Back to "Catcher". The story is narrated by the anti-hero, Holden Caulfield, as he wanders around New York City for a couple days after being kicked out of a prep school. It has made me think a lot about the difficulty in transitioning into college and adult life. I managed to do it but it took a bit longer than normal. Yesterday at work, we were discussing the SAT's and looked it up wikipedia's article on the test. It had a graph showing average SAT scores vs family income by race.
The graph clearly shows a disparity. Income makes a difference: 250 points for an Asian and about 130 for a white. In 1995, the mean household income in the United States was about $42k. At this income the difference between a white and a black is about 150 points. There are a couple reasons for this disparity, but the fact that a black kid from a $70k+ family is likely to do better than a white kid from a zero income family is rather shocking.
Holden Caulfield had all the privileges of an upper middle class white American and he had trouble; how much harder is it for a kid whose parents are not fighting for him or her. Recently I read a BBC article about a report on social mobility showing that high paying professional jobs (doctor, lawyer, ...) are increasingly being held by those born into wealth. Despite the availability of education, the gap is widening.
In the evening, I was thinking about this while I mowed my suburban lawn. A young lady interrupted me trying to get me to subscribe to the local newspaper. She was an intelligent looking african american who recently graduated from high school with honors. She was trying earn a scholarship to pay for college (by getting paper subscriptions?) I didn't want to waste her time by probing for more details so declined her offer and wished her luck in her studies. I felt the normal guilt and my first thought was to give her the excuse that I already have education debt at about half my annual salary.
She smiled and thanked me for my time. As she walked away, I saw her partner working the other side of the street. He wore a pink and orange mohawk; my heart sunk. It is a pretty conservative (old) neighborhood and he could have made more use of his Friday night by watching summer reruns. Is this how the rich keep the poor poor -- by getting the entertainment industry to convince kids that its better to find themselves and then express what they've found rather than earning money for college. (There's a conspiracy theory for everything)
I wanted to call the girl back, sit her down and give her all of my sagely advise on how to be successful in college and life. I'd feel like a jerk so I didn't. Then I had half the lawn to mow to formulate the lecture I'd give. Later that night a high school friend uploaded to facebook a picture with me in it. I had equally stupid hair. I could see myself back then trying to get people to take me seriously while I wore a mop on my head. I was then able to sleep easily knowing that I know nothing. I guess I grew out of being a teenager eventually; I can't be a Catcher in the Rye; I guess we just have to let the kids fall of the cliff and help them up when they do.
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