93. Schools as engines of competence or maintainers of class?
[From Seth Godin, Stop Stealing Dreams http://www.squidoo.com/stop-stealing-dreams]
Or possibly both.
Public schools were the great leveler, the tool that would enable class to be left behind as a meritocracy took hold.
At schools for “higher”-class kids, though, at fancy boarding schools or rich suburban schools or at Yale, there’s less time spent on competence and more time spent dreaming. Kids come to school with both more competence (better reading and speech skills) and bigger dreams (because those dreams are inculcated at home). As a result, the segregation of school by class reinforces the cycle, dooming the lower classes to an endless game of competence catch-up, one that even if it’s won won’t lead to much because the economy spends little time seeking out the competent.
Give a kid a chance to dream, though, and the open access to resources will help her find exactly what she needs to know to go far beyond competence.
Tags: stopstealingdreams
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