Telling Poor, Smart Kids That All It Takes Is Hard Work to Be as Successful as Their Wealthy Peers

[Agnosticsherbet]

Telling Poor, Smart Kids That All It Takes Is Hard Work to Be as Successful as Their Wealthy Peers Is a Blatant Lie
When it was revealed that low-income students face greater challenges in school and are far less likely than their wealthier peers to attend or graduate college, the message to this disadvantaged group of students was a simple one—work harder.

It was a new twist on the dreaded “work twice as hard to have half of what your peers have” mentality but it also seemed to just be an unfortunate reality in America.

But it isn’t often enough that the full picture of low-income students’ disadvantages is explored and unveiled to the very students who are trying to navigate that reality.

Many of these students do step up to the plate and work hard to obtain the type of academic scores that exceed expectations, but even that isn’t enough for them to overcome such daunting obstacles.

We need to make real change happen.

[metroins]

1. Business and family

My parents taught me to go into business, they never told me how but they said that's what I should do. They also told me they would never be able to afford college and I'd have to pay for it myself.

My high school never taught me about SATs or student loans and I scored in the 99th percentile of every subject except English. I never went to college even though I was in a gifted class part time with only 2 other students.

Not everybody is going to start equal, I personally believe the family aspect is the most important part of a child's life. I'm not a republican but I do think they're onto something when they discuss the family apparatus being a key to success.

My wife was born with decent income (say 150k/year today's money) but lower test scores. She got her Masters and is successful because her family preached education and schooling. She's in a lower income job by choice but she definitely works harder than I do.

The common theme I've realized is family believing in you and when you want to give up, family tells you to keep going. In my day to day dealings with people, the more stability in the family unit, the higher rate of success a child will have.

My parents were poor but they pushed business and were stable.

[duffyduff]

2. The Horatio Alger myth needs to die. n/t

[Yallow]

3. When You Come From Nothing It Is So Much Sweeter

When you become successful.

Especially if you did it without screwing people over.

Being rich is a disadvantage in many ways. A lot of rich kids never have to learn how to do whatever it takes, because there is someone always there to bail them out.

If there is a will, there is a way. For some it is twice as hard, but look what a kid raised without a father with a middle name Hussein accomplished.

Just don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't "do it".

[Agnosticsherbet]

4. The article doesn't say they can't succeed. It says that it is not just a matter of hard work.

[Orrex]

5. I love it when DUers preach the bullshit bootstrap delusion

All the hard work in the world can be easily and irrevocably undone by the stroke of a pen by some eight-figure executive somewhere, and the executive will probably land a seven-figure bonus for doing it. To pretend otherwise is insulting.

Being rich is a disadvantage in many ways.

Happily, that "disadvantage" is entirely voluntary and easily overcome. A rich person enjoys the luxury of choosing to abandon that wealth in order to reap the myriad benefits of poverty, but the impoverished person sure as hell doesn't have the option to abandon poverty.


You've resorted to the Libertarian trick of citing an extreme, anomalous outlier as proof that the system "works," which is exactly like saying that Powerball will make us all rich because it made that one lucky ticket-buyer rich.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. You Have An Odd Definition of "Disadvantage"

Nothing you described would be causatively linked to being rich in the first place. Your premise is silly.