You could pay more, but why?

Please remember that we are learning about how individuals are affected by social class.  This is not meant to make students feel guilty or feel bad for those in lower classes, it is just meant to show that although Americans believe that everyone is created equal with equal opportunity, the reality is that we are not equal.  There are different benefits and obstacles and life chances depending on what class one is in.  Another glaring example of social class is our school district.  Many students here are from families who have lived "the American Dream."  That is, their parents have risen in social class and now are living in the top of the social class ladder.  And so this often becomes an example for those students that anyone can make it in America - look at what my family has done.  Here are two questions for you to consider:

1)  Why would a family choose to live in Stevenson's district?  The taxes here are far and above that of surrounding areas.  For example, a $649,000 house in Long Grove might have to pay $16,000 per year in real estate taxes plus $1200/year in home owner association fees such as this house:

whereas a house in Wheeling might cost $299,000 and only $7,000/year in taxes.

If all it takes to succeed in life is to try hard, why would anyone want to pay so much extra for a house that is the same size as the less expensive one?  The reason is often because the house comes with so much more than living space: a higher achieving school district, a lower crime neighborhood, neighbors who have similar values to you (such as do well in school), lower pollution, etc...  All of these provide an advantage to the children growing up in that area.  I am not not saying that the advantage is wrong or that anyone should feel guilty for having that advantage.  I simply want to acknowledge that the advantage does exist.




2)  Try to objectively look back at your family's rise in social class and see the dynamic that fueled it.  Did your parents value education?  Why?  Where did that value come from?  What if your parents were born into a house where they were told that school was never going to help them?  Did your parents have parents at home to help them?  What if one of their parents was incarcerated for most of their life?  What if their parent was addicted to drugs?  Were your parents raised in a neighborhood in which they were subjected to violence?  Did they ever know someone close to them who was murdered?  How might the daily threat of violence affect them growing up?  How would they be shaped if they were forced to belong to a gang simply because of where their neighborhood is located?

Choosing poverty?

Who would choose poverty if there was another option? There is often a myth in America that people choose poverty. Okay, the choice isn't that simple, but many believe that people simply do not make choices that will lead them out of poverty. I understand that as humans our power comes in the form of consciousness and the ability to make conscious choices, but there still must be a choice in front of us for us to be able to make it. For example, there are parents that want so badly for their kids to avoid the pitfalls of inner city poverty: gangs, drugs, violence, the criminal justice system, poor education. These parents can want to choose the best for their kids, but if there is no real choice in front of them, then little will come of it. A radical experiment in New York is helping to highlight this. It is a school called The Harlem Children's Zone. Parents line up to get their kids into this revolutionary school. The school begins helping parents BEFORE BIRTH! That's right. It provides training from the beginning in how to be a parent. After years of molding students and parents, the school has done what few parents could do without it; it has equalled and surpassed test scores for white middle class students. Watch the CBS video below and see how the school is doing it and the success it has had. Realize that all of these parents wanted the best for their kids, but only the school made it happen. What do you think happend to the kids who weren't fortunate enough to get into the school? What about all of the impoverished students across America who do not have access to a school like that?


Watch CBS News Videos Online
An excerpt from the report:

"You grow up in America and you're told from day one, 'This is the land of opportunity.' That everybody has an equal chance to make it in this country. And then you look at places like Harlem, and you say, 'That is absolutely a lie,'" Canada told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

"So you're trying to level the playing field between kids here in Harlem and middle class kids in a suburb?" Cooper asked.

"That's exactly what we think we have to do," Canada said. "You know, if you grow up in a community where your schools are inferior, where the sounds of gunshots are a common thing, where you spend your time and energy not thinking about algebra or geometry, but about how not to get beat up, or not to get shot, or not to get raped, when you grow up like that, you don't have the same opportunity as other children growing up. And we're trying to change those odds."