<p>Hey, I guess I’m one of these others, these “rich”. Well, I’m not really any more, but my Dad is, and his Dad was even more so.</p>
<p>And I would agree with mini. Bring up a generation of children with money and a generation of children without and the generation with will be better able to qualify for selective colleges. Or, at the very least, bring up two generations in a row with money and then for sure those kids will be better able.</p>
<p>Sure there are wealthy dysfunctional families. And children who suffer. But children suffer more in poor dysfunctional families because hunger and disease and cold are still worse than quarreling parents and verbal shaming. And while suffering can strengthen the character for many it just absorbs all coping capacity and they implode. If my mother chose to drink too much, she had 5 acres to wander around and no one apt to arrest her. The mom getting high at night in a one room apartment in the Bronx is in a different situation.</p>
<p>Not making apologies for jerks and bad parents, but it is a fact of human life that poverty is mostly brutal. Especially urban poverty. So don’t “throw money at schools” but how about pre-schools? </p>
<p>Well, as one who had the quarreling divorcing parents and the verbal shaming, but nevertheless a family that fed its kids and sustained regular schedules and promoted intellectual achievement and had nice art in all the rooms, that’s just my opinion.</p>