This is an online space for members of HONR 398 (Sp. 12) to extend our intellectual community...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Feb. 28 (This is a date change)…The Contemporary Scene (Demerath)
React to Demerath's depiction of the "Wilton Way." Did you recognize anything from your own schooling? The author draws directly on Labaree--do you see any connections to any other readings?
Demerath produces an accurate depiction of suburban middle class public schools. My initial reaction is simply disdain for what he describes, perhaps this is due to the accuracy with which he writes. The competitive grade-driven nature of the 'Wilton Way' was fully present in my schooling, with grades being students ultimate focus of their lives. Teachers, and mostly parents, contributed heavily to this mindset, implying that we would be "flipping burgers" if we didn't take challenging courses, get A's, and go to a good college. Ultimately, the "Wilton Way" could be described as the "well-funded middle-class public school way".
I notice some aspects of Dewey in Demerath's writing. He certainly takes a more critical than neutral viewpoint on the "Wilton Way". Demerath seems critical of grading as the sole focus of schools, as Dewey promoted a student's desire to learn as highly important. Demerath implies that achieving grades does not necessarily equate to learning, and that the desire to truly learn should be a students ultimate goal. Overall, Demerath comes across mostly as a progressive.
I agree with Juriann in that Demerath seems very critical of the focus on grades. However, I think his views align most with Labaree, whom he references throughout the introduction. Demerath and Labaree call for more democratic equality-type education, and less of an emphasis on social mobility which leads to credentialism. Even in these high schoolers, GPA matters more than participation in government, unless that participation will get them into a good college. Everything in their lives revolves around this process of getting the grades to go to college to get the job that makes money.
Demerath’s usage of examples of students experience at that school illustrated the desire for students to do their best in everything. The “Wilton Way” is to strive for success, whatever that may be. The concept of grades, extracurricular activities and everything is to go to a “good” college, get scholarships and just get something as a reward in the future for the hard work being done in high school. This is similar to my high school, but at the same time, the interviews conducted depicts that student’s are always doing of work and don’t have free time. I know people at my school and including me had time for friends and just to chill. On the other hand, one of the students’ that was interviewed felt guilty that he was playing basketball with his brother instead of studying for SAT’s. Seriously? In the honors classes at my school, especially, students’ were highly motivated to get A’s, high GPA and awesome SAT scores. Sadly, it is about the numbers.
I think Demerath’s depiction of the Wilton Way is scarily accurate and prevalent in schools. There is such an intense focus on grades and curriculum that pushes students towards “success”, and I think this makes it difficult for them to put things into perspective. I find it incredibly sad to see children that stress endlessly about making an A to the point that they have little concern or time for anything other than schoolwork. I saw many of my peers striving for that perfect grade time and time again, throwing themselves into their studies. While I understand that school is important, I think it’s unfortunate when people don’t leave time for any other activities or hobbies. I feel that the emphasis on grades and credentials is undermining what could be a rich and valuable time where students can truly experience learning.
To hell with numbers. Sure, my high school, as I imagine any "middle classic" public school to be, was incredibly grade focused. Similar to what Jurriaan spoke of: at my high school, we had ~bimonthly lectures on the evils of mediocrity. This kind of shit pisses me off more than i can articulate. And, it's this kind of thing that led me to be that typical "rebel" who doesn't do any of his homework, or projects, but would actively participate in class discussion, and when tests would roll around I would consistently score in the high 90's. Even so, my grades were understandably miserable- and I was happily mediocre . Grades, and the pomposity associated with them, played a tremendous part in the discrepancies I now hold against the public school system. This grade oriented, idiosyncratic robbing, socially debilitating, prototypical archetype soaked in biases is what Demerath referred to as the Wilton Way- and it sucks. That’s all I have to say about that. As parallels are concerned, there seemed to be an ample dose of both Labaree and Dewey in Demerath’s philosophy. Demerath cynically stated the disparate relationship between grades and learning, implicating his preference towards Deweyan methodology. Just as well, I felt that Demerath was displeased with the amount of choice students were given, which is both Deweyan and Labareean (D.E.).
