The intellectual roots of "Wokeness."

Economic or social mobility? Many studies have looked at underpinnings of social or economic mobility at all levels of analysis (individual, community, societal), etc. You would need to narrow a search before we could really even get into the discussion of the literature on this.

No doubt on both of these. It is why the 19th Century myth of mobility in the US (it was a myth then as well to some degree, but less of one, especially in a relative sense when comparing the US to colonial monarchies and the like) isn't as useful.

Here are some:

https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Pathways-SOTU-2016-Economic-Mobility-3.pdf

Here is one that specifically addresses the split between perception and reality. Americans are very optimistic about mobility but experience much less of it.

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/02_economic_mobility_sawhill_ch3.pdf

Here is a good and very recent literature review on the subject:

Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the United States - Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Advanced countries in general have high demand for immigration. Geography has a lot to do with our especially high demand, as we are closer to other countries that are mostly poor. Also, America does have an ethos of being open to immigration, especially compared to some other developed countries, despite the fact that we haven't really been that open to immigration in nearly 100 years.

 

Agreed, but the trouble with raising standards is that all too often, it leads to standardization, which is problematic in such a complex profession. I used to think that we needed more business-minded people running schools. Having been in the teaching profession all my life, this thought was erroneous. Everything is situation-specific and teaching is highly nuanced. As for raising standards, I would suggest greater access to high-quality continued professional development. We had this for my specific discipline in Hillsborough Co. and it was on a district level. 100+ teachers getting together for a full day of workshops and clinics and it always involved active learning, not sitting around taking notes.
Pay needs to be increased, but to double on a macro level would be non-affordable.

 

Pretty cool stuff. It appears what I said was not exactly refuted though. America lands in the upper end of mobility and opportunity compared to mostly European countries, Canada and Australia.
But since you’re going to nip at my heels anyway, I’ll say you are correct… America is not the best in this regard.
But not too shabby either.

 

Some of these arguments sound like:
We had the best defense in college football last year!
Uh, actually we were ranked 51st.
Yeah, well that's only because our players and coaches weren't as good. It's not fair to compare us to teams who had better ones.

 

That cant be right, I saw our players make a lot of tackles and I have one of those big foam hands that says #1 on it

 

Did I ever claim America was #1? I said it is an amazing place where people have the ability to do well with the right values.
Busted.

 

Freedom is slavery, comrade. You didn't get the memo?

 

Responding this way about a post that wasn't even about you or directed to you is tempting me to play armchair psychologist again

 

Play away…I’m all ears.

 

Not sure where you are getting that, but US performed below median in each of those samples on economic mobility.

 

US was compared to top 24 countries in one study. It went on to say that we were in the upper tier but not at the top. I think it was the Stanford article. Can’t remember now.

 

The Stanford study has 24 countries. The US finished 16th in mobility.

 

Aren’t there about 190 countries ?

 

Yes, but they only analyzed 24. They didn't analyze the top 24 countries in terms of mobility. They just analyzed 24 countries.

 

I like you. You're the best.

Do we have end of the year awards??

 

Oh noooo, I agree with @Orange_and_Bluke . People get "cooked in the squat" because they are ok with where they are. We all have to figure out how to keep motivated and hungry to get where we want to go in life. Are there obstacles? Yes, but it's up to each of us to be problems solvers to get over the obstacle. I'm not 100% agreeing that it's one's "values", (see trumpie) but it is their belief in themselves and the ability to problem solve.

 

This is the thread about 'woke" which seriously just means to be aware. How hard is that?

 

I think they picked top performing economic countries. They did not choose Peru or Estonia for a reason.
Sorry, but it matters which countries were chosen. And America is at the top.

 

They analyzed Peru....it was one of the 24 (in fact, the worst of them in economic mobility).

 

Well them, I think you’ll have to concede that American is in fact a great place to live for opportunity.