[Asianunta]

At heart, I'm for equal opportunity and equality like the next person but what is really disappointing is seeing cases where opportunity is provided but not taken.

I have seen/heard of destitute people who, for example, came off the boats of Viet Nam onto American soil whose children later became valedectorians in high school, and then excel later in life; likewise, I've seen people who were born and raised here in America drop out of school claiming that it is a total waste of time. Presumably, each had the same opportunities, yet the outcomes were vastly different.

My older sister told me the story of when she was a senior in high school taking calculus in the accelerated math program and being told by her peers on the girl's track team to take the regular math class instead because she projected an image of being a nerd. My sister was getting an opportunity to become more than just a clerical worker in later life and yet she was being advised to forego that by members of her own gender. You won't read about that roadblock to equal opportunity in the collective works of Bette Friedan.

I love this story--journalist David Broder asked the head of the Department of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical School (perhaps the top med school in the US), how he, an African American, went from the poverty-stricken, inner city ghetto of Detroit to Johns Hopkins. The doctor said that when he was 12 years old, he was the dumbest student in his class (to the point where his classmates all called him "Dummy") and when his mother, who worked three jobs, saw all F's on his report card, she took the bold step of getting rid of the television. This forced him to go to the library to study and spend his free time. Soon thereafter, he became the best student in his class, etc., etc.

I think providing equal opportunity is essential. Stopping there though may not be enough. I've noticed that the key to seizing on that opportunity is a mentor, be it parent, teacher, whatever, who already possesses the smarts and/or work ethic to imprt to those less knowledgeable. It is difficult to blame a young person for failing to seize an opportunity when he or she has had no one imparting wisdom to him or her in the first place. Rich parents tend to already know the lay of the educational terrain before their child is even born, whereas poor parents, who themselves know little or nothing of the value of this knowledge and work ethic, cannot impart it to their children like the rich parents can to theirs. In the case of the Johns Hopkins doctor, he was extremely fortunate to have had a mother with a strong work ethic.

The concepts of equality and equal opportunity are easy to discuss in theory, but the devil is in the details.