If the kids organized it themselves, then whatever. I have the impression that this sort of thing is usually started up by the adults.
Careful, @brucemag, it’s only a matter of time before T-shirt day is perceived as “microagression” and banned from our high schools. Better advise your son to choose another career.
@educateddarcy Please don’t attribute things to me that I didn’t actually say. It’s hard enough to get people to understand the literal, denotative meaning of my words as it is.
“Totally agree about nature versus nurture. But FCC dad is only arguing the nurture part.”
No, actually, I’m not. I’m not arguing any distinction about nature vs. nurture at all. In fact, I mentioned good nutrition, which provides an advantage from before conception. By the time you’re born, relative advantages have already had a huge part in shaping who you will become.
“I also think that it is hysterical that you wrote that your own daughter was not just lucky but anyone else’s kid from a good home is lucky.”
That’s not a contradiction. My kids are lucky to be born to parents who can afford nice things, a good home in a safe neighborhood with good schools, emphasizing education, etc. Some other kids are also lucky to have similar advantages, and some other kids are not so lucky and don’t have such advantages. Luck, in this regard, matters a lot but is not dispositive.
I don’t see anything funny about it; I see it as a thorny problem with no easy answers.
I’ll say it flat out: my child would almost certainly not be going to a good college, possibly not going to college at all, if she were born and raised in poverty. Ha, ha, that’s hysterical. She has some friends who are not going to college and never expected to. Ha, ha. They should have grown up in different families if they wanted higher education to be important, right?
Divide the kids up into two groups. Tell them all they’ll roll the dice and see if they can get into college, just roll a 6 or better. Everybody gets a die for natural ability, and then one group gets a second die for winning the birth lottery.) A few kids from really wealthy families get a third die, just because.) But whether they have 1, 2, or 3 dice, they all need a total of 6 or higher to get in. They roll the dice, and then you organize a day in school, which everyone must attend, where everyone can show off what college they’re getting into. Except for most of the 1-die kids, of course, but it’s still fun for the majority, right?
How odd, I thought he was overemphasizing the nature part.
Truth is, nobody chooses their parents, and it is parents’ genes, parents’ behavior, and, yes, parents’ money which are the biggest factors in the success of the child. Thus luck is a major factor. The luck of being the child of your parents. Some people take advantage of good fortune, while others squander it. Some overcome bad fortune, but most do not.
The world needs ditch diggers too.
We all agree that some kids are lucky, some aren’t; some wealthy, some aren’t; some smart, some not; most lazy, a few not.
Is a t-shirt day when HS Seniors wear their intended college across their chests: unfair, lacking humility, in-your-face showing off forced upon students by school administrators who lack compassion and sensitivity…OR, a fun way to celebrate the beginning of the next chapter in the kids’ lives?
My very liberal, very diverse community with a broad range of the ‘lucky’ and ‘unlucky,’ sends about 80% of its graduates to colleges (national average is 68.4% according to the Dept. of Labor). Even if every senior going to college wore a college t-shirt, the overwhelming majority of students would not be in college shirts (75% are underclassmen). Sorry, but what’s the big deal again? 20% of kids are wearing college t-shirts? And some wouldn’t participate whether created virally by students or by school edict.
This is much ado about nothing.
The economic imbalance of this country is a very important issue that needs to be addressed. I’m not trying to belittle it (I chose to live in my very liberal community for a reason and dealing with such social issues is important here). But how a college decision day t-shirt tradition turned into a referendum on humility, the economic imbalance of our country, etc. is beyond me.
Let them wear t-shirts, I say!
The kids who aren’t going to college can wear the uniform of their favorite fast food franchise. Everybody plays, everybody wins!
There have been thorough studies of identical twins separated at birth (the Minnesota Twin study is one such example - might be the best one). Genetic differences plays a significant role in IQ - about 70% - compared to environmental differences (about 30%). That means that despite best efforts, the chance of someone who is genetically “disadvantaged” improving his/her IQ through intervention is going to be MUCH LOWER than, say, for the slacker kid whose parents are professors or lawyers. It’s not the parents’ money, but the parents’ genes, helping Jr. along.
What it does NOT mean is that anyone should be relegated to poverty (or the cycle of poverty that we see so tragically playing out in so many at-risk communities). Nor does it have to indicate the dice scenario that @FCCDAD mentioned above - certainly a kid born to lower IQ parents will have difficulty getting to Harvard (or staying there if he’s accepted) but he/she may be very well cut out for a vocational program, or a community college, or a state system college which will teach life-long skills that the person can use to make a good living. There should be no shame in that path. What IS shameful is this insistence upon college for everyone - and the more selective obviously the better. That’s bound to set up a whole bunch of kids for failure. Certainly it does nothing to eliminate the cycle of poverty - if anything it enables it.
T Shirt Day won’t perpetuate, nor will chucking T Shirt Day eliminate, the cycle of poverty.
But connecting the two probably does make a few Gloomy Gus’s feel better about themselves.
I would be surprised if there were many studies on identical twins separated at birth, because I would expect the sample size to be very small. Don’t they try really hard to keep twins together if at all possible? Just how often are twins (identical or not) separated at birth, anyway? Those cases should be really rare.
So next year when my daughter is accepted to college I have my speech ready.
Congratulations on being accepted to college but you are the child of parents who are college graduates, a legacy of CMU and MIT, a suburban school district with numerous AP classes. All you had to do was show up. By the way you should have scored a 37 on the ACT with all your privilege. Now go apologize to every student who isn’t going to their dream school. I take back the congratulations since this isn’t an achievement but an expectation with all the advantages you had.
What about kids who aren’t genetically “disadvantaged”?
