The Wealth and Generosity Paradox, and What it Means for Schools

As a teacher deeply devoted to the democratic purpose of education, I am dedicated to creating a generation of students that are mindful citizens, creative problem solvers, and intelligent communicators. I love that my public charter school aids this civic mission by requiring a certain number of volunteer hours per student that a parent or guardian must complete to receive admission to the school. Because of this, I became very fascinated with a recent story I heard on NPR's All Things Considered which delved into some interesting research about the impact that wealth has on generosity and citizenship. This UCLA study shows that as wealth increases, generosity and sense of community and obligation decrease. They cite the reason for this decrease being that as one becomes increasingly able to self-sustain via wealth, the reliance on a community or family decreases. 

Now, if all schools were divided pretty much equally in socio-economic terms, this might not be such a big deal. Sure, the statistically stingy wealthy would still be there, but mixed in with those with less capital, and thus still enveloped in a more civic-minded community. In reality though, our schools are far from equal. The Department of Education found that "nearly 60 years after American schools were desegregated by a landmark Supreme Court decision, they are still largely segregated along racial and socio-economic lines" (via thinkprogress.org). Another study from Duke University found that "poor schools are getting poorer, while the rich get richer" (via indyweek.com). This kind of segregation is adding the the incredible civic gap we already have in our education system. Civics already has to compete with growing pressure to conform to rigorous math and ELA standards, now, those with the most are going to be knowing the least when it comes to learning how to be a productive citizen. 

Case and point. Let me take you back to my current school again, the one that requires the volunteer hours. This particular school serves your fairly typical comfortable to wealthy suburban population. My school also allows parents to pay their way out of their volunteer requirement.  I've always thought this was a cop out; what is the purpose of requiring involvement if you can pay $200-300 to get out of it? With this study in mind, I now realize a worse implication from this volunteer loophole - the more parents that pay their way out of volunteering, the smaller and more detached our community becomes. How very sad. 
While I don't know exactly how we could do it, I do believe that our schools need to be more diverse in every way, but especially socio-economically. Districting needs to be mindful of bringing diversity into schools, and schools should stop letting parents pay out of their civic obligations.