This city is going through urban renewal. Two high profile projects, a golf course and art center are already completed. A large percentage of the population fall below the poverty line so these two new projects will be of little use to them. Instead, they are being offered a free ten week course, "Bridges Out of Poverty." This class is designed to prepare residents culturally to join the middle class. "Moving out of culture of poverty requires more than an increase in financial means...and accepting achievement as the driving force in one's life," the course description read. "It will require one to learn and use middle-class language and behaviors." I have always suspected that education is a cultural success route, but this smacks of something entirely different. Is the key to renewal to mimic the middle class?
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