Hello Kacper,
If that is what you got out of my post I have to wonder if you even read it at all because I didn't say that.
That's obvious! I believe the poor who make bad decisions are still people who are capable of improving their lives, even if they are mistakenly convinced the world is against them, and are so depressed that they don't even try.
I don't really care how thinly you veil your personal attacks. A personal attack is a personal attack. I won't stand for it. I've made that abundantly clear. You're not going to slide a soft attack in and go without me noticing. I am not going to do that to you, and I will not have that done to me. If you want to have a reasonable discussion and explore our differences in viewpoints, that's one thing. But you're going to have to argue your position without even so much as a soft slam about me. Got it? I hope so. I enjoy our discussions and would not want to have to place you on permanent Ignore; but I will not hesitate to do so if this is the way you want to roll. Just stick to the subject and we will be fine. I will have my respectful civil discourse here whether it includes you or not. You've been warned. And I don't forget. One more time, and poof.
And I didn't claim you said so. That is why I posed it as a question. Thanks for answering. I'm glad we agree that somewhere along a poor child's development, they are taught that they should not even try.
I am trying to put myself into the shoes of a poor 5-6 year old who is unable to learn basic math in a public school.
What could be the problem?
How about if the kid is cowering in the bathroom and trembling afraid because the adults are having a really nasty drunken and drug-infused argument in the main room of a very ratty disheveled place? Things are being thrown. Things are being screamed. The neighbors are banging on the walls.
Then, one of the adults bangs on the bathroom door and announces that they and the kid are leaving, and to grab whatever they can in 5 minutes, then they will be starting a new life living in the car.
Do you think that could be a likely scenario?
How about this? The child who is having a difficult time learning has other concerns: "I'm hungry. My stomach hurts. I can't think about anything else because I am hungry. I can't remember the last time we had a good meal. Can I please have something to eat?"
The problem here is that the child does not have the basics required for learning.
It's kind of hard to think about math problems and concentrate on mathematical concepts when you're primary concern is wondering if you are safe or not. Or hungry. Or if you will have a home the next day. A lack of any of the basics tends to dominate the thinking of the individual who lacks them, making it impossible to think about abstract concepts and learning math.
There are a few basics which, without these things, children cannot learn very well.
Security: A child needs to feel safe and secure. If you're worried that you or a loved one might be injured or killed, it is impossible to think about solving math problems.
Sleep: A child needs to get a full night's sleep to be well rested and fully alert in order to concentrate on objective thinking.
Nourishment: A child needs to be properly fed with health food in order to think clearly.
Caring: A child needs to feel loved in order to build a sense of self-respect and a belief that he/she can and deserves to be a successful adult one day. A child needs love and proper parenting to learn.
Rich people take these things for granted. Many poor do not have that luxury.
If they can't learn and do well in school, they have very little chance of ever escaping poverty. Instead, they would probably have a bad attitude, not really try, not believe they can do it. They would make bad decisions. Is that their fault?
I have touched on only a few of the needs and requirements of humans in order to learn and be successful. There is much to learn about this. I have just become aware of something called "Maslow's hierarchy of needs." It is very interesting. Many of the things successful people take for granted are part of it. The underadvantaged are probably lacking in fulfilling several of these requirements. Once again, I cannot blame them for being unable to surpass this phenomenon which can lead them to 'not even try.'
Laziness is a symptom, not the basic problem.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid with the largest, most fundamental needs at the bottom and the need for self-actualization and self-transcendence at the top.[1][7]
The most fundamental and basic four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "d-needs": esteem, friendship and love, security, and physical needs. If these "deficiency needs" are not met – with the exception of the most fundamental (physiological) need – there may not be a physical indication, but the individual will feel anxious and tense. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs. Maslow also coined the term "metamotivation" to describe the motivation of people who go beyond the scope of the basic needs and strive for constant betterment.[8]
The human brain is a complex system and has parallel processes running at the same time, thus many different motivations from various levels of Maslow's hierarchy can occur at the same time. Maslow spoke clearly about these levels and their satisfaction in terms such as "relative", "general", and "primarily". Instead of stating that the individual focuses on a certain need at any given time, Maslow stated that a certain need "dominates" the human organism.[4] Thus Maslow acknowledged the likelihood that the different levels of motivation could occur at any time in the human mind, but he focused on identifying the basic types of motivation and the order in which they would tend to be met.
Physiological needs are the physical requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met, the human body cannot function properly and will ultimately fail. Physiological needs are thought to be the most important; they should be met first. This is the first and basic need on the hierarchy of needs. Without them, the other needs cannot follow up.
Physiological needs include:
Air (Breathing)
Water
Food
Sleep
Clothing
Shelter
Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
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