OK. So you didn’t have to overcome what others do and still, you judge them?
I don’t get it. On the one hand we say how important the nuclear family is for a child’s success in life but when a child doesn’t have that it becomes pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Is family not important after all or what?
Man you keep making a lot of assumptions about ‘me’. But I will give you this one, I’m not one that had much suffering as I predominantly grew up middle class, as stated, from my earliest memories.
I wouldn’t say I’m judging anybody. This is about AA and social engineering for academics. At the risk of getting off topic even further here is what I believe about the whole issue…
Thanks for the second time quoting you @mnben87
I think there’s some nuance.
There’s a big difference between inequality of outcome and inequality of opportunity.
My parents were born in villages in China that would make most US ghettos look middle class, literally no plumbing ad 1 electric lightbulb in the entire house. However, their parents HIGHLY HIGHLY valued education and sacrificed everything to make sure my parents were educated. China at that time also had a very merit based system so mum and dad were able to get into top performing elementary, middle and high schools based on test scores. Those schools were free. Those high schools then fed into top ranked unis (also free), which allowed them to make it to the states.
In the states, they were also desperately poor, but they were highly educated (2 masters degrees by the time they got here) so finding a good job was very easy. The poverty was never a barrier- work ethic could have been. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this doesn’t always hold in some parts of the US
On a similar note, my grandparents valued education so much bc it literally saved their lives. Students were gaurenteed food while others weren’t. Big deal during the famines.
I agree, but neither will ever be equal. Life isn’t fair and never will be. The sooner anyone accepts that the better off they will be. Nobody is coming to save you or give you anything. It is all on you to make it happen. If more people had that mindset, the world would be a better place.
My parents were both first generation college graduates. Both sets of my grandparents WORKED very hard to give them better lives than they had. Then my parents did the same. My mother’s parents were 1 generation removed from the reservation.
I have 3 siblings. I am the dumb one.
1 is an engineer and has a high paying job as a coder and music maker for high profile platforms.
1 is about to graduate medical school with a PHD in micro
1 is a college professor (she has 3 children so she has prioritized a job that gives her maximum time with them)
My parents prioritized education, personal responsibility, and fostered an environment of self-sufficiency.
Not that I believe you had any negative intentions by saying this, but I would just like to point out to anyone else who has the topic come up in future conversations, that living on the reservation is not necessarily a bad thing. I live in one of the most predominantly-Native states in the country, with nine reservations, some of which contain the poorest counties in the country. (I think the #1 poorest is here.) I know plenty of doctors, lawyers, teachers, veterans, etc. who “made it out” and went right back because that’s home. Their connection to the people and the place meant more to them than living in a more affluent zip code.
I bring it up because the “ghetto” has been mentioned multiple times lately and I can’t imagine that there’s not plenty of decently (or very) successful people who continue living there because they care for the community, or consider it their home, or whatever.
Probably the more we can encourage successful, driven people to share that passion and care for their communities the better. If more and more “good” people move into a “bad” place, odds are it’ll improve over time. I don’t think we should necessarily view staying as an inherently bad thing and leaving as an inherently good thing.
This seems to be the “X factor”
I think who you surround yourself with is very important for success.
I can’t control my children, but I can control who their peers are. And that is huge.
If you were paying attention, I have already stated that the AA approach to school doesn’t solve anything and in fact, makes things worse for the people it’s supposed to be helping.
And this is the problem with certain demographics. They have been conditioned via policies, including progressive ones like welfare, to not have a sense of personal autonomy, let alone accountability. They have a sense of entitlement but are not self aware enough to recognize that they are entitled to a life in high crime areas with schools unable to teach their children but in return will be able to afford smart phones, nail and hair salon visits, and new sneakers.
When the leftist activists in academia start labelling concepts like punctuality, individualism, and work ethic, symbols of white supremacy, you see just how screwed these people will be for years to come.
Here’s an example of some school policies that are spreading in this country: assignments can be handed in whenever, students can retake tests multiple times, class participation cannot be part of grading, lack of attendance cannot affect grading or be punishable. Why? Because they have been unable, regardless of all of their new age, CRT, SEL, woke policies and approaches to get better outcomes among black students. And these policies which are the opposite of how the real world works, will also be in place for non black students so everyone has equal opportunity to fail at life but at least we’ll have equity at last.
Admittedly, I don’t pay much attention to your posts as I don’t like the content.
I agree.
I was simply wanting to point, perhaps out of some sense of loyalty, to people who aren’t familiar with or who have no connection to our country’s reservations/Native populations, that not all reservation or the people living on them are absolute places/pieces of shit. I don’t consider it a “bad” thing to continue to live there, and personally don’t want people to view leaving one as an ultimate marker of success.
Yeah, that’s my fault for not providing trigger warnings for babies. Sorry.
No the difference is I can accept we have differing opinions. You try to make things personal and/or imply “agree with me or your deplorable”.
I’ll take the high road with apparent sippy cup in hand.
I think it’s a cultural thing or a “we must succeed here or else we go back to x country”
Cheating by these students was rampant when I was in grad school at a a fairly prestigious school. It amazed me that they got away with it.
Wrong. I referred to historical fact with regard to the inner cities whereas you referred to a personal anecdote. Fact does not equal opinion. If you are ignorant of American history you should have not commented.
Oh sure your opinion is historical fact.
Again, name calling. I love keyboard warriors. Still going take the high road on this.
It ain’t cheating, if you don’t get caught. 
I am too old to have gone to college with very many oriental students. What was their method of cheating? It is difficult for me to see a simple way to effectively cheat in the higher mathematics.
I do know that fraternities keep a huge library of past tests for every professor/instructor. It definitely gave them an edge, but I wouldn’t call it cheating.
Blatant copying/communications during exams. Splitting homework and copying etc…
That’s mostly what I noticed.
Would be interesting to see the average grades for these students when the classroom is small vs a giant lecture hall. Harder to cheat in a small room.
We did have one teacher that before the test had everyone move around to different spots in one of the big classrooms. I wonder how that impacted grades for these individuals.