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Comment by MrApathy | Hacker News Reader

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MrApathy

Your comment is based on the presupposition that lower income kids have:

(1) An internet ready device.

(2) Reliable internet service.

(3) A quiet environment where they're able to study undisturbed.

(4) Have the time available to study, no younger siblings to watch over, and don't have a strenuous paid job.

For many lower income kids studying for the SAT isn't practical, even if the material is available at no cost. Khan Academy certainly helps a lot of students that can't afford expensive tutors or private classes, but it's by no means a complete solution. We need to do more as a society to help disadvantaged students prepare for college.

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(5) Have parents that push them to study.

(6) Are in a culture where being studious is not considered a bad thing.

There are probably more, too.

Despite the fact that it's a comedy, I find that the show Shameless does a pretty good job showing how difficult it is for a bright kid to have a fitting education in that kind of environment.

I can't watch that show, it makes me so angry; The characters just make bad decision after bad decision. If that is a window into what underprivileged society is, then I don't feel sorry for them at all.

The anger/frustration I get. But I find it interesting that it makes you empathize less, where for me it has the opposite effect.

Even though the show is obviously meant to be entertainment first, I feel it does a good job to show how frustratingly often the characters' actions are not a direct result of bad decisions alone, but always at the very least also to do with their lack of education (and 'learned' self-discipline), random events, precarious and stressful living situations, societal issues, and basically anything else that is 'external' and by definition not the characters' faults.

And being reminded of that makes me empathize more, despite the fact that I cringe at how stupid so much of the stuff is, and how superficially easy it seems to avoid much of it.

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