Demerath’s reading reflects very similarly to the schooling that is being provided around us today. One line that I find disturbingly accurate was “Academic cheating has reached an all-time high.” I feel like this is beyond true because, like he states, “grading becomes more important for its social consequences then for its pedagogical uses.” Some students, for example pre-med students that I’ve encountered, are just solely competing for a grade. I’ve overheard too many conversations about cheating and receiving A’s in higher level science classes and I truly find that disturbing. Society IS obsessed with self-advancement and the results can be anything from a “decline in civility” and a “disconnection from others.” It is very evident that Demerath strongly agrees with the ways of Labaree, such as the construction of high academics to gain personal advantage, but I also see a little bit of Count in here too. Demerath mentions that oriented students “struggle to habituate to stress and fatigue” and I feel like this is evident in society but also in Count’s reading. Count mentions that “progressive education is incapable of dealing with any crisis of our time” and can result in depression which I feel like can happen to students when they become disconnected from the world. This progressive view seems like the attention is focused squarely upon the child.
Unlike the opinions of the previous postings, from my experience with my own schooling, "The Wilton Way" is not accurate. My high school was located in a middle class environment and was nothing like the school described in the reading; striving to succeed to get accepted into a competitive institution simply was not a priority. Though my school did contain certain people from certain backgrounds who served as "outliers" in this non ambitious environment, I would estimate that a good 90% of my school's population was the exact opposite of "The Wilton Way." Luckily, I was one the 10% who was career/college focused, ambitious, and took higher level courses throughout their high school career. There were very few honors/AP kids in my school, it was the same small group every year...every class. There even came a point where some honors/AP classes were taken out because students weren't signing up to take them. If we wanted to take IB or some particular AP courses, we had to transfer to another school. But, then again, this is my experience from my own schooling. For me, "The Wilton Way" experienced by high schoolers in the reading, was experienced when I entered college. On another note, I did some of Labaree's ideas in Demerath's reading; specifically social mobility, which was most definitely prominent throughout the reading.
I think Demerath is interesting because he depicts the middle class in a very progressive way. He emphasizes on the constant battle that students have between taking classes in order to get an "A" or to actually attain knowledge from it. He stresses that grades alone should not be the evaluator of a student's capability. More Demearth also feels that students should not have a lot of freedom or choice to make decisions as it will have more negative affects. A similarity that I drew between other readings it that I read a lot of similarity between Demearth and Dewey as Dewey is critical of the grade-driven system. Labree on the other hand is stressed through The Wilton's Way which is a clear depiction of Social Mobility as those on the highest receive the best education.
I also agree with Juriann that Demerath seems very critical of the focus on grades. In Demerath’s view, the students should be knowledgeable about everything in order to be success. The only thing High school is about to get good grades, get involved in other school activities, prepared for SAT and all these are for to get into better college. I feel really bad for some students who are spending most their time with school work because they have the think in mind that they need to go to good college. They barely get time for other things to do for fun. I see Demerath’s writing is similar to Dewey idea of Education. But in some aspects, Demerath mostly gives focus on grading is important but on the other hand Dewey’s point of view of school should focus on learning rather than grading.
I found Demerath’s accounting of the “Wilton Way” to be an interestingly distressing depiction of achievement-oriented students. My high school experience was nothing like this, although I surely wanted to do well. I did not attend a school that had much in the way of AP/Honors courses, so I guess one could say that I haven’t been “conditioned” like these Burnham students, perhaps not even like my fellow classmates. I worry about the students’ health in becoming premature cogs in the machine that churns out “sombodies.” Something is wrong when a kid feels guilty about spending quality time with his brother, time he could have used more productively. Dewey says that “there is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning…the only measure of success is a competitive one.” The leading measure of defining one’s success is comparing how far one can get ahead of his/her peers. I don’t see anything wrong with these students forming early and specific school and career goals, being confident, taking on a business mindset, etc. These are all good characteristics that will serve these students well in whatever occupations they find themselves. I think that it becomes problematic when these qualities take over and all students think about is exploiting schooling for social mobility. Also problematic is the marginalization of students that do not fit the “Wilton” mold.
I saw some of what Wilton was describing at my high school, but his observations are not true throughout. I went to a high school that is right in the middle of both upper-middle class and lower-middle class areas. My high school also included a vocational/technical center as well as an academically rigorous Center for the Humanities. The school also offers four different tracks of classes: standard, college preparatory, honors, and AP. I could say that there was pressure to a certain extent in the group of AP students. However, it seemed to me that the top performing students in the AP program were either close friends, or siblings; there was not much in the way of competition. I've heard various horror stories about the Center for Humanities, but mostly about how rigorous the academic program is. There was some pressure to get into good colleges, but for the most part, I saw my peers getting into schools that were either their first or second choices.
