5 ms·

The only uncomfortable thing about this essay is the us versus them mentality, especially coming from someone so young. Yes, the education system in the US is p

by geetee 14y ago

The only uncomfortable thing about this essay is the us versus them mentality, especially coming from someone so young. Yes, the education system in the US is pretty bad. Yes, like any profession, there are shitty teachers. You're not getting a packet of boring papers because of your skin color, because surprise, we're all getting them. The race card here is disgusting and I have a really hard time believing these ideas weren't planted in her head.

kaonashi 14y ago
Kids have a really easy time seeing things that are self-evident. I do think that much of her anger gets displaced at those who she can see; when the reality is that the schools are being manipulated as pawns in a much larger game.
- geetee 14y ago
  They can, I agree. The more I think, the race card probably is coming from the autobiography (duh!). Not having read it myself, I can't speak to any overarching racial tone (or lack thereof), but I can see how it would be easy to cherry pick personally relevant portions. Especially true for a child whose world view is probably rather unworldly. Edit: Really the only story here is how the school handled it. It seems very he said, she said though...
tomjakubowski 14y ago
Black students, even adjusting for poverty, routinely score lower on average than white students nationally [1, 2]. "Playing the race card" isn't "disgusting," it's a legitimate criticism of American schools' failure to educate students on equal ground regardless of race. [1]: http://www.good.is/post/new-report-puts-the-black-male-achievement-crisis-in-the-spotlight/ http://www.good.is/post/new-report-puts-the-black-male-achie... [2]: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2009455.asp http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2009455.as...
- geetee 14y ago
  Because teaching non-whites differently will go over swimmingly. Perhaps we should split classes by skin color? Oh wait...
- clarky07 14y ago
  I be willing to bet this is far more about absent fathers and single mothers working to much to be around than it is about the teachers discriminating with their dispensing of knowledge. Yes this is a fact, but that doesn't mean that the cause is what you are suggesting.
- boboblong 14y ago
  "Black students, even adjusting for poverty, routinely score lower on average than white students nationally." This is because black students, on average, are less intelligent than white students. Mystery solved.
btilly 14y ago
You are right that everyone in her class is getting those packets regardless of race. However her class is almost all non-white. If you move to a more affluent school district you'll find better student-teacher ratios, more dedicated teachers, and better teaching. And, wonder of wonders, you'll find a lot more white kids in those classes. What is actually being punished here is poverty, not race. However poverty is correlated with race. And the school system is perpetuating that cycle. Worse yet when colored students come from schools where nobody has the skills they theoretically should for their grade, then people in the general public learn that people of color lack those skills regardless of what is on the transcript. And the result of that is that white kids in her class are more likely to be given chances by employers later in life, while non-whites at good schools are going to be treated with suspicion. This helps close the loop, and keeps poverty nicely correlated with race. The only way to fix this is to insist that, no matter what your race, you have to actually achieve to the same level to get the same credentials. And to resolve the historic bias by funneling substantially higher resources towards at risk folks in poor neighborhoods. But this is incredibly expensive. Republicans would never willingly channel that much money towards people that they do not like. And Democrats would not be up in arms if we had to go into schools like this one and tell 85% of the kids, "Sorry, you've been told you're in grade 8 but you have to go back to grade 3 and relearn what the broken schools failed to teach you."
- geetee 14y ago
  The high school I attended was ranked in the top 2% of the country as of a 2000 by Newsweek. The vast majority of my classwork came from photocopied packets and we spent half the year focused on standardized test preparation. You make of it what you want (or more likely, your parents/guardians/etc want). The education system is flawed, but it's also dealt a shitty hand where it's expected to be day care for teens as well.
Anechoic 14y ago
I have a really hard time believing these ideas weren't planted in her head Why? Real life is often the best instructor (as kaonashi put it "kids have a really easy time seeing things that are self-evident"). I remember being just a little younger than this girl (I'm black) and learning about the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil Rights Movement and declaring to my parents "hey, racism is over!" Not long after, I was stopped by a security guard and accused of stealing the candy bar I had just paid for 30 seconds earlier. I'd bet dollars to donuts that girl has similar stories, and it should surprise no one that she might see a correlation between her skin color and the actions of others (even if those correlations aren't true).

