Paul Thomas of Furman University in South Carolina is a prolific and eloquent critic of “reforms” that blame the victim for his own plight in an inequitable social structure. In this essay, he writes that the “R word” is ignored in current discourse yet Racism is alive and well in reform rhetoric.
He writes:
“Just as one example, every year SAT data are released, the strongest correlations with scores remain the socioeconomic status of students’ homes and the academic attainment of those students’ parents. Yet, these historic and current patterns remain for the education reformers evidence not of systemic social inequity and not evidence of failed education reform or systemic school inequity, but proof that teachers and students simply are not trying hard enough.
“Education reform not only ignores inequity bred from racism, classism, and sexism, but also actively perpetuates and even increases that inequity (most significantly reflected in high-stakes standardized testing).
“The political, media, and public narratives in the U.S. focus only on the individual, and in the relationship among effort, talent, and opportunity, those narratives address only effort.
“We must ask: Who benefits from cultural narratives that claim success comes from effort and failure from sloth? Who benefits when those cultural narratives begin by claiming everyone has the same opportunity in the U.S., by erasing the evidence of the power of privilege and disadvantage, most often grounded in race?”
Who benefits? He answers:
“The ugly answer to those questions is that white and affluent privilege benefits from these cultural narratives that are in fact false and racist.
“But we aren’t allowed to utter “lie” or “racism” in polite company in the U.S.—and such decorum, of course, may have sprung from those privileged few who are the ones most likely to have their sensibility bruised by both the directness and accuracy of those claims.”
What looks like an incantation to try harder, to learn grit, is empty rhetoric, he writes:
“And to demand individuals simply try harder in a context where effort is not the problem, and not the solution, is a harsher and more damning racism than in those days not too far in the U.S. past where racial slurs were public, frequent, and normal. “Work hard. Be nice” is the twenty-first century masked racial slur:”
Ahhh, and amen and self-evidently axiomatic: The access to resources and opportunities is a major factor in cognitive development, and those unable to have equal access (because of inequality) are “playing on a sloped field”, biasedly tilted in the favor of the “haves”.
But, behind these injustices is a more fundamental issue of: what are the root causes, and why should I care.
Either God is the determiner of what is just, fair and equitable (as declared in Scripture) or humanity comes up with their own notions (via: materialism, humanism, post-modernism….ad nauseum). Either one acknowledges the Lord as the owner of all they have, and expects we use our resources and opportunities for the good of others, and ourselves (actually a verse states, “put the needs of others before yourself…..esteem others better than yourself”); or one views themselves as the owner and determiner of resource use. Faith teaches one to be fair, equitable and just in the treatment of others, ex. employees, whereas humanism or sociobiology allows one to oppress others, because (after all) they are not as “advanced” as me, and I deserve partial favoritism, because my ethnicity is “better”.
So, thank evolutionary theory for the legitimization of racism for it is NOWHERE to be found in the Bible; to the contrary OT law commanded to “care for the stranger and alien”. Yes, our “Judeo-Christian” heritage is fraught with heresy and hypocrisy (ex. Manifest Destiny), and people groups have been oppressed, contrary to what Scripture teaches. In contrast, what Hitler did with the concept of “natural selection” was a logical extension of the belief that peoples are on some kind of “evolutionary scale of fitness”. Read Jerry Bergman’s book “The Darwin Effect” and others of its kind to see the clear connection between racism, and all other rationalization of injustice spawned by evolutionary humanism.
Yes, Rick, what this really is all about is evolution and God.
Well FLERP, either you’re sarcastically skeptical or correct. It IS about the fruits that come from one’s paradigm/religion. “You shall know a tree by its fruits” and I know for certain that evolutionary humanism produces little, to none, good fruits. If one is convinced all they have is a stewardship from God; that all they own and do and “talents” given to us by Him, then one will be convinced of their moral accountability before the Creator of Heaven and Earth and use them beneficially to the good of all (not just their own bank account).
I agree that working evolutionary theory into this is a stretch, or just wrong. But you have to include God in the equation in order to make sense of ed reform’s narrowing of causation to individual effort.
‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ (Weber) “presciently concludes” [wiki] in 1905 [emphasis mine]: ” The Puritan WANTED to work in calling; we are FORCED to do so. For when asceticism was carried out of monastic cells… and began to dominate worldly morality, it [helped build] the modern economic order. This order is now bound to the technical and economic conditions of machine production which today determine the lives of all the individuals who are born into [it] with irresistible force. Perhaps it will so determine them UNTIL THE LAST TON OF FOSSILIZED COAL IS BURNT.” Weber’s contrasts this ‘IRON CAGE’ of ‘CARE FOR EXTERNAL GOODS’ [= consumerism] with the ‘light cloak’ prescribed for the godly by an early Puritan.