I think that it's the diversity of the school that really helps lower the tension and competition between the students. They seemed to understand that they come from all different backgrounds, and that their futures will be different. I, myself, was not a part of the top academic students during my senior year, so I cannot speak too much for them. However, I did not witness any competition to the magnitude of which Wilton described.
I agree and can relate to most of Wilton's observations. My high school and even middle and elementary school were extremely competitive. In my high school the sense of competition was weaker in regular classes, I always enjoyed those more because I could focus on what I was learning. Whereas the honors and AP classes were so driven and focused on achievement that for most students learning became irrelevant, it was all about the grade. My school had a mixture of socio-economic classes, but it was primarily upper and lower middle class. Which I feel for the more fortunate students it reinforced their feelings of superiority and for the less fortunate inspired hard work and goal-oriented paths to climb the social ladder. You worked hard in school, got the good grades, did your extra curriculars, etc. all so you could get into a good college, so you could get a good job, so you could be better off financially. So I could definitely see Labaree's social efficiency in Wilton's writing. I also got a sense of Nel Noddings circle of caring, that we should be teaching care for oneself and right now we are doing the opposite. Students are way too stressed out and sleep-deprived, it should be more of a concern. Schools should also be teaching care for others, mutual respect. Maybe if this type of learning was in place academic cheating wouldn't be at an all time high. I agree with Wilton that the public school system's competitive nature is not all bad. It is great that students have so many opportunities to get involved and that they are forming early goals and plans. I think it all comes back to how and what we learn. I think the real problem is the grading system and content-based learning. A little competition is good, it prepares you for life and is a great motivator, however most high school have taken it too far and the students are suffering for it.
After reading Demerath and the "Wilton Way," I have come to see that I received an education very similar to the Wilton Way of achieving success no matter the risk. At my high school in NOVA, everyone was all about who got the A's and who took the most AP's. To go to a surprising next level, for the people with A's, it was all about who got the highest A. The competition for grades and achievement was then exemplified with the colleges one got into and the scholarships he or she received. To digest all of this, I was brought up and received an education where going to VCU, GMU, or Tech was thought of as a bad and shameful thing compared to UVA, where it was just another achievement. On the topic of connections of Demerath to other readings, I thing that Demerath is well coupled with Labaree and the notion of social mobility, self-achievement, and things of that sort. Dewey is one to be a opponent of Demerath's "Wilton Way." Demerath focuses more on the get good grades, get into a good college, get good grades there, and get a good job. He forgets what Dewey enforces in Dewey's readings, the factor of learning appreciation, learning for the good of..learning! And also to learn for the sake of self-gratification and improvement.
As I read Dermerath talk about the "Wilton Way", it reminded me a fair amount of my high school. At my high school, all of my fellow students ever cared about was getting perfects scores to get into the perfect university. I can't tell you how many times I've heard one of my friends complain about them having their 4.0 go to a 3.9. It truly disgusted me, but to be totally honest, I felt the need to get perfect scores too (which I definitely did not do). If everyone else in my high school was concerned about getting all A's, where would that leave me for college? My point is, in my school, you had to have that type of mentality to succeed.
When it all comes down to it, when I went to my high school, all that mattered was that you got into a good college. Not once in high school did anyone ever stop to actually think, "What will I be doing when I get there?". It was only the point of getting into Tech or UVA. During my senior year I would constantly hear students complaining, "I don't know what I'll do if I don't get into UVA. I'd rather die than go to NOVA (Northern Virginia Community College). I think that high schoolers really don't understand what the purpose of college.
When Demarth writes about the “Wilton Way,” I am immediately reminded of my high school. My school was extremely competitive and students constantly compared grades or measured their worth solely by the grades they earned. I definitely think that the “Wilton Way,” actually focuses on middle class as opposed to everyone. Though Demarth’s views may not seem to parallel those of the progressives, this movement would most closely match. Society or the immediate community greatly contributes to why this type of thing is occurring. I know where I live if you weren’t In the IB program or taking all the AP courses the school offered you were considered un-intelligent. Also, forget about when we all applied to college. There was a board with hot air balloons to symbolize or ascent to better things, that students could only have their name added to if they brought a copy of their acceptance letter to the career center.
