Nope. It’s not abt “dropping out”. That would be the extreme. I
think most of us basically have the means to not
drop out. What I’m saying is that getting the basics is not a big
problem, but those who come fr low income families are
disadvantaged when it comes to the extras that would’ve enhanced
their education, such as further readings, immersion programmes,
even hostel stays. They can only afford the basics, but not the
rest tt wld enhance their education (the things that other students
who have money can afford).
Further readings and immersion programmes?
Hang on - by the time you get to university you're meant to have
developed the capacity to have self-directed learning
already. Certainly when I was at university I didn't go for
any extra pay-per-use courses or classes, and any extra reading I
needed could be found in the library. That didn't stop me
from staying in the top 5% of my classes. What's with all of
this extra stuff?
From what you wrote earlier, it sounded like people were
dropping out of university because they couldn't afford it.
Now, to be blunt, the tune seems to have changed to "they didn't
have money to get the nice-to-haves".
By university, we would be able to apply for the tuition fee
loan, with interest, of course. But the bursaries would have been
very useful in paying for other items, and certainly, in ensuring
that I would not have to resort to giving private tuition to get
pocket money, which I did, sometimes, at the expense of time spent
on my studies.
While it’s true that lots of uni students work part-time, it
would be better if these jobs were taken out of choice (such as,
they have gauged tt they wld be able to cope even with the job),
rather than out of necessity.
You get no sympathy here. Between classes, homework,
placements/internships and paid work, an 85-hour week was an easy
one for me, with the norm being a 105-hour week. I did that
for eight years.
Lots of things can be “bought”. Money has been taken for
granted, perhaps unwittingly, by the people who have it. Try living
on two dollars a day for a month, and you will see how important
money is, and what a difference it makes to have and not have
money.
Again, not impressed - been there, done that, and paid work
sorted that problem out. It didn't stop me at all.
Again, I think this idea that people from poorer familes ought
not to be given “too much” financial assistance is an idea that is
perpetuated by the very pple who do not need such assistance. And
who would rather spend money on other areas, like, as mentioned,
reconstructing school buildings, creating impressive structures,
rather than helping the “soul” of the schools, which are the
students.
Wrong. Throwing money at the students is like slapping a
band-aid on an AIDS patient. You may cover up the symptoms
but you're missing the root cause of the problem altogether.
When I did a stint as a relief teacher, my biggest problem was
not class discipline. it wasn't students who didn't get the
idea either.
The problem was the lazy, unimaginative 20-year veteran teachers
who didn't want their iron rice bowls disturbed.
By the end of my first month, my poorest-performing students
were showing a minimum grade improvement of 15%. The problem
wasn't that they were incapable of understanding the subject
matter. The problem was that the teacher I was relieving was
absolutely hopeless at presenting the subject matter and diagnosing
where the students were having difficulty.
For example, in maths classes, it was obvious that the
Chinese-educated students were as arithmetically capable as the
English-educated ones., but they really struggled with the problem
sums. I took a week out of the syllabus to focus on English
and to teach the students to break the sentences down and
understand what was being asked of them. It took a day to
diagnose the problem and a week to remedy it, and I got an easy
minimum 15% improvement. I wasn't MOE trained - I just used
my common sense to sort things out. What the hell was the
other teacher doing?
After I got the result, the older teachers came up to me and
said, "Don't work too hard". Honest to God, I swear that they
said those precise words. Next thing I knew, these teachers
were going to the principal and complaining that I was "getting
along too well" with the kids. WTF does that mean? Was
I accused of being a pedophile?!
What it came down to was this group mentality amongst the older
teachers that as long as nobody produced a good result, they could
all do their own thing and collect their own paychecks without
accountability.
If you want to do something to help the poorer kids, start
making teachers as accountable for performance as anybody in the
real world, and fire them if they screw up. They're too
damned comfortable in their jobs and it's the students who suffer
for it.
