Lebron James ‘i promise school’ crushing it

here’s the deal. The OP is about a school with, for all intents and purposes, unlimited funds. It was the poster child of the liberal movement towards attacking poverty through “well funded” education. The article makes it clear that these attempts were a complete failure. Despite complete failure, some of the brainiacs on this message board continue to beat the same drum. This is the textbook definition of insanity. Trying the same failing actions over and over and again expecting a different outcome. Albert Einstein himself could be teaching these kids 2+2 = 4. But, if the kids don’t care because they don’t understand why knowing math is important, they will not learn math. This is where values come in to play. Without a role model, who knows math, and tells them you can be like me. If you learn math, kids will not learn. This is why role models are important. Without 2 parents demonstrating to the child why you work hard to succeed, the child will not be motivated to better himself. Money has no play in any of this. Instead, money is used by the government as an enticement to keep the status quo. Govt welfare is like a drug which dulls the senses. The government gives you just enough money to eat and have a roof over your head, but never anything of value to get you out of poverty. Then the same government pretends to be fighting for the people in order to get votes, when, in fact, all they’re doing is fighting for the scraps amongst themselves. It’s all about retaining power for those in charge. This is like why someone like Maxine Waters, who can barely put together a cohesive sentence, but somehow has a net worth in excess of $2 million dollars after 25 years in Congress.

 

Poverty can be both a cause and a result. Many many many people live in poverty due to poor choices. We see it everyday all around us. People valuing the immediate gratification verses long term stability.
Go to a 7-11 and watch who buys lottery tickets by the handful. There is a reason it is called the stupid tax.
How many of us knew they guy who could barely make rent but had 1000’s of dollars in his stereo system, rims, tv, etc..
People are often poor because they make terrible choices
On the other hand poverty can also be the reason people make poor choices. Impoverished seldom have many opportunities. Children raised in poverty are less likely to participate in after school activities, less likely to have a parent at home to help with homework, less likely to have a stable living condition. It’s a compounding effect.
Throwing money at any problem has never worked. The bigger issue is our politicians on both sides do want to actually work, to make a plan, to make hard decisions. Some don’t want to cut people off from the out flow of govt money that can become a crutch instead of a lift up. Others don’t want to spend any money to lift up the most vulnerable amongst us. Neither side will look to the other and ask for help. Neither side will budge. Neither side will work.
LeBron was trying to do a good thing. And to be fair I think it’s is far far too early to judge. ( and I am NOT a Lebron fan). Schools take a lot of time to grow into themselves. To become a strong educational unit. CoVid certainly didn’t help.
Just think how long it takes to develop a football TEAM. Now consider that you aren’t working with the four and five stars of students but with students who have significant disadvantages to overcome. How long will take the teachers to find their way, their footing and become a cohesive unit. Add it the shutdowns and lockdowns and other crap the last several years and Lebrons school isn’t the only school struggling.
His school needs a thorough plan of action to progress the way it wants… not just money.
Our whole educational system needs a thorough plan of action. One reason so many are fleeing to private and charter schools.

 

This is true to some extent, but you’re forgetting that there are just as many people, if not more, in the middle class, who work hard, and never advance. Hard work is only one of the many pieces of the puzzle to change your economic status. Further, people who work hard in their 30 and 40s are not going to get the same ROI as people who work hard in their teens and early 20s.

The other piece of the equation is skill/intelligence. There are some people who are so smart, that they are going to succeed no matter what they do. The elephant in the room, that nobody wants to talk about, is there are also some people who are so dumb who can never succeed no matter how hard they work.

 

Great post.

 

There are certainly many stories of people pulling themselves up by the bootstraps and achieving academically, financially, etc. despite challenges. This doesn't change the fact, however, that poverty is linked closely with academic achievement. We might acknowledge also that family structure and support is key to children's academic success.

To your story, I found this piece interesting. One point of note is that children today are more impoverished than in the past. The article, notably, is from 2019.
Child Poverty and Its Impact on Education in the U.S. - NCEE

Now, with the growth in Medicare and Social Security, the elderly are doing much better and the young much worse. The experience of the elderly, however, is instructive. Policy changed the outcomes for them dramatically. There is no reason why that should not be equally true for the young. What is most interesting about The Economist’s article on child poverty is not the statistics, which are well known. It is their comments on the policy options for dealing with the problem of child poverty in the U.S.