Demerath produces an accurate depiction of suburban middle class public schools. My initial reaction is simply disdain for what he describes, perhaps this is due to the accuracy with which he writes. The competitive grade-driven nature of the 'Wilton Way' was fully present in my schooling, with grades being students ultimate focus of their lives. Teachers, and mostly parents, contributed heavily to this mindset, implying that we would be "flipping burgers" if we didn't take challenging courses, get A's, and go to a good college. Ultimately, the "Wilton Way" could be described as the "well-funded middle-class public school way".
ReplyDeleteI notice some aspects of Dewey in Demerath's writing. He certainly takes a more critical than neutral viewpoint on the "Wilton Way". Demerath seems critical of grading as the sole focus of schools, as Dewey promoted a student's desire to learn as highly important. Demerath implies that achieving grades does not necessarily equate to learning, and that the desire to truly learn should be a students ultimate goal. Overall, Demerath comes across mostly as a progressive.
I agree with Juriann in that Demerath seems very critical of the focus on grades. However, I think his views align most with Labaree, whom he references throughout the introduction. Demerath and Labaree call for more democratic equality-type education, and less of an emphasis on social mobility which leads to credentialism. Even in these high schoolers, GPA matters more than participation in government, unless that participation will get them into a good college. Everything in their lives revolves around this process of getting the grades to go to college to get the job that makes money.
ReplyDeleteDemerath’s usage of examples of students experience at that school illustrated the desire for students to do their best in everything. The “Wilton Way” is to strive for success, whatever that may be. The concept of grades, extracurricular activities and everything is to go to a “good” college, get scholarships and just get something as a reward in the future for the hard work being done in high school. This is similar to my high school, but at the same time, the interviews conducted depicts that student’s are always doing of work and don’t have free time. I know people at my school and including me had time for friends and just to chill. On the other hand, one of the students’ that was interviewed felt guilty that he was playing basketball with his brother instead of studying for SAT’s. Seriously? In the honors classes at my school, especially, students’ were highly motivated to get A’s, high GPA and awesome SAT scores. Sadly, it is about the numbers.
ReplyDeleteI think Demerath’s depiction of the Wilton Way is scarily accurate and prevalent in schools. There is such an intense focus on grades and curriculum that pushes students towards “success”, and I think this makes it difficult for them to put things into perspective. I find it incredibly sad to see children that stress endlessly about making an A to the point that they have little concern or time for anything other than schoolwork. I saw many of my peers striving for that perfect grade time and time again, throwing themselves into their studies. While I understand that school is important, I think it’s unfortunate when people don’t leave time for any other activities or hobbies. I feel that the emphasis on grades and credentials is undermining what could be a rich and valuable time where students can truly experience learning.
ReplyDeleteTo hell with numbers. Sure, my high school, as I imagine any "middle classic" public school to be, was incredibly grade focused. Similar to what Jurriaan spoke of: at my high school, we had ~bimonthly lectures on the evils of mediocrity. This kind of shit pisses me off more than i can articulate. And, it's this kind of thing that led me to be that typical "rebel" who doesn't do any of his homework, or projects, but would actively participate in class discussion, and when tests would roll around I would consistently score in the high 90's. Even so, my grades were understandably miserable- and I was happily mediocre . Grades, and the pomposity associated with them, played a tremendous part in the discrepancies I now hold against the public school system. This grade oriented, idiosyncratic robbing, socially debilitating, prototypical archetype soaked in biases is what Demerath referred to as the Wilton Way- and it sucks. That’s all I have to say about that.
ReplyDeleteAs parallels are concerned, there seemed to be an ample dose of both Labaree and Dewey in Demerath’s philosophy. Demerath cynically stated the disparate relationship between grades and learning, implicating his preference towards Deweyan methodology. Just as well, I felt that Demerath was displeased with the amount of choice students were given, which is both Deweyan and Labareean (D.E.).
Demerath’s reading reflects very similarly to the schooling that is being provided around us today. One line that I find disturbingly accurate was “Academic cheating has reached an all-time high.” I feel like this is beyond true because, like he states, “grading becomes more important for its social consequences then for its pedagogical uses.” Some students, for example pre-med students that I’ve encountered, are just solely competing for a grade. I’ve overheard too many conversations about cheating and receiving A’s in higher level science classes and I truly find that disturbing. Society IS obsessed with self-advancement and the results can be anything from a “decline in civility” and a “disconnection from others.”
