"If I'm advocating these ideas now, why didn't I propose them in "Coming Apart"? Because, sadly, they won't really make a lot of substantive, immediate difference."

I found this quote interesting because it summarized the whole article. I couldn't help but laugh when I got to the end and Murray began refuting all of his points. I think ultimately he realized that those with opportunity and/or affluence will continue to get ahead, whereas those who do not have those will continue to have to struggle to compete with their peers. He also talks about creating a socioeconomic affirmative action. I honestly truly believe this may be a better approach to giving those who are in need an advantage. However, I do believe that, like him, it would be futile. Those who are high achieving will always have more advantages than those who are not, even in the working class. However, giving a slight edge to those who are not significantly higher achieving but still would like to get an education sounds like a good idea to me.

Yiranyang,

I completely agree with this notion. People in positions of power will always try to find some way to maintain that power. When reading the part about replacing the SATs with achievement tests, it sounded a lot to me like a different form of a selection method, as you've mentioned, to maintain dominance and selectivity. When trying to compare people using one standard exam, there is always some bias inherently imbedded into it as sad as it is. So, I also question his methods of eliminating the socioeconomic gap.

I also found this article appalling and the fact that this is actually going to be implemented in our Florida education system is very saddening. While I was taken aback by this, I found myself trying to understand why the Florida State Board of Education thought this would be a good idea. By lowering the standards for groups of students lumped together by a very non-specific margin, they are also lowering society's expectations for non-white/non-Asians and the students themselves. Minority students who become aware of the lowered expectations educators' have for them will in turn decide not to work as hard because they don't need to and therefore, continually under-perform in comparison to their Asian and white peers. While I understand that they feel the need to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act, instead of lowering the standards for the students, they should work harder to give students the best quality of education. However, even this could be problematic considering there would most likely have to be more reforms that focus solely on passing the FCAT. All in all, this new plan will prove to cause more issues than solve. To fix the education system, we need to reinvent it from scratch and go to the root of these issues instead of continually trying to amend the system we have without success.