NO WHITE LEFT BEHIND
Eugene Volokh, quoting from Clarence Page, points to a sad trend:
[M]ost of the black and Hispanic students surveyed said they could avoid trouble at home as long as their grades stayed above C-minus.
Most of the whites, by contrast, said their parents would give them a hard time if their children came home with anything less than a B-minus.
By contrast, most of the Asian students, whether immigrant or native-born, said that their parents would be upset if they brought home anything less than an A-minus.
Says Eugene,
Oh, and maybe it’s about time that white parents raised their trouble threshold, too.
Yep. What’s with these slacker white kids, anyway?
(This reminds me of an incident from high school, when a friend of mine consoled another who had just gotten a “B” and was concerned about what her parents would think by saying, “Be happy with that B–lots of kids in China are failing!” )
Showing an interest in what/how your kids are doing and setting high expectations (which can be done without being confrontational) makes a huge difference in performance.
However, a big challenge is the millions of parents who don’t seem to care how their kids are doing and whose idea of high expectation is that B- or C. These parents frequent all demographics. I don’t have a solution to this….suggestions anyone?
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