[Updated 1/15/2018]
Photojournalist Chris Arnade believes American society is divided into a Front Row, which is doing well, and a Back Row, which is being left behind. The following is from his Twitter feed.
The prevailing culture honors the Front Row, and public policy rewards it.
The prevailing culture disrespects the Back Row, and public policy ignores it.
LINK
The View From the Back Row, an interview of Chris Arnade for Current Affairs. [Added 1/15/2018]
Tags: Back Row kids, Chris Arnade, Front Row kids, Social class
Phil Ebersole's Blog 
January 13, 2018 at 6:44 pm |
I had a quirky math prof once who taught everything three times. Once for the “kids in the front”, once for the “kids in the middle” and once for the “kids in the back”. Each lecture he would announce who would be his intended audience that day, and he’d tell the others to go to sleep.
It was a little bit of a trick- he was really just aiming for the “middle” 3 times over, but with different style and flourishes each time. I think he realized that the ones in the front, as well as the the ones in the back, were both tuned out. For different reasons. What was amazing is that he could go through a semester of the material 3 times by adopting that structure, going quickly all the way through, then returning, then returning again.
I don’t think this really applies to the red-state / blue-state or urban/rural or good-school-district/bad-school-district divide here, just reminded me of that. The metaphor does bring up a whole lot of questions.
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