ReplyDeleteIt is very evident that Demerath strongly agrees with the ways of Labaree, such as the construction of high academics to gain personal advantage, but I also see a little bit of Count in here too. Demerath mentions that oriented students “struggle to habituate to stress and fatigue” and I feel like this is evident in society but also in Count’s reading. Count mentions that “progressive education is incapable of dealing with any crisis of our time” and can result in depression which I feel like can happen to students when they become disconnected from the world. This progressive view seems like the attention is focused squarely upon the child.
I love all of this! (In a hateful way...)
DeleteUnlike the opinions of the previous postings, from my experience with my own schooling, "The Wilton Way" is not accurate. My high school was located in a middle class environment and was nothing like the school described in the reading; striving to succeed to get accepted into a competitive institution simply was not a priority. Though my school did contain certain people from certain backgrounds who served as "outliers" in this non ambitious environment, I would estimate that a good 90% of my school's population was the exact opposite of "The Wilton Way." Luckily, I was one the 10% who was career/college focused, ambitious, and took higher level courses throughout their high school career. There were very few honors/AP kids in my school, it was the same small group every year...every class. There even came a point where some honors/AP classes were taken out because students weren't signing up to take them. If we wanted to take IB or some particular AP courses, we had to transfer to another school. But, then again, this is my experience from my own schooling. For me, "The Wilton Way" experienced by high schoolers in the reading, was experienced when I entered college. On another note, I did some of Labaree's ideas in Demerath's reading; specifically social mobility, which was most definitely prominent throughout the reading.
ReplyDeleteI think Demerath is interesting because he depicts the middle class in a very progressive way. He emphasizes on the constant battle that students have between taking classes in order to get an "A" or to actually attain knowledge from it. He stresses that grades alone should not be the evaluator of a student's capability. More Demearth also feels that students should not have a lot of freedom or choice to make decisions as it will have more negative affects. A similarity that I drew between other readings it that I read a lot of similarity between Demearth and Dewey as Dewey is critical of the grade-driven system. Labree on the other hand is stressed through The Wilton's Way which is a clear depiction of Social Mobility as those on the highest receive the best education.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Juriann that Demerath seems very critical of the focus on grades. In Demerath’s view, the students should be knowledgeable about everything in order to be success. The only thing High school is about to get good grades, get involved in other school activities, prepared for SAT and all these are for to get into better college. I feel really bad for some students who are spending most their time with school work because they have the think in mind that they need to go to good college. They barely get time for other things to do for fun. I see Demerath’s writing is similar to Dewey idea of Education. But in some aspects, Demerath mostly gives focus on grading is important but on the other hand Dewey’s point of view of school should focus on learning rather than grading.
ReplyDeleteI found Demerath’s accounting of the “Wilton Way” to be an interestingly distressing depiction of achievement-oriented students. My high school experience was nothing like this, although I surely wanted to do well. I did not attend a school that had much in the way of AP/Honors courses, so I guess one could say that I haven’t been “conditioned” like these Burnham students, perhaps not even like my fellow classmates. I worry about the students’ health in becoming premature cogs in the machine that churns out “sombodies.” Something is wrong when a kid feels guilty about spending quality time with his brother, time he could have used more productively. Dewey says that “there is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning…the only measure of success is a competitive one.” The leading measure of defining one’s success is comparing how far one can get ahead of his/her peers. I don’t see anything wrong with these students forming early and specific school and career goals, being confident, taking on a business mindset, etc. These are all good characteristics that will serve these students well in whatever occupations they find themselves. I think that it becomes problematic when these qualities take over and all students think about is exploiting schooling for social mobility. Also problematic is the marginalization of students that do not fit the “Wilton” mold.
ReplyDeleteI saw some of what Wilton was describing at my high school, but his observations are not true throughout. I went to a high school that is right in the middle of both upper-middle class and lower-middle class areas. My high school also included a vocational/technical center as well as an academically rigorous Center for the Humanities. The school also offers four different tracks of classes: standard, college preparatory, honors, and AP. I could say that there was pressure to a certain extent in the group of AP students. However, it seemed to me that the top performing students in the AP program were either close friends, or siblings; there was not much in the way of competition. I've heard various horror stories about the Center for Humanities, but mostly about how rigorous the academic program is. There was some pressure to get into good colleges, but for the most part, I saw my peers getting into schools that were either their first or second choices.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's the diversity of the school that really helps lower the tension and competition between the students. They seemed to understand that they come from all different backgrounds, and that their futures will be different. I, myself, was not a part of the top academic students during my senior year, so I cannot speak too much for them. However, I did not witness any competition to the magnitude of which Wilton described.
