Heather MacLean wrote:
> Sorry, didn't mean to be patronizing in the slightest--I just thought
> that
> one of the very components of lower class status was being less
> educated and
> hence, having a lower reading level.
Actually, I think we have to separate class and quality of education. I
come from Detroit, where the vast majority of the public schools are
hard-pressed for funds, and the educational levels of the children show
that fact. However, even in the "rich" suburbs to the north of us, I
see a lack of quality education, leading to a good deal of very
reading-ignorant, upper-class students. The quality of various schools
inside the city (the University of Detroit HS, Renaissance HS, Cass Tech
HS, among others) shows that, while a sizable proportion of their
students are lower-middle class and below, they are still very attuned
to reading. Also (and I can't compare to other large urban areas, so
I'm not sure whether this is unique), we have a good deal of used
bookstores and a fairly strong public library system in the metro area,
so books are available for decent prices, too.
Just my 2 cents... :)
- Geoffrey
-- "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." - Ford Prefect
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:40 PDT