educating the unteachable

60 minutes had a story on tonight about an innercity kid from london that got a chance to go to a boarding school after getting kicked out of his school. once put in that environment, he flourished...near the top of his class, star athlete. made me wonder just how many kids fall through the cracks and are lost because we give up on them and label them unteachable...most of these kids happen to be poor...many are minorities. all they really need is a system that places expectations on them for greatness...not for failure. suddenly, when great things were expected of this troubled kid, he responded with flying colors.

there were a few set backs...unfortunately the second time he ran into a new headmaster who was not forgiving (an asshole basically) and sent him away within a year of graduating. worst thing in the world for everyone involved. so i guess the story did not quite end happily as one would expect.

i grew up in the suburbs of chicago in some highly touted school districts. many of the kids i went to school with went on to college while their innercity counterparts got minimum wage jobs. mostly because of the grossly unproportionate spending between suburban and city schools and even schools within cities (just look at albuquerque...within aps the disparagies are frightening). of course no one has been able to (and likely never will) convince the taxpayers in the richer surrounding areas that everyone would be better served if they just shared...like when they were kids. how many great leaders of tomorrow have we left at mcdonalds because we couldnt spread the wealth around the school system better?