I am puzzled by the perception of some of my colleagues. History is full of stories of people who succeeded in education in spite of poverty. I think we are going for a red herring when we blame poverty for poor grades. Poverty does not cause learners to choose not do homework, choose not do do reading asignments, choose to misbehave in class, choose to be disrespectful to teachers, choose not to complete exercises in class, choose not to attempt to write papers, etc. It has to be something else affecting these learners. What social mechanism has the greatest influence on learners? There lies the problem and the object of our remedies. Dennis Congos __________________________________________________________ Dennis H. Congos Learning Skills Lab Facilitator & Certified Supplemental Instruction Trainer Academic Learning Center 103 Garinger Building Central Piedmont Community College Charlotte, NC 28235 704-330-6474 email: [log in to unmask] NADE Homepage: http://www.umkc.edu/cad/nade.htm CAD and SI Homepage: http://www.umkc.edu/cad/ Learning skills: The only indispensable knowledge in college. Learning skills: The tools for doing the job of learning. ___________________________________________________________