@Narik:...about you registering as a "feeling" writer, I don't know about the rest of the 'verse but the first impression I had about your online persona is that of a compassionate big brother - looking out for other people

I'm most interested in how it categorises the S/N dimension. I mean, I think a lot of the ideas in my songs and poems wouldn't interest many sensors, but I'm not sure how I could write those ideas without using sensory details and figurative language that the algothrim flags as S.

I'm most interested in how it categorises the S/N dimension. I mean, I think a lot of the ideas in my songs and poems wouldn't interest many sensors, but I'm not sure how I could write those ideas without using sensory details and figurative language that the algothrim flags as S.

No, students in the United States do not receive the same quality of education. Quality of education varies widely across regions and is further complicated by issues such as racism. For instance, taking into consideration racial minorities, it is evident that the majority of subordinated groups enroll less in school and are presented with less educational opportunities, especially in the cases of Native Americans, whose dropout rate is at least 50% higher than African Americans and Hispanic/Latino(a) Americans (who themselves experience fewer educational opportunities), and nearly three times that of White Americans. Quality of education, at the same time, is compromised for subordinated groups, who are presented with decaying schoolhouses and a deplorable lack of funding.

There are some racial and ethnic minorities who in fact perform better than White Americans, such as Asian Americans, who as a whole have the highest obtainment of bachelor degrees (49.4%), but even among the sub-groups of Asian Americans there is great disparity in quality of education, as is found in other racial minorities (for instance, Cuban Americans are likely to receive better schooling than Mexican Americans, which parallels the difference in acceptance between the two groups upon arrival to the United States). The social construct of race, despite fluctuating wildly over time, despite its inherent contradictions and devastation caused by reducing dynamic, diverse identity to what were previously meaningless, static characteristics, yet manages to affix itself as concrete truth in the minds of policymakers and the populace. Some would attempt to argue that there's no issue of inequality because discrimination is illegal... right? Laws and policies might not have the capacity to expressly state their intention to suppress a certain segment of the population, but the manners in which they are constructed and implemented do. Additionally, often an indirect, more subtle approach is taken - for instance, institutionalized racism and racial segregation in public housing and redistricting.

Also, as stated above, there is a difference in funding by region. Going from state to state, the range in teacher income can vary by $20,000 or more, often reflecting the success of one state's economy and other political and social factors intertwined. Even within states, there are districts that are far wealthier than others, so that bordering cities and towns could give rise to drastically different educational institutions. For example, I remember one time a school official came to my high school and showed the figure for the amount of money each student was allotted for a year of education - it varied significantly as opposed to many schools in the area, especially wealthier schools that were host to a cornucopia of programs and services I could never imagine in my own school.

Still, though, there were institutions running with less resources than my own. I've read stories and been to schools where roofs had caved in, where there was no air conditioning/heating and almost useless plumbing, a scarcity of functional light bulbs, of interested teachers (or just any teachers), of sanitation, of really any learning material. One would imagine that despite the environment, as long as the spirit of learning persists education can prosper, but here... hope has given into despair, and you can clearly see it in the eyes of those who have had their voices silenced and their dreams deferred. The degree to which funding varies boggles the mind; for instance, in 5th and 6th grades, I attended school in what was called a "portable" - AKA, a trailer (with no bathrooms). Just a short distance away, there were gleaming schools where the fortunate children inside would likely never have to imagine attempting to learn while surrounded by an environment that said quite distinctly "yes, this is how much we care about your education." If you show a student that that is how much you care, what do you expect in return?

Attitude, here, is a major issue. Self-fulfilling prophecies are potentially incredibly dangerous, and incredibly wondrous, as the attitude we display towards our students and their successes can determine the course of their education. Children in schools with low funding find an environment that screams "hey, we'll give you an education, but don't expect us to care whether you actually learn anything," while highly funded schools find just the opposite to be the case. With a lack of role models and teachers motivated to, well, motivate their students and promote an air of optimism and support, self-fulfilling prophecies and a student's resulting self-concept are critical in maintaining gaps in academic achievement.

In addition to this, our narrow-minded view of education can be severely limiting to some students. When you provide a small opening and attempt to shove a much larger, dynamic object through it, it is likely that some aspects of the object will have to be forced off of it in order for it to fit through the tiny hole. In other words, by limiting funding, and limiting it more so towards such subjects as the fine arts, humanities and music, you are depriving children of the opportunity to explore facets of themselves that could have entailed the person they truly wanted to be, who they truly should have been. A child could go their entire academic career and not realize their potential to be a masterful artist, all because a school had cut funding for that program. We are losing vital components of ourselves by carrying on in such a way, and giving rise to students who are not as well-rounded. The skills gleaned by fostering creativity bolster every subject found in the realm of academia. To limit this exploration creates discrepancies not only between students who would have shined in these areas, but between any student in a school who cuts funding for any subject, as opposed to a school offering a wider array of subject matter.

Although it is mandated that all students receive public education up to a certain point, it is still far more likely that an individual from a wealthy family will succeed in school and that they will go on to college to receive bachelor degrees and beyond. Often, the requirements to get into school require that an individual has participated in programs that are available only to people who attended well-funded schools. If an application does not have these items listed, it is probable that it will be rejected, even if the applicant were actually qualified to be admitted to an institution of higher learning. For this reason, the same wealthy families that have been found in universities across the countries persist, while families from poorer backgrounds are more likely to be turned away. Second-generation, Third-generation (etc., etc.) bias is an issue in education, and one of the problems the contested Affirmative Action has sought to fight.

In general, there is a lack of funding directed towards education in this country. For example, a celebrity who sells their name to advertise a certain type of perfume would likely make more money for a single ad than a teacher makes in an entire year. In other words, we pay those who serve to distract the country more than we do those who are responsible for educating the children responsible for its future. Clearly, our priorities are a little skewed.