Poor White children perform worst at school

[Mecky]

Just because you're poor doesn't mean your parents don't care, but there is a rising number of layabout parents that jacked about at school and got no-where in life and just don't care about their own kids education or future.

 

There's even some stories of them actively discouraging hardwork to get the kids to follow their path of lazy scummyness.

 

That's precisely the point I made, if everyone had the best education and the best grades, there would still be unemployment and some people would decide for a life on benefits regardless of their academic ability. So the level of education a person received is no real indicator of economic success. I mean look at Richard Branson, Abraham Lincoln et al. It's not worth worrying about, you can never force people to do something they don't want to do and even if you tried you would not be fully successful. All pushing people around does is cause resentment, leads to anger and possibly violence and crime.

[Mister M]

I hate the tarring of poor white children as 'chavs' and 'poor white trash'. I work with many young people and see lots of kids from disadvantaged backgrounds trying hard to make a success of themselves in their chosen fields whether it be retail, care assistants, or nail technicians.

 

What impresses me is that in spite of having a multitude of bad circumstances (such as being carers for their parent, or having very little money at home) their commitment to improving their circumstances is admirable. More so since the opportunities for youngsters who aren't academic are narrowing all the time. Forty years ago in a city like Sheffield, at least those who weren't academically bright could at least look to large local employers for jobs that paid comparably well, and gain self and other respect.

 

Conversely many children from more well off backgrounds will do poorly at school but have parents that can play the system, or have connections / financial clout so that their child won't face the same public criticism as poorer children do.

[AdamSmith]

The system actively discriminates against poor White children.

 

There is some help for the poorest based on income.

 

There is also help for the poorest based upon ethnicity. (White children outperform ethinc minorities generally, although there are some minorities which consistently out perform White people).

 

So you have help targetted to poorest based on income.

And help targetted towards people based upon ethnicity.

 

A poor ethnic minority kid therefore gets more help than a poor White kid. Because both get a bit of help due to income. But the ethnic minority gets extra help for being an ethnic minority too.

 

there are a number of reasons poor white kids dont perform in school, some of this is down to the poor white kids parents that dont really give a flying as long as they get the benefits! the kids arnt pushed to succeed like a lot of ethnic families but a lot is down to the ethnic mix now in most schools where numerous languages have to be interpreted in the early years and so the poor white kids dont have the same attention spent on them, whilst the lessons are diluted for ease of understanding.

[Eater Sundae]

If there is a difference, I think the likely cause could be that immigrants (and by osmosis and parental pressure, their children) are aspirational, and want to "better" themselves. That's why they put up with the upheaval and stress of coming here in the first place. The aspirational ones come here, the less aspirational ones don't. In the case of the indiginous population, both the aspirational and the non-aspirational are still here. In fact, some of the most aspirational of the indiginous population may have left here for somewhere better.

 

So the locals become less aspirational and aspirational people come from overseas.

 

Also, some foreign countries have very poor educational systems, and many people there cannot afford education. As a result, education is prized, and any opportunity to gain it will be treasured and not wasted. To some people in this country, education is not regarded as highly.

 

It's not surprising that the immigrants and their children value education and make better use of it, on average, that do the indiginous population.

[Mr Bloom]

Yes, but the debt associated with university is different, as I stated above. By not addressing this and just perpetuating the myths, you are misinforming these poorer people, and doing your bit to keep them at the bottom of the pile. Why not explain to them how the student loan works, and help them to aspire to greater things if they wish?

 

No, I'm just stating how it is.

 

It's one thing to attempt to justify the fees and loans system but in reality it IS putting the less priviliged off. That's why it needs to change.