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 Groton: the chance of a lifetime? 
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When we watched the movie about Jo and her experience at Groton, there was a man who said something that really stood out to me, I think he was the chaplain or something, I don't remember. I couldn't find the exact quote, but the basic gist of it was that they have now started to offer scholarships to children who excel in school but who are not as privileged as most of the kids that go there. These kids don't have a long history of ivy league family members or access to immense wealth. So they give these kids scholarships and what they consider to be the chance of a lifetime to go to Groton, only to have them come there and basically be fed to the wolves. As we see in Jo's case, these kids that come on scholarships are very different than the kids that go there. Jo talked a lot about her struggle to relate and her struggle to change herself to fit in while making it so that she didn't fit in at home. They have to work harder and don't have the advantages that the other children have.
This is very distressing to me. I want all children to have equal access to a good education and a good chance at excelling in life. But how do we do that?? Sending kids like Jo to Groton to get a good education seems like a good idea, but there are still levels of inequality there, and what about all the other kids that didn't get the scholarships? How do we ensure that all kids have an equal shot? Is that even possible??

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Elizabeth McPhail Dawson


Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:01 am
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Those questions you raise are ones I feel we might all struggle with for our whole teaching career. Yet I feel there has to be some sort of resolution for some of them. I think that a "good education" seems to be confined many times to a "private, wealthy, good, well-known named" school. But I feel that you can get a "good education" in a public school, it truly depends on the teachers and administration. I feel like I got a top-notch education at a Public school. The reason was because I had amazing teachers that cared a ton about their students, we also had a ton of parental support, and the students were driven because of these 2 factors. I was in a working class to upperclass area and it seemed to work well. I know this isn't the case for everyone and I also feel that a huge factor in a "good education' is parental support. I think as teachers we just have to encourage that as much as possible from DAY 1 of class each semester or year. And if there is no parental support to be aware of that and try to help that student as much as you can. I guess another option is just to be an advocate for scholarship opportunities and support your students in finding good options. I wish I had a better answer.

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Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:45 am
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