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TEAM EXERCISE #4
There is a tendancy for many people in our society to "blame the victim"
if youths cannot attend college. "There's always a way."
But! Is it so easy?
Address the question appropriate to your team in your team area.
1) Families have different incomes, available time, and domestic
responsibilities. We need to figure out a way that each juvenile senior in
high school will attend college. This requires creative thinking about
economic disparities as well as an understanding about why juveniles
turn to and become involved in lifestyles that may put them on a path
toward or away from college.
BACKGROUND: Assume that the following is in Chicago in 2004.
Also assume that this excercise, while based on social class, should
also include factors such as race and sex. (That is, do all groups
experience identical "social facts" identically?).
Your task:
a) What obstacles exist to get the person to college
b) What is the probability of making it
c) What can be done to get THIS KID to college
d) What can be done to get kids in a similar situation to college?
TEAM-A:
A juvenile senior is an only child and has his/her own car and recieves
an allowence for grades from parents/parents are at an income bracket
of 50-75k combined income. bills are allotted for enough to pay payments
on tuition.
TEAM-B:
A juvenile senior is one of two children under 18, and his/her parents
both work and share the only car with their children. The senionr needs to
find a job at least 20 hours per week to pay for clothes and car. The
Parents combined income is 40-49,900K. The parents might be able to pay
for community college, or books at a university. The rest needs to be in
loans or grants.
TEAM-C:
A juvenile senior is the oldest of 4 children in a single parent home with
one parent working one 40hr/week job, with one car that is taken by
working parent who works at night. The senior needs about 30-40 hours of
employment a week to help with bills/parent's income is about 25k a
year (just ahead of poverty level). It is up to child to figure out how
to get in and pay for college, since parents can't afford it.
The senior reads at a 9th grade reading level because the school
is under-resourced, has poor teachers, and a poor learning environment.
The student is bright, but not trained.
TEAM-D:
A juvenile senior (female) is one of 3 children in a single parent home
with the parent working two jobs, about 60 hrs a week. There is only one
car, and it is used by the working parent. The girl is due to have a child a
month after graduation and needs to find a car and a night job to be
able to support her weight and buy a car for transportation to work and
for the child. She needs to make about 17k a year to stay above poverty level
and needs to help with house bills and babysitting after school. She also
needs to find own way to get into and pay for college She reads at a
12 grade+ level, but needs to take pre-credit courses on math. She also
needs to find babysitter and pay for it.
******
Each group must find a job that fits into their schedules. They
are in school from 8am until 3 pm (keep in mind who has to babysit siblings).
Also keep in mind that these students for this activitiy are recieving
no academic or sports scholarships. be realistic in the time allowed and
finances. make a monthly budget for the family to see how realistic
attending college is with other bills. You need to figure finances before
you can allott the money for college.
Also try to figure what the individual does for free time or recreation.
Then, on April 5, we will create a public conference.
The question:
RESOLVED: ANYBODY CAN ATTEND COLLEGE IF THEY REALLY WANT TO.
ISSUE: BUT IS IT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD?
You must draw from the text, News stories, gov't and other statistics,
and legitimate net information.
POINTS: UP TO 30
(20 points will be assigned as the grade for quality; the team with
the best answer gets up to 10 points, second place = 8; etc)
PUBLIC DISCUSSION BEGINS: April 5
It ends: April 9 at midnight
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