 

You really can’t save everyone. And even if you could, are there enough jobs to support that goal?

 

In many ways, it’s the exception that proves the point. The parents of successful kids who come from nothing usually have the same good values they pass on to their kids. And yet, the parents were still poor. Almost like it’s not always about how hard you work.

 

Correlation doesn’t necessarily imply causation, though. Hypothetically, if you gave a set of low income families a middle class income, no strings attached, would their health, education, crime rates, etc, naturally adjust to middle class levels?

I’m not convinced it would. What do you think?

 

Certainly didn't mean to imply correlation=causation. Though poverty is considered both a cause (and correlate), but I don't want to go down in the weeds on that Only meant to get at its significance underlying social problems.

That's a fantastic question! If done on a large scale we'd almost certainly see improvement, especially over the long term, but I'd suspect not completely evened up. Same time, doing so would no doubt raise the floor and go a considerable way in alleviating the most pernicious effects of poverty.

It's some of the idea behind universal basic income and universal health care, and welfare in general.

 

In the extreme, I don't believe we can. Flip side, I believe we can raise the floor considerably.

 

Call me skeptical.
You’d raise taxes super high right? You believe the govt can incentivize parents to change their deeply held beliefs and values?
America is no Finland.

 

I cannot speak for every subset of people, every culture. I know I personally saw low income homes who received a windfall ( of minor significance.. not winning the lottery..10k-100k type stuff) not spend it wisely or invest it at all. Large crazy block party, new lavish car, all the trappings of wealth without the underpinnings.
When we moved to the mountains, the demographics changed, the behavior not so much. New mud tires or new atv, a massive hot tub on a crumbling deck behind a dilapidated trailer.
It’s bad choices in life that got them there.. and bad choices that often kept them there.
On the other hand I saw kids who absolutely wanted OUT. Most used school as a means. Some fell into the same traps the parents did.. drugs, kids out of wedlock before graduation, thinking a 12 an hr job was good money… but others played it smart and got out of the cycle and made something of themselves. Not Uber rich. But comfortable, a home, 3 kids 40 hr a week type American dream.
Is it ignorance that allows for poor decisions? Apathy? Lazy work ethic? Self fulfilling prophecy of inadequacy? I don’t have all the answers. I do believe the opportunity is there for people to better themselves, I don’t know that the knowledge, desire, work ethic, or other u deepening a to success are always there.

 

All I was getting at was that the worst effects from poverty could be improved, perhaps quite a bit.

Different story re: taxation. Not really my thing, at least in the specifics.
(and I have a good idea about where my wheelhouse is )

Never been to Finland, but I heard it's a great country and the Finnish are happy people.

 

We must have read a different article. I read an article that says in the last three years, no students at the school have passed the state test in mathematics.

 

Imagine if for one year - one budget year - we sent $0 in foreign aid, and instead spent that money investing in our inner cities - infrastructure, education, libraries, after school activities, repatriating industry into these low income areas.
Of course how would Rs and Ds in Congress launder money that way?

 

Imagine...

Not wholly unrelated, but I've grown increasingly sour in cities that have placed a preeminence on cars and not people and how this is driving ever enormous budgets and questionable bad urban design & policy.

Why I mention this is because funding is not unlimited but it is a choice, and 80 years of bad design and misguided urban planning seems to be sucking so much out of what might be possible and has contributed to the problems, maybe even more than I currently realize.

 

Designing and building our entire civil infrastructure around the personal automobile has definitely created a lot of expensive problems that will need to be solved. 100% agree on that.

 

I've often told my kids that you can be dumb and succeed but you better work harder than everyone else, and, you can be lazy and succeed but you better be smarter than everyone else.
Then there are all the combinations along the spectrum in either way. Obviously smart and hard working is the surest path to success.

 

I hear you. Massively expensive problems where expansion into the suburbs and a culture around urban design has only seemed to have made matters worse and created even more problems.