It’s pretty hard to teach a kid who has been raised by the television, when he hasn’t eaten breakfast, when the family has been kicked out of their home, when he has to work a job to help feed the siblings, when the parents have just gotten divorced or lost both of their jobs, when no-one at home speaks English, or when their most alluring role models are dope dealers, pimps, or gangsta rappers. Imagine, then, trying to teach a room full of such trauma cases. […] If you want better schools, work for more stable incomes, families and neighborhoods.
Robert Freeman (found via Marco Arment) on the true problem in American schools: not bad teachers who slack, but a society that is struggling with poverty and a middle class that can no longer support themselves.
When are we going to see our society and decide that it is no longer acceptable to live like this? At some point, American innovation and progression will die if our schools continue to face these challenges.
-B