Imagine two kids with the same genetic potential, and let’s stipulate that this genetic potential is quite high.
One grows up in an affluent family where all the resources needed for academic success are readily available – good schools, enriching experiences, a family atmosphere that places a high priority on academics, plenty of time and supplies for study and suitable places to do it in, etc. And of course, both the parents and the guidance counselor are knowledgeable and helpful and can guide this kid on the road to academic success and a suitable college.
Now imagine that the other kid grows up in a poor family where resources are very limited. The schools he attends are terrible. Experiences such as museum and theater visits, music lessons, and being read to as a young child are not available. The family’s priority is survival, with academics way down on the list of things to care about. There is no quiet place to study, no computer, no reference books, perhaps not even paper and pens. And when the child is old enough, he is expected to spend his out-of-school time working to contribute to the family income or caring for younger children, not doing schoolwork. The guidance counselor is focused on kids who are pregnant, in trouble with the law, on drugs, being abused, or all of the above, not on those who want to go to college, and the parents, who didn’t go to college themselves, don’t have a clue about preparing for college and don’t have the time or energy to focus on that because they need to focus on scrounging up the money to pay the electric bill and to keep the kids fed through the end of the month.
Realistically, do you think these two kids will be equally ready for college? That they will be accepted into the same schools? That they will have the same chance for success?
For all who are interested in the genetics vs. environment argument, you are welcome to peruse the internet and learn more. This is a fascinating topic of research, and I believe the bulk of it has taken place at, or been associated with, the University of MN.
Marian, to answer your question specifically, the research has shown that genetics plays a larger part than environment. And that makes sense. A lack of proper education was the NORM for many throughout the history of this country and only within the last 100 years or so were children not working dangerous factory jobs and risking life and limb. A good number of them probably had really crappy families, too, at least by today’s standards. What do you think happened to all those children when they grew up? And what happened to THEIR children?
Not all of us were descended from “Age of Innocence” New York Society LOL. I’d guess that the VAST majority of CC parents do NOT have such privileged ancestry.
@Marian. At my kids school the answer to your question is “yes”. Google Schuler Scholars and you will see why. Maybe those opportunities are why I’m not troubled by the no attendance day on which we have College Gear day
It would be great to take a snapshot of the kids wearing their T-shirts and save it for the 20 year reunion. I think a lot of people will be surprised by the outcome of success. We had 565 kids at graduation, my friend was ranked 565 and proudly told everyone. He now laughs his way to the bank with his multiple muffler shops. Do the T-shirts predict the students’ financial and emotional success in life? I don’t think so.
@twoinanddone said: "Shouldn’t those who didn’t get the Golden Ticket be happy for their classmates, be learning to take their disappointments as an adult, reflect on the fact that life isn’t fair but maybe their grades and scores just weren’t good enough for MIT or Vandy or even State U? "
(Sorry, I don’t know how to do the gray box)
I think the point trying to be made is that there are kids who DID or COULD get into MIT, Vandy, AND State U - and they still cannot go to any of these schools, due to lack of finances, although they earned it as much as the next kid.
One can only wonder if they are happy for their classmates who get to go to college, simply by virtue of having different parents, and not much else, as they, themselves, go off to their first day of work at their minimum-wage job.
If someone is smart enough to get into MIT or Vandy or (let’s say flagship relatively selective) State U and goes off instead to work his/her minimum wage job, that kid will likely turn out OK in the long run unless drugs or other bad choices interfere. It has less to do with parents at that point and more to do with that kid’s motivation level and desire for academic achievement.
By the way, many of the top level schools (in terms of selectivity) are more generous with need-based aid than the state schools which rely primarily on Pell Grants and other Federal funds. The “top tier” has institutional funds set aside for this purpose. As @FCCDAD pointed out earlier, the reason they are not attracting more kids from (truly) low-income backgrounds is due to the fact that those kids are not able to handle the demanding workload. The ones who can handle it are typically snapped up with full scholarships, etc.
The kids who have the stats from truly lower income families are typically going to their college of choice, in fact, they are coveted by many of the top tier schools. The middle class kid with amazing stats who can’t afford their college of choice is typically going to their state school or a lower tier school on scholarship because they didn’t get enough aid. The kid going to their first day of work at their minimum wage job is probably not the kid who has the stats for MIT, Vandy or State U. SO as I see it, in many cases, it could be the middle class kid who could be disgruntled by their lack of choice. But these kids are most likely getting fantastic offers from lower tier schools and will graduate college virtually debt-free and in the top of their class where it may be helpful to get a job or for admission to a prestigious graduate program. I think we can all argue this issue ad nauseum, but at the end of the day, I think the board has shown that most kids like college day and who are we to argue. I’m signing off but it was fun seeing the two warring factions go at it!
We do an event for all seniors (I’m the college advisor). I bring in donuts and have them fill out a survey about their college decisions, financial aid, or other plans for next year, also asking them if they would be willing share this information with the current juniors who are thinking about their future. We are a small school with around 60 graduates, and not everyone goes on to a four year college. Kids sign a large banner that says “Class of 2015: Here’s where you’ll find us next year:” and they write either a college name, or a gap year, or the military or a job or community service. We take a picture with the banner - some kids choose to wear a logo shirt–many don’t, but everyone feels that their plan for next year (and we make sure there’s a plan) is valued, whether it’s college or not.
It might surprise you, FCCDAD, but most low income families are not “dodging bullets and stepping over crack pipes” to get their kids to school. Some of them (gasp!) even include college educated parents-- in this area, the child of a single mom working as an RN, three kids in the household qualifies for free lunch, Questbridge, fee waivers for college applications and ACT/SAT, etc.