by geetee 14y ago

kaonashi 14y ago

Kids have a really easy time seeing things that are self-evident. I do think that much of her anger gets displaced at those who she can see; when the reality is that the schools are being manipulated as pawns in a much larger game.

geetee 14y ago
They can, I agree. The more I think, the race card probably is coming from the autobiography (duh!). Not having read it myself, I can't speak to any overarching racial tone (or lack thereof), but I can see how it would be easy to cherry pick personally relevant portions. Especially true for a child whose world view is probably rather unworldly. Edit: Really the only story here is how the school handled it. It seems very he said, she said though...

tomjakubowski 14y ago

Black students, even adjusting for poverty, routinely score lower on average than white students nationally [1, 2]. "Playing the race card" isn't "disgusting," it's a legitimate criticism of American schools' failure to educate students on equal ground regardless of race. [1]: http://www.good.is/post/new-report-puts-the-black-male-achievement-crisis-in-the-spotlight/ http://www.good.is/post/new-report-puts-the-black-male-achie... [2]: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2009455.asp http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2009455.as...

geetee 14y ago
Because teaching non-whites differently will go over swimmingly. Perhaps we should split classes by skin color? Oh wait...
clarky07 14y ago
I be willing to bet this is far more about absent fathers and single mothers working to much to be around than it is about the teachers discriminating with their dispensing of knowledge. Yes this is a fact, but that doesn't mean that the cause is what you are suggesting.
boboblong 14y ago
"Black students, even adjusting for poverty, routinely score lower on average than white students nationally." This is because black students, on average, are less intelligent than white students. Mystery solved.

btilly 14y ago

You are right that everyone in her class is getting those packets regardless of race. However her class is almost all non-white. If you move to a more affluent school district you'll find better student-teacher ratios, more dedicated teachers, and better teaching. And, wonder of wonders, you'll find a lot more white kids in those classes. What is actually being punished here is poverty, not race. However poverty is correlated with race. And the school system is perpetuating that cycle. Worse yet when colored students come from schools where nobody has the skills they theoretically should for their grade, then people in the general public learn that people of color lack those skills regardless of what is on the transcript. And the result of that is that white kids in her class are more likely to be given chances by employers later in life, while non-whites at good schools are going to be treated with suspicion. This helps close the loop, and keeps poverty nicely correlated with race. The only way to fix this is to insist that, no matter what your race, you have to actually achieve to the same level to get the same credentials. And to resolve the historic bias by funneling substantially higher resources towards at risk folks in poor neighborhoods. But this is incredibly expensive. Republicans would never willingly channel that much money towards people that they do not like. And Democrats would not be up in arms if we had to go into schools like this one and tell 85% of the kids, "Sorry, you've been told you're in grade 8 but you have to go back to grade 3 and relearn what the broken schools failed to teach you."

geetee 14y ago
The high school I attended was ranked in the top 2% of the country as of a 2000 by Newsweek. The vast majority of my classwork came from photocopied packets and we spent half the year focused on standardized test preparation. You make of it what you want (or more likely, your parents/guardians/etc want). The education system is flawed, but it's also dealt a shitty hand where it's expected to be day care for teens as well.

Anechoic 14y ago

I have a really hard time believing these ideas weren't planted in her head Why? Real life is often the best instructor (as kaonashi put it "kids have a really easy time seeing things that are self-evident"). I remember being just a little younger than this girl (I'm black) and learning about the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil Rights Movement and declaring to my parents "hey, racism is over!" Not long after, I was stopped by a security guard and accused of stealing the candy bar I had just paid for 30 seconds earlier. I'd bet dollars to donuts that girl has similar stories, and it should surprise no one that she might see a correlation between her skin color and the actions of others (even if those correlations aren't true).