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Our Kids By Robert Putnam

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Our Kids By Robert Putnam
Throughout America’s communities today, the quality of schooling varies from school to school. In the book Our Kids the author, Robert Putnam, believes that the increased gap between the wealthy and poor is what causes the differences in school quality and opportunities for the students (Putnam, 2015). Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing two of today’s youth, Josh and Erin. Their names have been changed for the sake of anonymity. Josh is a 17-year-old student at Shawnee Mission East High School, in Prairie Village, Kansas. Erin is a 16-year-old student at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kansas. The stories told by these two individuals show that the wealth gap is still playing a major role in determining the quality of education and opportunities for students.
Josh has lived his entire life in Prairie Village, Kansas. Currently, Josh lives in a 4-bedroom home with his parents and his sister, Jamie. Both of Josh’s parents are from Prairie Village and earned degrees from the University of Kansas. After earning their degrees, his parents moved back to Prairie …show more content…
While this may be true, students who are forced to work to help support their families suffer a variety of struggles and miss out on a number of opportunities. In addition, these individuals are often under high stress, because they are trying to balance work and school. Erin is very familiar with this stressful struggle of balancing work and school. Because she spends so much time at work after school, she has a very difficult time completing her homework assignments. When she returns from work, she goes to bed almost immediately, since she is so tired. She does most of her homework on the bus to school. Although Erin is still passing all of her classes, her new job has definitely taken a toll on her learning and her GPA, in addition to decreasing her involvement in school
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