Quote:
Originally Posted by AlphaFrog
I'm sorry, but I have to call out this statement. I have a friend who busted his ass 3-5 hours a night to make C's. He had a brain tumor that affected his short-term memory as a child, but is mainly of normal intelligence. It's not fair to say that it's a choice to do poorly. I know that just because I didn't study much and got good grades, doesn't mean others got that lucky.
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How about I qualify that and say that absent mental or physical impairment, failure is a choice?
Better?
As for crappy schools, 15-16 Y.O.'s not being responsible for their own actions, I'm sorry, but my personal experience tells otherwise. My wife teaches at a charter school here in OKC which exists solely to help inner-city kids get into college. It's and AVID school if you know what that is. They remediate the kids, then expect them to perform on an AP level. They assist in getting financial aid, etc. They recruit from the worst schools in the city and consistently beat the "prestigious" magnet schools and ALL of the suburban schools on their NCLB test scores.
These are kids from broken, poor homes. Most of them are minorities, many of their parents are addicts. They're good kids who want to do better for themselves. In some cases, they come from great homes. In other cases, not so much -- they just have a lot of personal drive and ambition.
When you say that it's not someone's fault for their own actions, you are simply giving an excuse. For someone with a good brain and a good body, there is no good excuse for failure. None.