Poorer children need the same choices as richer children

Originally published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

One evening, a young man needed help with his Algebra 2 homework, so he called the helpline for my school’s credit-recovery program. The agent gave him the answers.

He didn’t want the answers. He wanted to understand how to solve the problems. “Hey!” he shouted. “I’m trying to learn here!”

Lowering expectations

Kids like to learn. And they don’t like it when we deprive them of the opportunity to do so. As an educator, I’ve learned that students will perform to the level that we desire. When we water down our expectations, we rob kids of the opportunity to excel.

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