Is the achievement gap caused by our culture?

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We've posted a new article about a planning service for at-risk high school and college students on the LearnmoreMN site. Jon Pekel, president of MyGrowthPlan.org, states in his article that our pop culture has had an adverse impact on many youth and their families.

"...I believe our profit-driven mass media pop culture...is highly toxic, systematically undermining the development of our youth's highly vulnerable, still under construction teen brain, mind and resulting everyday lifestyle."

In Pekel's view, the achievement gap stems in part from a mass media influence that promotes negative values, beliefs, attitudes and lifestyle practices. He proposes a model that focuses on continuous growth planning versus a "street survival" (just let life happen) orientation. His practical suggestions include better role modeling by parents and educators and changes to our youth development practices. What do you think?

Read his article and share your comments here.

Comments

[Dr. Dwight C. Watson]

I agree that there is an achievement gap and that one of the ways to close the gap is to engender in youth their own sense of self-efficacy. My Growth Plan gets at that premise. I try not to focus on the causes, but the solutions; therefore, I am hesitant to support the assertion that the cause of the achievement gap comes from the over stimulation of pop culture.

[PWM]

Like so many options...this article's content, alone, is no silver bullit for closing the achievement gap. However, the idea of working intentionally with youth to plan out positive steps to success - however they define it - is a positive move. At a minimum, to build a growth plan calls for deep thinking, a vision for the future, self-assessment and the intervention by and support from caring adults in a student's life....all key ingredients for a successful outcome in life.

[J.K. Lee]

Coming from a family where education was just going to school because it is required by the state, having uncommitted and uncaring "guidance" councilers, I ending high school saying what do I do now?

Many uneducated (unaware) parents rely on the system to help their children make choices about current and future education beacuse they do not know enough about what to do themselves. Some even consider education having a starting and stopping point, when in fact education and LEARNING is life long.

A plan from day one is critial. With all of the tools we have today regarding testing for skills, personality, etc we can give learners more direction and help them find their direction.

Schools without such tools for ALL learners put the entire society at risk. Luckly, I chose a pen, pencil, and books and put down my gun (but that is another story) because of the moral character instilled and provided by my natural and extended family.

I was adrift but was washup upon the shores of education at a time when entering college was seen as a NATURAL thing to TRY to do and if you failed at least you tried.

Just like any other goal we set for ourselves we must start with the end in mind.

For many (young and old) early education is not looked at as a goal, mission, or objective but a task to be completed with no end result other than to "get out of school".

Under such circumstances where there is no real understanding of what opportunities learning can open to participants or what the next steps are or can be, we find ourselves in our cuurent situation.

In learing a person must have a reason to excel or have a personality type that seeks perfection.

From my experience learning must be self motivating, requires strategy, planning, and entered into with the end in mind.

That being said, let's remember to not limit our learning discussion to standardized intellectual pursuits.

We still need auto techs, HVAC techs, and other vocational skills to make the world go round.

If we help people find what they are good at and have skill sets for, and direct them towards a legal and rewarding use of these gifts, with a plan or strategy to get to a goal or target - the world will be a better place.

[Jon Pekel]

I very much appreciate the three comments posted to date on my "at risk youth sur-thrival" article. To further the dialogue on this vital issue, I would offer these comments:

1) To Dr. Watson, I understand and admire your preference to focus on achievement gap solutions rather than its causes. But, if our pervasive pop culture is exacerbating, if not causing the gap, then I believe a comprehensive solution for closing the gap must, at least in part, address how our profit-driven pop culture is toxic and polluting our society's youth development environment.

2) To PWM, I definitely concur that there's no "silver bullet for closing the achievement gap," and I especially appreciate your use of the term "intervention" to describe how caring and supportive adults can make a significant contribution to closing that gap, since in my view, what is called for is no less than an intervention in the prevailing mindset and lifestyle practices of many of our U.S. youth, of all colors and socio-economic backgrounds.

3) To J.K. Lee, your comments -- obviously deeply rooted in your own personal experience and feelings -- eloquently speak to the absolutely critical role that planning and guidance counselors play in our education system. Tragically, among educators, their critical contribution to closing the achievement gap is commonly undervalued and underfunded. And, I definitely concur with your concluding reminder that "we still need auto techs, HVAC techs, and other vocational skills to make the world go round" ... especially since one of our more successful growth planning projects was with just such a group of high school age youth in Jacksonville, Florida.