Wow! Tell it like it is, brother Thomas.
This cogent little nugget alone is a helpful decoder for the belief systems underlying political narratives: “The political, media, and public narratives in the U.S. focus only on the individual, and in the relationship among effort, talent, and opportunity, those narratives address only effort.”
This reminds me of the campaigns by turn of the century women’s volunteer groups to help the poor by going into their homes and teaching the poor women morals. There are similar initiatives today such as forcing welfare recipients to work with a life coach to keep getting benefits. It is so much easier to dismiss the plight of disadvantaged families if you tell yourself that their own laziness, bad character and lack of morals are the cause of their suffering. Certainly the poor are that way because they are lazy. The rich and successful are that way because they work so hard. Students who don’t do well in school need to work harder and their teachers need to work harder. Laziness and character defects keep them down. That is the easiest message for the successful to tell themselves.
“Certainly the poor are that way because they are lazy.”
Bill Gates thinks this. He is constructing a rating system for “stakeholders” to judge schools that affirms the idea the existing “proportionality” of students in a school or district, described by “subgroups” is OK as long as the same proportions can be mapped for enrollments in “appropriate academic coursework” such as Advanced Placement.”
He is proposing that existing data be mustered to provide answers to questions that are contrived to keep the status quo in a community — everything teachers and district leaders cannot directly control–while blaming teachers, principals, and schools boards if “each and every student” or “all students” are not provided with the resources that Gates wants.
On question framed for tparents to ask is: Does each and every student ifeel safe in my schools and en route to school?”
The questions, by the way are filled with gramatical errors.
See his Data Quality Campaign Appendix A “Stateholder questions.” Many take the form of “Have you stopped beating your wife? (or children, or whatever). http://dataqualitycampaign.org/files/Empowering%20Parents%20and%20Communities%20Through%20Quality%20Public%20Reporting%20Federal%20Policy%20Guide.pdf
And my post was filled with typos…but I am not yet a routine spell checker for posts.
Most poor are not so because of personal laziness, but because of a corrupt wage system that rewards work for “demand” and “need”, not its importance in meeting real human issues. The hardworking farmer makes less than 1% of what the NFL starter makes because his work is less valuable? He is poor because he is lazy? The lawyer is rich because he works harder? No, because somehow the market allows him to charge $300.00/hr.
We need to wage justice, for wage-justice!
Inherent racism is clear in the privatization movement. Urban school districts with significant minority populations have been targeted. At first educated black leaders bought in to the reform movement when it was viewed as a significant improvement over under funded public schools. Now many black leaders have distanced themselves from the movement. I have seen black leaders marching in solidarity with Randi Weingarten in Newark. The reality is far different from what was promised. Reformers have failed to deliver on excellence. They have offered cheap instruction delivered by TFA, not certified teachers The curriculum is a deadly narrow skill-drill drone fest. The results are suspect, ie.high attrition rates, cooked books, and cherry picking students.. They have destroyed neighborhood schools, increased segregation, and decreased the number of minority teachers. What is incredibly offensive is that they have ignored pleas of parents that don’t want the harmful change for their children. Even more concerning is that they have not achieved better results, and in many cases, the public schools perform better on standardized tests as seen in Chicago and New Orleans. A recent committee of black leaders asked the president to ensure that the instruction include the services of a certified teacher. Even with all these problems, the beat goes on! Our government continues to allow this anti-democratic travesty to continue because key donors have invested in it! The goal of most reformers is not to change the face of education, but to profit from privatization on the backs of poor minority families, just like the Southern plantations owners did before the Civil War.
Religious and non-religious beliefs have been used in the most contrary causes imaginable.
For example, Christian beliefs were employed to justify, and condemn, chattel slavery in this country, and people died defending both.
The ideas of Charles Darwin have been used and abused by many. I go with the following from the title page of Stephan Jay Gould, THE MISMEASURE OF MAN (1996, paperback edition):
“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” [Charles Darwin, VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE]
As long as folks follow Diane’s sensible “Rules of the Road” on this blog, write what you will.
However, IMHO, I think dunl0005 and retired teacher have addressed the posting in a way that is most helpful to moving forward the discussion that will help ensure a “better education for all.”
😎
Hi, I’m not sure of the rules of this blog, but I trust error, misrepresentation, distortion and lies are not to be promoted. NOWHERE in the Bible is slavery (taking somebody against their will and forcing them into labor [oppressive or otherwise]) permitted, allowed, justified, etc. Hypocrites, in the name of Christ [not the character and person] may have tried to rationalize oppression, but it contradicts every tenet of the Faith. The OT forbade kidnapping and every required capital punishment upon its guilt. Without, the influence of the Bible (salt and light) we would all be oppressing each other for our personal gain. William Wilberforce confronted the error and hypocrisy in England and got the wicked, sinful slave trade outlawed by Parliament (see the movie, Amazing Grace,….John Newton who wrote the hymn was involved in the slave trade, until he met Jesus and the repented of it, denounced it and worked to kill it).
