Time Commitments

[jcgbigler]

Originally published at Waterboarding the Horse. You can comment here or there.

In 2007 when I taught in Belmont (one of the wealthier suburbs of Boston), I observed that a significant number of my students expressed stress about their time commitments. I devised a survey

Comments

[jered]

Ugh.

I'm not surprised by this at all -- I know I've read multiple articles (none of which I can cite off the top of my head, of course) that the biggest challenge to educational performance in poor communities is students having the time to actually study and do homework in between working jobs to help support their families, taking on sibling care tasks that more wealthy parents hire out, etc.

The story about "poor people being lazy" has always been nothing but a cover for the rampant class inequality and lack of mobility in the US, and it's only gotten worse over the past 20 years.

[frobzwiththingz]

Do you still know anyone in Belmont who could run your survey there now for comparison? 8 years is a pretty measurable amount of time.

Also, Yikes. :-(

[jcgbigler]

Unfortunately there has been enough turnover in the science department at BHS that I doubt I still know anyone. It would be interesting to find a high SES school and ask a teacher there about doing the same survey this year.

[frobzwiththingz]

what is SES?

[jcgbigler]

Socioeconomic Status. Sorry--I use edubabble so often that I often don't notice myself doing it.