Most parents - I like to think - do make the effort to bring their children up in good health with a sense of moral values. However, even that takes some teaching to be learned well. Low-income parents that abrogate their duties of child-instruction to the BoobTube are simply projecting their own ignorance. And the ignorance continues down the line unless corrected by obligatory education (primary, secondary). This must be stopped for any society to advance - and if it takes government intervention to do so, then so be it. The problem is this: the ongoing Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) - that is managed by the OECD - has undertaken studies of secondary-schooling aptitude across member countries. Let's just take two examples of the results - one the US (where primary- and secondary-education is the responsibility of each state), and France where a monolithic Dept. of Education manages everything - absolutely everything. The question remains: Does state educational-schooling produce the right results uniformly in the US. And the answer is, "That aint necessarily so!" But what about Europe, where state educational-schooling does seem to do a better job? SOME ANSWERS From the WikiP article on PISA national assessment studies: The PISA study of Math, Science and Reading Skills (see here, scroll down to ranking table) shows that both France and the US do not have glorious scores. In fact, they are fairly mediocre. In Math, the US has below PISA-average scores. In Reading and Science, both countries have above PISA-average scores (but not by much). But both are lower than other "Western Countries". So, I must admit that I am hard put to decide which educational system is preferable: France with its regimented national-authority or the US with its devolved state-level authority. The latter meaning loosey-goosey with BigMoney putting its bet on "privatized secondary schools to get real-value". Which is what they promise but do not always systematically deliver. At the same time, almost all the countries that show results better than France and the US are those with highly regimented school-learning programs; particularly the far-eastern countries at the top run by Central Governments. So, if the US has an "achievement problem" as regards primary- and secondary-education, it may be because the national government is not doing enough to help state-schools teach properly. And whilst sectarian "private schools" will solve the problem for kids in rich-families, they will not do so for the general population ...
In defense of working class poorer people they do tend to teach thriftiness, a good work ethic, obeying the law and doing right by your family and immediate community the parents are often just to busy working hard to do much more than that which is not to blame them they tend to be law abiding working people who are in a good way being examples to children. an But my take on the bigger question is flexibility test scores are not everything do children while the education if for the parents free being prepared to work right out of school if they don't go to college or to enter trade training or apprenticeships? In France they are but here largely not its all focused on college preparation you can enter adulthood ready to work its just the economy is sluggish and well has issues. If we took this philosophy here we would do much better.
