If You Actually Wanted to Help...

So an article came out today called If I Was A Poor Black Kid...

Many friends of mine posted it on facebook, writing comments that expressed their frustration. So, of course, I had to read it. Then I understood why they found it frustrating...

I suggest you read it.

The part I found to be the most frustrating is that in one paragraph, Marks (the author) writes: "The division between rich and poor is a national problem. But the biggest challenge we face isn’t inequality. It’s ignorance. So many kids from West Philadelphia don’t even know these opportunities exist for them."

Okay. So they don't know it exists for them. You would think Marks would suggest how to make sure these kids would know these opportunities exist?

No. Instead he writes about why the adults in these kids' lives may not be able to help them and then goes on to write: "Technology can help these kids. But only if the kids want to be helped."

So, you say that the kids don't know about the opportunities, the adults in their lives aren't able to help them, and then say that the opportunities are there if the kids want to be helped.

So if black kids just wanted to help themselves, they would seek out opportunities they don't even know exist.

This is said by a man who could just drive over to West Philly and perhaps go to a school and let them know about all of these resources...if he really wanted to help the black kids in Philly. But that would be helping them. And they don't need help. Because the tech is there for the taking if they just weren't so lazy and wanted to help themselves.

What?!

I worked in an inner city charter school with many of these "poor black kids". We were able to teach them about some opportunities, but what became obvious is that even in middle school, even when we told them about some opportunities, the inequality was already present. If you compare what I learned in 7th grade to what my students were learning...it was like different worlds...different, unequal worlds. Was I smarter? No. I was lucky...and didn't even have to think about whether I wanted to help myself...Also, education starts before kids can even use a computer. It starts with the number of books in the home. IT IS SO MUCH MORE THAN GOOGLE SCHOLAR!

And inequality starts from the moment kids are born...

Many of my friends are now teachers in schools like the one I worked at, working hard to give "poor black kids" an education that rivals the best. Working hard to help them succeed. And many of them will...but it takes a lot more than saying "the technology is there...if these kids want to help themselves."

Also, the answer is not SparkNotes.

That is my two cents.