[SummerChild]

It is interesting that the approach posed in many of the replies seem to be primarily from a preaching down, I got mine, this is what they need to do to get theirs. I guess that I just don't think that my getting mine was all about the education that I received. Partly so but partly a result of people who helped me in various ways along the way. For instance, I have two degrees in EE but did not know what an Engineer was (besides a train engineer) until an AA man came to a program that I attended during highschool to tell us about his career as architectural engineer. Then wham, it was as easy as that, I decided to study engineerin in college instead of business. I thought business b/c that was what I had heard of and I was good in math. Did anyone of us really do it all by ourselves? Kudos if so.

In my opinion, technically there are three ways to close *any* gap, move one side down, move one side up or move both sides toward one another. My approach would be to move both sides toward one another by actively taking part in the lives of those who have less and allowing them to take part in our lives. I like programs like Big Brother, Big Sister but those programs require us to wait 10-15 years for the kid to grow up and (hopefully) graduate from college and get a decent paying job to begin to create wealth. I often feel like we just forget about the people who are already adults. I only know of the program that helps get moms off welfare and give them business suits, training, etc. Are there any programs for adult men?

On a previous tangent, why do we assume that those who are economically disadvantaged don't want anything better? Or that if they did, then it would be as easy as picking up a book? How many children are being passed from grade X to grade X + 1 by teachers and cannot even read? How many parents would like to help their children with math homework but they don't know how to do it themselves? I've seen this when I tutored in math. Shoot, I have two degrees in EE and sometimes the new way of doing math was a little lost on me. I had to take the kids back to the old way of doing math sometimes.

Why do discussions like these disintegrate into cliches like you can lead a horse to water? What does that have to do with closing the wealth gap? The implication is that the bulk of the economic underclass "refuses to drink." For those on Greekchat who are first-generation college graduates, does the you can lead a horse to water cliche apply to your family *before* you graduated? Those who were the upper class before you graduated and looked at your families from the outside would probably say so. Let us not forget so easily.

SC