orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) (09/08/86)
Some good news:
a multimilionaire came to speak to a 6th grade class in an
impoverished school in New York City. In trying to encourage them
to continue towards high school, graduate and try to go on to college
he offered to pay the way of every single one of them to go to college
if they successfully graduated from high school.
They cheered!
Six years later they are about to graduate from high school.
Out of the 50 kids he offered to help, 44 are graduating from high school.
The usual rate of high school graduation in that school is less than
50%. Twenty of them have become honor students and are applying to
prestigious colleges, the rest all have plans to take up his generous
offer and go to college with the $250,000 he has placed in a trust fund
for their college education. One of them abandoned his pursuit of
boxing as a way out of the ghetto for academic study and has become
an honor student.
This is hardly a scientific sample but it certainly is indicative of
what can happen *if poor kids are shown an opportunity*!
Most poor kids simply assume that they cannot afford to go to college-
it is an unattainable dream for them. Their counselors often advise
vocational training and keep them away from the college track of studies
assuming also that college is unattainable for these kids, who often
get poor grades because they see no point in studying to get good grades.
Yet when shown that "yes, YOU can go to college and get a good job"
they will grab a hold of the opportunity to better their life.
The hypocrisy is that Reagan sent each of them a letter congratulating
them - the same Ronald Reagan who wishes to *REMOVE* the educational
opportunities of not just poor kids like these but those from working
and lower-middle class backgrounds by slashing or eliminating student
aid to go to college.
This is Reagan's "opportunity society"? To ax federal programs that
have helped double and triple the numbers of lower-income students
who can afford to go to college?
Reagan has surpassed all American presidents of this century in his
hypocrisy.
tim sevener whuxn!orb