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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe South Is America's High-School Dropout Factory
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/12/the-south-is-americas-high-school-dropout-factory/282480/Are Americans educated enough? How you answer that questionwhich seems to obsess certain newspaper editorial boardsreally depends on where in the country you look. Some states compete with the best school systems in the world. Some seem to be racing for the bottom. Today, I wanted to offer up three vivid illustrations of how educationally balkanized we really are, courtesy of the Census Bureau's delightful new interactive data-mapping tool.
First, high school. This map shows the percentage of adults over 25 who have earned a diploma or finished an equivalency program across each county in the lower 48 states. The darker the shade of orange, the higher the graduation rate. Notice the giant pale underbelly stretching below the Mason Dixon line from the Southeast through Texas. That's our Southern dropout belt, where completion rates are largely below 85 percent. The national average, for reference, is about 87 percent.
Still, in the majority of the country, most adults have at least earned a high school diploma or a GED. Not so when it comes to college.
Bachelor's degree holders cluster on the coasts, in major urban centers, and in Colorado. The Northeast's Acela corridor is especially full of them. So while, about 31 percent of American adults have a bachelor's degree or more, across many of our counties, fewer than one in five residents graduated from college.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)seveneyes
(4,631 posts)All victims of bad choice have their own reasons. North, East, South and West.
bhikkhu
(10,724 posts)or some kind of racket. Which I hear disturbingly often, mostly from older people - who should be leading, guiding, setting an example...
CherokeeDem
(3,709 posts)north or south of the Mason-Dixon line is proud of this. We are all Americans the last time I looked and to label this issue as anything more than poverty related is absurd. Instead of thinking we are proud of this, why don't you help those of us who live in the Southern US to change this?
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)CherokeeDem
(3,709 posts)really...
I've lived in the South most of my life, and have also lived in the northern US... guess what... I've run into a few people myself.
Unfortunately, I've also run into a few individuals who seem to have the opinion they know more than the rest of us, and are more than willing to stereotype based on their own prejudices.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)I've been around half the world and never seen so many people proud of their willful ignorance as there.
My wife grew up in East TX and she got out of there as soon as she could.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)with an unusually high IQ and an extensive vocabulary -- you'll be ridiculed or told you have Asperger's.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)(Pardon the aside, but, did you change your nom de plume?)
Because of my outlier intellect, I am often met with censure and derision. I hear "do you speak English?" almost every time I use a word with more than two syllables (actually, I've learned to guard my words until I get to know my audience, to avoid such reactions). My boss told me I have Asperger's, because I "use big words," and I like "things that normal people don't like" (the big word that triggered his assertion was "ostensibly" and the "things normal people don't like" include woodcarving, metalsmithing and mixed media art).
And, isn't it ironic that those of us who are outliers on the high IQ side of the bell curve are derided for discussing or acknowledging our IQ -- as though it's 'bragging' or thinking ourselves 'better than.' What a load of crap.
I've told my boss (after this bizarre accusation)--and I've shared with all of my students--that, in contemporary research of timed IQ tests, when the timed element of the IQ test is removed, virtually all test subjects score near genius on the test. This tells me that--barring organic disorders or injuries--we all have fully functioning brains. We just learn in different ways and at different paces. In short, these timed IQ tests seem to measure alacrity, not intellect.
Our schools impose a hierarchy of intellects on our children, convincing two-thirds to three-quarters of us that we have 'average' or 'below average' intellects. This is a terrible legacy for all of us. Furthermore, most southern states have high drop-out rates, and those who drop-out are generally un- or under-employed. Not surprising, then, the defensiveness about 'intellect' and the stultifying rates of functional illiteracy across the nation...
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)And not infrequently with autism as defined by clinical criteria. It certainly sounds as though you may have some difficulties regarding social interaction and communication. One may have an impressively large vocabulary, but if one can't learn to communicate on a level that's appropriate to the people one is interacting with then one can expect such a reaction. ("Code-switching"; look it up.) Demotic speech is usually innocent of the degrees of subtlety, nuance and shades of meaning imparted by a larger vocabulary. English is however a varied enough language that one may convey one's meaning while still being understood. (For instance: "apparently", "supposedly", instead of "ostensibly" .
chervilant
(8,267 posts)Well, of course, that's all news to me...
