Author Topic: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...  (Read 31980 times)

arebelspy

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #100 on: January 23, 2016, 03:28:07 PM »
If they only interact with other 1%ers, do you think they find it a problem?
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nobodyspecial

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #101 on: January 23, 2016, 03:58:39 PM »
My husband works in IT engineering and says at least 1/4 of the people he works with are somewhere on the Autism Spectrum - diagnosed or not.
That must be a remarkably diverse and unusual  IT department.

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Ability to interact with the "other" (insert race, religion, language, disability, etc.) will be a mandatory skill in the future workplace.   
How is that a skill?

CindyBS

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #102 on: January 23, 2016, 04:58:54 PM »
My husband works in IT engineering and says at least 1/4 of the people he works with are somewhere on the Autism Spectrum - diagnosed or not.
That must be a remarkably diverse and unusual  IT department.

Not the whole IT department, his particular subset which is very engineering oriented. 

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Ability to interact with the "other" (insert race, religion, language, disability, etc.) will be a mandatory skill in the future workplace.   

How is that a skill?


Whether you want to call it a skill or a knowledge base or whatever, I think it will be required in the future to know to how to interact with others that are different from you.  Specific examples that come to mind is how to speak directly so a person with Aspergers can understand you (sit down vs. "take a seat"), knowing what different religious holidays are such as Diwali, Eid, etc. and why a coworker may be celebrating it, not having an uncomfortable reaction to a person of a different race, etc.   I think not being able to navigate the increasing diverse workforce will be as much as a workplace faux pas as fiercely clutching one's purse when an an African-American client enters the room is today. 

You may disagree, but for kids who are brought up in very diverse environments, a lot of that is just second nature.   My kids go to very diverse public schools (race, economics, religion, disability) and I work in a similar school so I see it first hand.  For example, at my job it was assumed I knew what Eid was and why many students took it off school (I am not Muslim).  I probably could have asked, but I would it have reflected poorly on me that I did not know.   

faramund

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #103 on: January 23, 2016, 07:04:52 PM »
It seems academic research seems to indicate that the strongest influence on how a kid goes in school, is how well their parents did at school. Which really isn't that surprising - supposedly if you take top private schools, and normalise for parent's education levels, that pretty much accounts for their good grades.

My wife and myself are both public school educated, as are our kids. Lots of the people I know from back at school, have like us, gone on to be very successful. All in all, unless you want a particular environment (religious/alternate) - I really don't see the point of paying for a private school.


Magilla

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #104 on: January 23, 2016, 10:43:46 PM »
One thing I never heard discussed in the public/private school issue is how the kids who go to private school are (generally) robbed of valuable experiences to socialize with people from different backgrounds.  I realize this varies from school to school and parts of the country, but where we live - private schools are 1) white  2) upper middle-class to rich (with a few scholarship kids mixed in)  3) all native English speakers 4) all 1 religion - usually Catholic or Jewish  5) Completely devoid of kids with disabilities.

My husband works in IT engineering and says at least 1/4 of the people he works with are somewhere on the Autism Spectrum - diagnosed or not.   Then there aren all the visas for IT workers, most of whom are a different religion, different culture and speak English - but a different form of it (heavy Indian accent, British vocabulary, etc.)

If STEM careers are  the HOT field(s) of the future - how are kids supposed to interact if they have virtually NO experience with people from other groups.  Autism is now as just about as common for boys as having red hair - something like 1 in 40 something boys have it.  People with high functioning Autism do very well in sciences and engineering and are typically drawn to those fields for careers.  I don't see the visa situation changing anytime soon.  Add to that the fact that whites are becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of the population.   

Ability to interact with the "other" (insert race, religion, language, disability, etc.) will be a mandatory skill in the future workplace.   

Like you say, every school is different, but my personal experience with public and private school is that private school was very diverse and was far more welcoming and inclusive to everyone than public school.  I went to public middle school and 1 year of public high school before I got into a top private high school on a full scholarship.  This school had about 30-40% of the students on at least some financial aid and probably about 10-15% on full aid.  Pretty much every race, religion and income level was represented and far more nationalities than regular public school.   In public school everyone was divided into cliques which often (not always) were divided among sameness lines (race, wealth, nationality, etc).  In private school this was almost non existent (there were still cliques of course but they were more based on your dorms etc).  As a poor immigrant, public school was not kind to me with kids always using expensive stuff as status symbol and shunning anyone without. Whereas, in private school, kids that came from wealth you only think exists in movies couldn't care less.

