A pretty good explanation of (one of) the reasons right-wingers despise the poor.

[2ndAmForComputers]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-reasons-humans-will-never-understand-each-other

#3. We Put Ourselves in Other People's Shoes

"But wait," you might think. "Isn't that exactly what we're supposed to do? Isn't it a good thing?" The problem, as I see it, is it only gets you halfway there. Too often you put yourself in someone else's shoes -- but you stay you. You basically Quantum Leap yourself into someone else's situation with all your knowledge and emotional resources.

In this awful, well-meaning article, a middle-aged white writer talks about what he would do if he were a poor black kid, and about how he would take advantage of all the resources and options available to poor black kids who have the memories and knowledge of a middle-aged white guy implanted into their brains.

Unfortunately, while we have the technology to surgically swap the face of a cop with that of a criminal, we don't yet have the technology to implant memories into kids' brains. And good luck getting Congress to fund that kind of procedure for inner city kids anyway.

On top of magically knowing how to hit up accounting and architecture firms for cheap or free computers and instinctively understanding all the specific technical and scientific jargon in the research papers he wants these kids to look up, the writer has also been able to carry along his free time and stable living situation when he Quantum Leaped into their bodies, which I'm pretty sure goes against the rules of the show.

[Ship of Fools]

1. This makes perfect sense.

I've never before been able to put my finger on it...Thanks for this! It helps me
to better understand my stepdaughter's looks of absolute disgust I've seen her flash
before...and I mean absolute!!

[surrealAmerican]

2. I agree about the article, but it isn't really an example ...

... of "putting ourselves in other people's shoes".

The problem here is that the writer is completely unable to understand the life a poor kid leads. He either isn't really trying, or was too lazy to actually do the research. He offhandedly states that it takes some "luck" and some "help from others", but then proceeds as if it didn't. It turns out that luck and help are in very short supply, but I guess that thought never occurred to him.

[Blue_Tires]

3. yeah, that Forbes writer was a tit

i think he did it just for mouse clicks...

[exboyfil]

4. Last night my daughter worked on homework from

after school to 11:00 pm. She got up at 5:00 am to finish it. The expectation on top performing kids is tremendous, and they, like my daughter, have huge advantages. I have copies of her main textbooks at home which I purchased on the internet (Chemistry and Algebra/Trig). I also have solution manuals to these textbooks. I spend at least 2 hours every night with my girls (10th and 8th grade) helping them with their homework.

A key dividing point is access to the internet. In our family, if we needed to eliminate television cable or the high speed internet, the cable would go in a second. My house is full of nonfiction books on history, science, and math. No way on this planet could an inner city kid with a single uneducated parent compete with my girls if they had the same intelligence level. I used to rail against set aside scholarships for minorities, but after getting into this I understand it still does not come close to leveling the playing field.

The writer of the article is right about access to these resources assuming you have access to a computer. In our relatively affluent community of about 40,000 we have about 25-30 PCs available in the library. They are used most of the time. Our sister community's library of 70,000 which is not nearly as affluent probably has maybe 50 PCs available. These appear to be used most of the time as well. I would estimate that the users reflect the racial make up of the community.

Getting internet capable computers with a high speed internet connection into the hands of poor students may be the most important method of leveling the playing field. The writer is correct that access to the internet opens the whole world. These kids need someone to mentor them as well.

As you pointed out without a stable home life none of these things can happen. On the other hand children who want to go to college in high paying majors must be willing to put in the time. It will not get any easier when they get to college. I would suspect only the very smartest kids from these poor backgrounds will be able to survive an engineering program, while near average kids with a background like my daughters would have a fighting chance.

[quinnox]

5. The Republicans in power of today have no empathy, and are selfish greedy robots

whose only solution to every little thing under the sun is to scream "More Tax cuts!" Yea, that will solve everything.

[Live and Learn]

6. Just another, blame the victim article.

"Technology can help these kids. But only if the kids want to be helped. Yes, there is much inequality. But the opportunity is still there in this country for those that are smart enough to go for it."

So the entire problem is that the kids just don't want to be helped? Give me a friggen break!