This chapter mainly revolves around the educational influences through poverty and war of the mid 21st century. The first that that struck me in this chapter was the talk about raising the poverty line through means of education. While this may sound great in theory, I believe that everything has a balance. This means that while the rich stay rich, and get more rich, this poverty line is just a number with people still in the same financial boat. So my qestion is this, How would the poverty line really be influenced when educating the less forutnate class of citizens? Would education standards not increase throughout since they are increased at the bottom?
Another iteresting topic that I could easily relate to was the talk about the SAT exam. I know that many stressed over this test hreatly while in highschool. Fearing for their future and ability to get into a good college. I too am a vitim of stress because of this test. Is that really the way to foster learning? I really don’t believe that a single test can really measure a person’s intelligence, for that matter any test.
Lastly, the emphasis on math and reading because of the cold war seems a bit silly to me. Yes, we had this race to beat the soviets to space because we thought the world would end if they beat us. But, they focused so much on math and science that they did not even think that there are so many other subjects that american citizens may excel in. To limit the mind to only certain things is a shame. My question is Do you really think that emphasizing math and science is the way to excel in intelligence?
