Education Please?

Left Behind, Way Behind is the title of Bob Herbert article about how America sizes up on schooling and grades. The title was enough to pull me in and once I started reading the fact I realized how shockingly true it all is. The first fact that Herbert gives to us is, “Only about two-thirds of American teenagers graduate with a regular diploma four years after entering high school”. The next fact is that, “only half of them read well enough to succeed in college”. Being a college student myself this is shocking to me. I think that this is strikes me as odd because I come from a school where everyone had the opportunity to attend at least a community college. I agree with Herbert that more than just the no child left behind law. He goes on to discuss how the minorities and low income students differ in this country. This topic has been running through my head for a few days now because we are also talking about it in my sociology class. There is a distinct difference in how minorities and low income kids are treated. My sociology professor talked about a child coming from a higher income family has more chances to succeed. If they would get a C on a paper they would be told that they can do better, but if a lower income child would get a C on a paper the teacher is more likely to say good job. This is also tied into the self-fulfilling prophecy which says that someone will do only as good as they believe that they can do. This is seen if a child gets a C on a paper and gets praised for it then that will be their objective for the next one. This is going to be a long process to get to a point where minority and income will no matter and frankly we may never get there, but they best thing that we as a population can do is   make it more know.