My point is, don't judge stuff on your preconceptions of what private school is like.

shelivesthedream

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #105 on: January 24, 2016, 03:27:28 AM »
My private school was about 1/3 Indian, 1/3 Jewish and 1/3 other. If I'd gone to the local state school it would have been 3/4 white. Meeting people from different backgrounds is important, but once again it is not the school's job to do everything for you. Children will first copy you, the parent, so you need tomake sure that you have a diverse social circle and know about different cultures. If you're so worried, find a local playgroup or sports team that is more diverse. You won't necessarily get a more diverse school by choosing state over private.

Papa Mustache

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #106 on: January 24, 2016, 05:27:47 PM »
Did the private kids take their studies a little more seriously than the public school kids? That's the only problem I see with public schools. A portion don't want to be there, their parents don't value education, etc. I suppose that is what the Honors classes are for.

Magilla

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #107 on: January 24, 2016, 10:38:04 PM »
Did the private kids take their studies a little more seriously than the public school kids? That's the only problem I see with public schools. A portion don't want to be there, their parents don't value education, etc. I suppose that is what the Honors classes are for.

Some didn't just like in public school, however at a private school there are consequences for not doing the work or breaking the rules: you get thrown out.  So in general the percentage of students who care is a lot higher as the bad ones get thrown out. 

shelivesthedream

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #108 on: January 25, 2016, 01:10:16 AM »
Did the private kids take their studies a little more seriously than the public school kids? That's the only problem I see with public schools. A portion don't want to be there, their parents don't value education, etc. I suppose that is what the Honors classes are for.

Some didn't just like in public school, however at a private school there are consequences for not doing the work or breaking the rules: you get thrown out.  So in general the percentage of students who care is a lot higher as the bad ones get thrown out.

There were some seriously lazy girls in my school. They were disruptive and barely scraped by. Then it was exam year and their parents got them a tutor and they passed with flying colours. Didn't make it better for the rest of us.

onlykelsey

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #109 on: January 25, 2016, 08:18:19 AM »
Some didn't just like in public school, however at a private school there are consequences for not doing the work or breaking the rules: you get thrown out.  So in general the percentage of students who care is a lot higher as the bad ones get thrown out.

I went to public schools but used to tutor private school kids, and in my experience the consequences are next to nothing assuming your parents have money to fix the problem (either by getting you a tutor, or by paying off for your mistakes).

Magilla

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #110 on: January 25, 2016, 10:22:45 AM »
Some didn't just like in public school, however at a private school there are consequences for not doing the work or breaking the rules: you get thrown out.  So in general the percentage of students who care is a lot higher as the bad ones get thrown out.

I went to public schools but used to tutor private school kids, and in my experience the consequences are next to nothing assuming your parents have money to fix the problem (either by getting you a tutor, or by paying off for your mistakes).

I guess it depends on the school.  My school kicked out one of the daughters of someone who donated a lot of money for the new library because she broke the rules, no exceptions.

MgoSam

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #111 on: January 26, 2016, 08:57:35 AM »
Some didn't just like in public school, however at a private school there are consequences for not doing the work or breaking the rules: you get thrown out.  So in general the percentage of students who care is a lot higher as the bad ones get thrown out.

I went to public schools but used to tutor private school kids, and in my experience the consequences are next to nothing assuming your parents have money to fix the problem (either by getting you a tutor, or by paying off for your mistakes).

I guess it depends on the school.  My school kicked out one of the daughters of someone who donated a lot of money for the new library because she broke the rules, no exceptions.

I'm glad to hear that and yeah it does depend on the school. I knew someone who's family had built a school's library and he could get away with quite a lot. Then again, I don't think he did anything extremely stupid, but would ignore some of the rules. I suspect if he committed a felony or anything that became public, the school might not be so understanding.

bacchi

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Re: Guardian article on even the rich living paycheck to paycheck...
« Reply #112 on: January 26, 2016, 09:12:51 AM »
Not for financial reasons but more on theory based on Malcolm Gladwell's studies.

Aha! Here's your problem: believing that Malcolm Gladwell did "studies."


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