NYC and Science

New York has found that their students are somewhat less than proficient in science.  This is a NY Times article about the findings, which distinguished between ethnicity and race as well as age.  Science is the explanation and the study of life, is something that is important to our existence, and the city that most foreign people associate with the essence of American life is falling behind.

The reason probably has a lot to do with the amount of poverty in New York city.  Science isn't important in the life of people who can't get by.  Children are the hope for the future in this instance.  Most children are curious about everything, and if the NYC school district put out a genuine interest to expose underpriviledged children to the wonder of science, they might be more excited to learn.  In my freshman AP human geography class, we studied poverty in detail, and determined that the trend of people who come from nothing to stay in that same position as a result of a combination of environmental factors and their personal choices.  The children in elementary schools who aren't proficient in academics are usually the product of their home life, but the senior in high school who is failing more classes than he's passing is responsible for his own choices. 

In large cities, there is more racial diversity.  For contrast, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is 92% white and has a very small low-income area.  For somwhere out in the middle of the country, Iowa has some of the highest test scores, AP test rates, and graduation rates in the country.  The test mentioned above showed that Asian and white people outperformed black and Hispanic people, as is the normal trend.  There are a number of reasons why large populations of black and Hispanic people correlate to high levels of poverty, but it has nothing to do with their skin color or ancestry.  I believe that failure has more to do with personal choices.  Environment can stop a person, but prevailing ove those circumstances is success itself.  NYC needs to get to the children, to help them learn what it means to be successful and its importance.  Science is only the tip of the iceberg.