I agree and can relate to most of Wilton's observations. My high school and even middle and elementary school were extremely competitive. In my high school the sense of competition was weaker in regular classes, I always enjoyed those more because I could focus on what I was learning. Whereas the honors and AP classes were so driven and focused on achievement that for most students learning became irrelevant, it was all about the grade. My school had a mixture of socio-economic classes, but it was primarily upper and lower middle class. Which I feel for the more fortunate students it reinforced their feelings of superiority and for the less fortunate inspired hard work and goal-oriented paths to climb the social ladder. You worked hard in school, got the good grades, did your extra curriculars, etc. all so you could get into a good college, so you could get a good job, so you could be better off financially. So I could definitely see Labaree's social efficiency in Wilton's writing. I also got a sense of Nel Noddings circle of caring, that we should be teaching care for oneself and right now we are doing the opposite. Students are way too stressed out and sleep-deprived, it should be more of a concern. Schools should also be teaching care for others, mutual respect. Maybe if this type of learning was in place academic cheating wouldn't be at an all time high. I agree with Wilton that the public school system's competitive nature is not all bad. It is great that students have so many opportunities to get involved and that they are forming early goals and plans. I think it all comes back to how and what we learn. I think the real problem is the grading system and content-based learning. A little competition is good, it prepares you for life and is a great motivator, however most high school have taken it too far and the students are suffering for it.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Demerath and the "Wilton Way," I have come to see that I received an education very similar to the Wilton Way of achieving success no matter the risk. At my high school in NOVA, everyone was all about who got the A's and who took the most AP's. To go to a surprising next level, for the people with A's, it was all about who got the highest A. The competition for grades and achievement was then exemplified with the colleges one got into and the scholarships he or she received. To digest all of this, I was brought up and received an education where going to VCU, GMU, or Tech was thought of as a bad and shameful thing compared to UVA, where it was just another achievement. On the topic of connections of Demerath to other readings, I thing that Demerath is well coupled with Labaree and the notion of social mobility, self-achievement, and things of that sort. Dewey is one to be a opponent of Demerath's "Wilton Way." Demerath focuses more on the get good grades, get into a good college, get good grades there, and get a good job. He forgets what Dewey enforces in Dewey's readings, the factor of learning appreciation, learning for the good of..learning! And also to learn for the sake of self-gratification and improvement.
ReplyDeleteAs I read Dermerath talk about the "Wilton Way", it reminded me a fair amount of my high school. At my high school, all of my fellow students ever cared about was getting perfects scores to get into the perfect university. I can't tell you how many times I've heard one of my friends complain about them having their 4.0 go to a 3.9. It truly disgusted me, but to be totally honest, I felt the need to get perfect scores too (which I definitely did not do). If everyone else in my high school was concerned about getting all A's, where would that leave me for college? My point is, in my school, you had to have that type of mentality to succeed.
ReplyDeleteWhen it all comes down to it, when I went to my high school, all that mattered was that you got into a good college. Not once in high school did anyone ever stop to actually think, "What will I be doing when I get there?". It was only the point of getting into Tech or UVA. During my senior year I would constantly hear students complaining, "I don't know what I'll do if I don't get into UVA. I'd rather die than go to NOVA (Northern Virginia Community College). I think that high schoolers really don't understand what the purpose of college.
When Demarth writes about the “Wilton Way,” I am immediately reminded of my high school. My school was extremely competitive and students constantly compared grades or measured their worth solely by the grades they earned. I definitely think that the “Wilton Way,” actually focuses on middle class as opposed to everyone. Though Demarth’s views may not seem to parallel those of the progressives, this movement would most closely match.
ReplyDeleteSociety or the immediate community greatly contributes to why this type of thing is occurring. I know where I live if you weren’t In the IB program or taking all the AP courses the school offered you were considered un-intelligent. Also, forget about when we all applied to college. There was a board with hot air balloons to symbolize or ascent to better things, that students could only have their name added to if they brought a copy of their acceptance letter to the career center.