I agree wholeheartedly with most of what you say. You and I come from two very different places in life and two very different locales, I think. The families I deal with are rural, white or American Indian, poor, and very un-educated. They are the kind of people that yankees think about when they think "southerner." The socio-economic break down of students in our school is 80%-20% - Poor to Middle Class. We have had two students come here in the past 21 years whose parents had an income of over $100,000. And this that you say:
It is so true. But a lot of the kids that go home to empty houses here are going home to empty houses, not because their parent(s) are at work, but becuase their parent(s) are out drinking or at one of the 3 casinos within a 50 mile radius.
You say that many "failing students" don't necessarily come from Welfare Homes but from the "middle class" families. I absolutely agree and didn't mean to imply that these students came only from welfare families. They definitely come from all stripes. I am so excited when I get a kid from a poorer family who shows great potential and performs well at the Jr. High level. The challenge for me is to keep that kid from following the path that their parent's followed and motivate them to take advantage of getting an education. In 21 years I bat about 50/50 with these kids. It isn't good enough for me. I get frustrated that by the time a potentially good student gets to upper high school he/she would want to live a life and put their own kids through a life described in the above paragraph.
