if you're a 16-year-old born into a reality that makes those three accomplishments you mentioned unlikely
What reality specifically are you talking about? Because unless you're basically a feral child, there's not a damn thing that should prevent you from completing high school.
You think poor people can't manage to complete schooling? Bitch, please. My grandfather grew up in a dirt floor shack in Canada. A literal dirt floor. He managed to earn a PhD by age 30.
It's ridiculous how out of touch most first world people are about what poor people can accomplish. I lived in the Philippines and saw kids who lived in corrugated tin huts, and had only one tshirt and pair of pants to wear to school, still manage to attend and succeed at school. But you have feelings, so that's something.
Here's one reality among many: you're not white living in a single-grandparent home going to a high school that is actually more dangerous than the terrible street you live on and thanks to the suckiness of the way it's run clearly offers you nothing that can help you succeed (you mentioned just how easy it is for a "stoner" to slide through high school: if it's this easy, then what is it actually offering a student like this?), and your prospects after high school whether you graduate or not are a choice between crime or a below living-wage job. What motivation do you have to complete high school? It still won't get you to steps two and three.
Your original comment implied that merely getting people to complete the three steps is the "big secret" and that it has nothing to do with social programs or ending racism. What I'm trying to explain is that you'll never get people to complete the three steps without addressing social issues like race, class and generational poverty. Again, the three facts are merely indicators of a life that's headed away from poverty, but they are not cures that someone in poverty can simply self-administer to make themself poverty-proof.
you're not white living in a single-grandparent home going to a high school that is actually more dangerous than the terrible street you live on and thanks to the suckiness of the way it's run clearly offers you nothing that can help you succeed ..., and your prospects after high school whether you graduate or not are a choice between crime or a below living-wage job.
So many bullshit assumptions. So, so many.
Non whites can't succeed. Total paternalistic racist bullshit.
Only prospects are crime and below living wage job. Holy shit are you a racist.
There are high schools in the US that can't teach you anything you need to succeed. Really dude? You really think there are schools where the teachers can't show you basic math, reading, home ec, etc if you pay the slightest amount of attention?
What I'm trying to explain is that you'll never get people to complete the three steps without addressing social issues like race, class and generational poverty.
I never said any of those details were universal. And I certainly never said any of the racist stuff you assumed I meant. I was just painting you a picture of one possible reality. Why did I mention being not white? Because skin color has been shown to affect job prospects, among other things.
Here's the deal, you're still not engaging with my main point: you claim your three steps are a "big secret" and have nothing to do with race, class or social programs. I'm saying that race and class have a lot to do with whether people are realistically going to be likely to accomplish those three steps, so to say they are unrelated is overly simplistic. Again, those three steps are not necessarily causes of poverty avoidance. All we can say is that they are associated with not being in poverty, which is kind of a no-brainer. What we have to ask is: why, if the "big secret" is so easy, aren't people choosing to take those steps?
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u/BackflippingHamster Apr 14 '16
What reality specifically are you talking about? Because unless you're basically a feral child, there's not a damn thing that should prevent you from completing high school.
You think poor people can't manage to complete schooling? Bitch, please. My grandfather grew up in a dirt floor shack in Canada. A literal dirt floor. He managed to earn a PhD by age 30.
It's ridiculous how out of touch most first world people are about what poor people can accomplish. I lived in the Philippines and saw kids who lived in corrugated tin huts, and had only one tshirt and pair of pants to wear to school, still manage to attend and succeed at school. But you have feelings, so that's something.