I would agree that such advantages and disadvantages exist, however, I do not regard them as "systemic." They are not entrenched aspects of the education system or government in general that operates as an obstacle. That's a practical disadvantage, like - some people live farther away from the school of their choice and therefore their parents have a harder time transporting them. Or, some people live in rural counties with few options, and others live in Manhattan with 100 schools to choose from. Some kids have parents who read to them every night, and parents who teach them to read before they even start school. And, yes, rich parents can send their kids to the most expensive private schools. I have that problem, as I am middle class and I can't afford to send my daughter to the best Prep school because it costs like $20,000 per year. But, that's not a "systemic" disadvantage to me.JimC wrote: The disadvantage is very simple and clear-cut, particularly for tertiary education. Students with reasonably wealthy parents can be supported financially over their tertiary studies, and not have to live in poverty as they study, and they either don't need a part time job, or it may only be a few hours a week.
Yes, and some parents move their kids to rural communes where they don't go to school and have to be home schooled.JimC wrote:
Students from poor families don't have this luxury; they live in shit places, and spend a large amount of time working to keep themselves.
Again, not a "systemic" disadvantage, because nothing in the system tells them where to live.JimC wrote: It is particularly evident for the rural poor in Oz, where living at home (often the case for Uni students in big cities) is not an option, so they need to rent as well as keep themselves fed when they go to a big city to study.
Well, here in the US that concern is addressed through the availability of grants and financial aid which help people of less means to afford such schools. We also have thousands of colleges, including many hundreds of law schools, at all price ranges and entrance requirements - if someone wants to go to college here, they can. They may not get into to Cal Tech or MIT, but they can go to college. And, if they're poor, they can get significant financial aid, and even free schooling, and on top of that, guaranteed student loans without collateral.JimC wrote: So, I'm not talking about anything other than a greater burden, statistically, on the children of poor parents, one that tends on average to maintain professions such as the law and medicine in the hands of the existing wealthy, rather than allowing significant upward mobility out of poverty via education.
Then we're agreed on that point. The issue of the article concerning "rigor" though is that it comes from an ideological point of view which has seriously infected AMERICAN universities. Here's another one - mainstream US university -- http://www.nationalreview.com/article/4 ... -professor (math is racist -- it's "whiteness.")JimC wrote:
This sort of nonsense goes too far, of course, and is not part of any argument of mine.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/4 ... -professor“curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.” As further evidence of her argument, Gutierrez added that more white than nonwhite people are math professors and that math professors often benefit from “unearned privilege” — getting more grants and more respect than other professors — just because they are math professors and not professors in another academic field. “Are we really that smart just because we do mathematics?” she asked.
Are we really that smart just because we do mathematics? Errr... well, if you can do high level mathematics, you're educated in math, that's for sure. What kind of college professor asks "are we really that smart..."?
This is like saying I'm really smart, but I'm just a bad test-taker. LOL. Oh, you're a bad test taker? You're really really smart, except for the part where we find out what you know? Seems legit.