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Hello all,
Fair, I am relatively new to the bureaucratic vises of the Portland Public School System. But my understanding as to the purpose behind the initial implementation of the Public School System, was to empower our youth!!!

My understanding is that the underlying purpose for Public Schooling is to level the academic playing field for all students, without special consideration being made for their race, gender, or socio-economic status.

But let us be realistic about special consideration?

There have been a great deal of special considerations being made for schools comprised of students hailing from more affluent (socially stable) homes that afford, one or both parents the luxury of time, enabling those parents to play an active role in their student(s) education.

And there has been an ongoing lack of consideration for the students hailing from single family, and/or foster home situations that do not have the ability to provide the same level of support.

Instead of exposing all students to an opportunity to take part in the same level of education, we have simply assumed that these under supported students ?just don?t get it?!

So as a collective, we ?dumb down? academic programs, we omit upper level course offerings for the students we deem ?disadvantaged??and then we ask why a cycle of low income lawlessness persists.

Stupidity is a choice, ignorance is not! If those of us who have the control of the knowledge to empower our youth and then we systematically share that information in a way that is overtly inequitable?Where does the blame lie?

Am I to believe that we choose not to take responsibility for perpetuating this cycle of poverty and ignorance?

Perhaps our focus should be on a more comprehensive support system for every child!!!

How does an illiterate single mother of three educate her daughter on how to do better than she did?
I assure you, her daughter would face far more challenges in education than the daughter of a married couple (a college professor and a corporate executive).

As a community, how do we expose both of these young women to the knowledge that will enable them to be productive members of their communities? How to we empower both of them to understand that they are no more, or less than the other bases upon their starting point! How do we help them understand that their individual destinies are to be determined based upon what they choose to do with the equal education they have been offered!!!

I would challenge us start at the truth, and move forward from there?
I challenge us to ask the pertinent questions?then and only then may we attain significantly viable answers!!!

Make the same knowledge available to every student?insure that every student is made aware of what is available to him or her. Ensure that ignorance is no longer an option.
(I do not profess to have all of the answer to how this should work?but I am committed to focusing on the right questions?)

Respectfully,
Fa Real

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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