QUESTION OF THE DAY:

So it seems to me that people who are looking down their noses at the lower classes should look in their own mirror. A lot of what Cosby had to say about how low-income black people are living their lives could be said about the middle class.

After all, how can so many immigrants who arrive barely speaking the language outperform black American students, many of whom have been educated at expensive private schools?

Mary Mitchell first puts the question, then answers it:

When I visited Ghana a while ago, I met a 7- or 8-year-old boy who got up every morning and worked on the streets as a vendor before going to school. After eating dinner, he went back to work. The boy told me he studied several hours before going to sleep because he had to take tests to continue to stay in school.

It surprised me that the boy didn't complain about his all-work, no-play schedule. His only concern was whether he would have enough money to pay for his books, pens and paper.

While I certainly don't believe that black students in the United States can't compete, unfortunately many of them do not feel that education is the only way out.

He might have been in the same position that many of the kids who grew up in the Great Depression were. Everybody else was poor too. Toys and playtime were just not in anybody's conception of reality.

Michael at Chicago Report observes,

I believe there is also a larger cultural problem in the Middle Class period. We don't value education culturally speaking. The cool kids in High School are not the smart kids but rather the athletes and the trouble makers, just remember Ferris Bueller. This is not a race problem, its a popular culture problem.

Amen.