Supersize that SAT score?

[Gordon Fitch]

Justin wrote:
> >W, what planet are you from? Do you really think it will fix the problems of 
> >low scholastic acheivement of people raised in poverty by illiterate 
> >parents, who have no job prospects and no future, whose friends or 
> >girlfriends are pregnant at 14 and whose friends or boyfriend are in jail at 
> >16, to make the school year longer? --jks

Wojtek Sokolowski:
> No, but it would substantially reduce the negative impact of these
> environments on kids at a rather low cost.  It is like malaria drugs -
> surely they do not eliminate unhealthy environment, but they substantially
> reduce the risk of getting sick and are quite cheap.
> 
> So if the choice is between a radical but expensive (=difficut to
> implement) or a provisional but cheap (=easy to implement) solution - my
> answer is "the latter."  "Better" is often the worst enemy of "good" - as
> history documented time and again.

The lower and intermediate schools being essentially 
concentration camps, they are unlikely to be any better than
the community which surrounds them and may actually make things
worse: the defenseless are compelled to enter and remain in
the presence of predators of various kinds, generally without
the protection or indeed even the interest of the supposed
authorities.