In my younger years, I did have difficulty with communication, because I failed to see how insecurities about intellect drive responses to unusual vocabularies. Plus, I attended an Ivy-league college, wherein my vocabulary was not an issue, so it took me a while to 'get' it. Actually, I've been "code-switching" for years. As I've aged, I've learned to use smaller words so that my listener(s) won't have difficulty understanding me. Indeed, my words have gotten smaller and smaller...
I've been an effective advocate for survivors of relationship violence for better than thirty-five years. I do not have difficulty communicating with most individuals--in general, individuals with low self-esteem tend to have the most difficulty with my vocabulary.
I am not introverted, nor am I autistic. I've only once been accused of Asperger's, but my accuser is also a self-avowed racist, sexist, and homophobic Republican, so I take everything he says with a huge grain of salt.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)You clearly don't see the point of what I'm saying then. (Also, one does not "have" autism any more than one "has" left-handedness. One is autistic.)
chervilant
(8,267 posts)To clarify: my boss accused me of having Asperger's. He has a problem with me, and apparently viewed accusing me of having Asperger's as equivalent to accusing me of being addicted to drugs. Again, this man is a self-professed sexist, racist, and homophobic Republican. I get that he was going for sarcasm and derision. In conveying this story, I am stating what he actually did, not what I think of Asperger's. Please understand that this is about his accusation--he made his accusation using a disorder that one does not "have" any more than one "has" left-handedness.
Mariana
(14,860 posts)This was in the early 1980's, so it's been going on a long time.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)a most effective escape from a toxic, alcoholic, abusive childhood. Hence, my big vocabulary.
Most often, my friends and students will ask me the meaning of unfamiliar words, which is always fun. I even have a 'made up' language, full of borrowed 'words' and bastardizations of common words or phrases. It's fun to have my students begin routinely using my 'made up' words!
n2doc
(47,953 posts)To this day, books are my greatest solace.
SQUEE
(1,315 posts)and not continuing on to the Debt Mills that are the current university system.
I work with many "uneducated" and "White Trash" and I am friends with quite a few and I may catch some hell for my accent having grown up in the Southwest and San Diego, but the many I am friends with are solid Democrats, going back to FDR, and the TVA and WPA.
They work hard, and spend time with the family, share what they have and will "take up" for a person in need or in trouble in a heart beat. Some are in debt, but most of the folk I work with have money set aside, and own their own land and homes, it being in the family for decades. Not a lot of new cars either, but many 10-15 year old trucks and cars (mostly American Union made BTW).
They are fairly frugal, and don't particular care what progressive or liberal Dems think of them, or what the Snookie or Honey BooBoo for that matter are up to, as they are busy working, hunting, going to church, or taking care of their homes and families. I also have friends with Kids in college, often on academic scholarship, a few at Bama, Tennessee or MTSU, one at Lipscomb, and 2 at Vandy. Only a few taking student loans, most working, and taking advantage of the Hope Scholarships here.
There is no shame here in rough hands and a strong back. They are proud, tough and once considered themselves the soul of the Democratic Party.
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)When you don't have a t least a high-school diploma, your chances at getting a higher-earning job are less than those that have one, and forces one to live a lower standard of living lifestyle.
It would seem that some of those people would not be in as good a shape as they are in without having land or homes that were in their families for generations.
former9thward
(32,077 posts)Which has a population greater than any of the southern states.
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)former9thward
(32,077 posts)The OP is also ignoring Cook County, IL which has more population than most southern states. Chicago' s schools are among the worst in the nation. But it is so much fun to region bash.
enlightenment
(8,830 posts)which had the lowest graduation rate of all the states in 2011 and the third lowest in 2012. The majority (because of population) are in Clark County - which politically is "blue" not "red".
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/jun/11/nevadas-high-school-graduation-rate-third-lowest-n/
The issue is poverty and the cyclical problems it creates - not politics or region.
Orrex
(63,224 posts)cprompt
(192 posts)As someone who has spent 30+ years in a Southern Metro area with 65%+ minority demographics, it's not hard to figure this is institutionalized racism. Education can help end the poverty in many of these areas but we do not do enough to prop up the education system in these areas.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)PM Martin
(2,660 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)While I did notice that the OP map was reminescent of a demographic map, I think it is a leap to assume that institutionalized racism is the causative factor.
Culture and generational momentum, I would wager, are more pertinant
Blue Owl
(50,494 posts)n/t