; I had skipped over a lot of stuff by changing schools. And then there was ongoing drama from the divorce. I pretty much raised myself; my parents were so messed up that they could barely take care of themselves, much less put any effort into raising children.

It took until the end of my junior year to get caught up to my peers, and get my head on straight. I got okay grades, but part of that was because I was taking a bunch of AP courses. That eventually paid off in 12 hours' worth of college credit.

And yeah, when I was finally in college and away from home, it was such a relief. No drama; just study, get grades, and have a little bit of a social life. I didn't have a 4.0 average, but part of that was because I was working as a co-op student to pay my tuition and support myself, and sometimes study time was limited. There was many a week when I bought groceries at the 24-hour Kroger at 2 AM, because that was the only time I had available to do it.

As for the original question: Many of the same problems that occur with the black students in inner-city schools are occurring with the poor whites in the sticks, and for many of the same reasons. But government workers don't bother to go out there to collect stats, and besides, the people that live out there are deplorable, so nobody knows or cares.

(The Amish and the Hasidim have a point, although most people are too dense to recognize the purpose of their closed communities)
____________________________________

Which purpose do you mean? I can think of more than one.

Which purpose do you mean? I can think of more than one.

lenona at August 12, 2019 10:08 AM

So can I.

Serious competition shooters wear both headphones and blinders on the sides of the shooting glasses to block out auditory and visual distractions during competition.

I would argue that cultures serious about maintaining their identity and the focus of their children on the values they wish to transmit, block out cultural distractors and negative values in much the same way.