Grace and Peace!
“Without, the influence of the Bible (salt and light) we would all be oppressing each other for our personal gain.”
Horse manure!
Many different cultures and societies throughout the world throughout time have managed just fine and not broken down into barbarian oppressive regimes. Historically speaking one can make the case that it has been those christian based societies that have been some of the most oppressive. The bible is a poor source for describing what Is moral/immoral.
Well, yes, many cultures claim to have a biblical tradition but are hypocritical; just like what Jesus told his disciples about the “religious” people of his day (the Pharisees); they believe one thing and practice another. Statistically, I think secular humanists and materialistic paradigms (ex. communism, State-ism) have the most blood on their hands. Look at Stalin, Lenin, Phol-Pot, Hitler, etc, and their record of human rights. Duane, your very ability to speak out against oppression and injustice was derived from our Constitution, which was fundamentally derived from the tradition of applying biblical concepts to government. In a state where Caesar, Pope, or dictator are “gods” your rights are non-existent (yes, Catholicism has a long history of hypocrisy). So, my assertion is statistically significant; where true biblical influence has been wrought, the good fruits upon society are evidenced. How can the truth “love does its neighbor no harm” ever lead to bad fruit?
But help out the system of dependent events (education). It is proven math to not be able to recover from being behind from the start due to variability, a bottleneck or a dependent event. You can jump out of the system and catch up to those not behind but not without the extra effort.
Nor without talent, nor without opportunity.
SLOs make teachers responsible for getting almost every student up to speed within a semester of year-long course or you, the teacher, are blamed for “not meeting expectations.” This is the meaning of race to the top. Winners and Losers all the way.
Immediately after the Brown v. Board of Education order to racially integrate public schools there was a great “White Flight” from public schools. When parents found out how much private schools cost, the cry for vouchers arose and was championed by the likes of Milton Friedman. The outcry for vouchers died away, however, when it became clear that because neighborhoods were still segregated only token racial integration could take place because children couldn’t attend schools out of their attendance area or distant from their neighborhood. But the outcry for vouchers arose again in 1971 when the Supreme Court ordered busing to end the de facto segregation caused by segregated neighborhoods. When voucher legislation ran into constitutional challenges, voucher proponents concocted the charter school scheme that is ongoing today, along with the voucher campaigns. A key component of the war on public schools has — along with the manufactured “facts” (read the book “The Manufactured Crisis”) being relentlessly broadcast by the media owned by those “professional students of education” — been to chronically underfund public education so that it has been severely hampered in fulfilling its vital role and thereby creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Now that public school students are in the majority non-white, expect all these efforts against public schools to intensify.
And there is more. Constantly and consistently kids from disadvantaged homes and minority kids are assumed to need structure, discipline and rules, like they don’t get that at home. Yet have you ever seen black children in church? Two hours or more often times and they participate, don’t run the aisles, and then, when they get bored, mama or grandma pulls out colorbooks or sheets or small quiet toys. Recently, I saw a kid with a tablet computer. He took a few pictures and then played some video games. And these are little children sitting through church, as young as 3 or 4 years old.
Yet there is a new alternative school in Rapides Parish Louisiana that is quite literally prison-like! Yes! They check for weapons, take their personal property force them to walk with their hands behind their backs and they cannot speak in the halls or the classrooms without permission. PE consists of boring exercises, no sports. Oh, and while the middle school students get teachers, the high schools sit silently at computers and don’t even have teachers. And this is being hailed as a great place. After their sentence is finished—which is lengthened if they don’t follow the rules consistently they are put back in their regular schools. No mention of a transitional program. No classes to develop coping skills was mentioned and to prevent future inappropriate behavior were discussed. Neither were classes for kids who were behind or diagnosed with learning disabilities or cognitive deficits which often go along with poverty. Most of the kids were black, of course.
I would really like to see some programs for disadvantaged and minority kids that, instead of strict rules, structure and uniforms emphasized creativity and individidual achievement— schools where the main rules were “Respect everyone” and “Do your best work”.
Some students achieve in spite of disadvantages, but it takes longer and its harder to travel up broken stairways than it does to use the elevator.
Senator Mary Landrieu, (Democrat) who is in a tight race in Louisiana stated last week that the South has not been kind to African-Americans or to women. Teaparty governor Bobby Jindal and other Republicans chastised her deeply. But she told the truth. The polling place in my black community was very crowded this morning.
As Senator Warren stated,” If you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu.” Both Afro-Americans and women have sound reasons to show up and vote.
To which some might reply, “If you don’t know who the mark is at the poker table, then it’s you.”