Mandatory Victimhood --- and when cleaning up a school is 'racist'

Tolerance for misbehavior -- especially by loud, unruly black students -- will doom Muir High School's attempts to raise test scores, wrote a white teacher to colleagues at the Pasadena school.

The problem isn't teachers or curriculum, wrote Scott Phelps. It's students who don't care about learning and make it hard for teachers to reach students who do care. Not surprisingly, Phelps was called a racist. Surprisingly, some people are actually talking about culture and classroom success. Many blacks "felt an odd sort of gratitude," Los Angeles Timesreports.

At a neighborhood meeting about the letter, Kitty McKnight, a former teacher, exploded after a district official suggested that the solution to Muir's discipline problems was more tolerance and commitment from teachers.

"I cannot sit and listen to this!" she shouted, rising from her seat. "Our boys are out of control."

Of course, there are many who make excuses for disruptive students. Like Assistant Superintendent George McKenna:

"Some of these kids deserve credit just for showing up" at school, given their chaotic home lives and troubled neighborhoods.

Credit for showing up and disrupting the school? I don't think so. The kids deserve a safe and orderly school staffed by people who believe they're capable of being serious students.

The Times quotes a mother, once kicked out of Muir, who went on to earn two masters' degrees.

Now she's an educational consultant and the mother of two boys who have generated more than their share of calls from Muir for fighting or mouthing off in class. Her boys are smart, but they are also boisterous and occasionally unruly, just as their mother was, she said.

"But that's no reason to give up on them," she added. "I know that teachers are frustrated, but every child is not going to fit the 'perfect student' mold."

Teachers say they're not asking for perfect students. They would settle for teenagers who don't saunter into class 30 minutes late, interrupt a test with a request to borrow lip gloss, or curse them out in the middle of a lesson.

They'd also like parents to make their children's school success a priority. Like the education consultant who's raised her sons to fight in school and mouth off in class.

Phelps should have focused on students' behavior, not their race. But his basic point holds: A good school sets and enforces standards of behavior for all students. No excuses.

I'm writing a book about Downtown College Prep, a San Jose charter high school that's trying to prepare low-achieving Hispanic students for college. The founders believe in "culture before curriculum," and they're not talking about Cinco de Mayo. They mean that the school culture must value hard work, educational achievement and respect for others: Ganas, orgullo, communidad. Get the culture right, and then teaching and curriculum can make a difference.

Many of DCP students come from low-income families, troubled neighborhoods, the whole nine yards. They're not perfect students, but they learn pretty quickly that fighting and mouthing off aren't tolerated. Nobody gets credit just for showing up.

Why are middle-class black students lagging In an upcoming book on black students in affluent Shaker Heights, Ohio, anthropologist John Ogbu blames black ghetto culture — and middle-class parents who let rappers be their children's role models. Ogbu talked to the New York Times:

"They are looking at rappers in ghettos as their role models, they are looking at entertainers. The parents work two jobs, three jobs, to give their children everything, but they are not guiding their children."

For example, he said that middle-class black parents in general spent no more time on homework or tracking their children's schooling than poor white parents.

There is a new study that finds no difference between white, black and Hispanic students in what they say they feel about education. But their actions don't support their words.

Ogbu's "acting white" thesis rings true to me, though I'd also blame low expectations by principals and teachers.

Look at this Salon article, which sneers at National Security Advisor Condi Rice because, among other things, Rice invariably speaks standard English, like her educated parents.

Bilingual dreams All California students will be proficient in two languages by graduation, according to a proposed addition to the state's master plan for education. English is a second language for one in four California students. The Sacramento Bee reports:

The new master plan proposal focuses on performance, not years of instruction. Every student would begin instruction in a foreign language in early elementary grades and be expected to speak and read it fluently by the end of 12th grade.

Sure, it would be nice if all students were competent in two languages. But first we've got to make sure they all master one language -- English -- by 12th grade.

If a student wants to work in a University of Michigan dorm as a residence hall associate, she's got to pass a class called Social Psychology in Community Settings, which is supposed to "enhance each student's ability to analyze ... differences and commonalties among cultural groups and group foundations of justice and injustice." And if she wants to pass, she'd better claim to be a victim of oppression, says a student on No Indoctrination.org.

...We had to go around and talk about at least one way in which we have been/are oppressed. When my turn came up, and I answered that I have never been oppressed, the instructor corrected me, saying that I must have been, as I'm female. I persisted, saying that being female has never been anything short of a blessing for me. The instructor was relentless, insisting that I was necessarily oppressed at one point in my life.

The instructor asked to speak with me after class. He was visibly shaken and angry. He told me that my classroom behavior was disruptive in the least (although I was never voluntarily disagreeing), and that I would be kicked out of class and would thereby lose my job and my housing for the next year unless I learned to be more cooperative.

As Erin O'Connor points out, the student now has a legitimate claim to oppression: She's been coerced by a male instructor into "accepting his understanding of her own experience." That's gender discrimination!

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

One of these days they'll wake up. This isn't confined to any one school district but, the large majority of this behavior sure is pretty much confined to certain groups.

This disrespect for authority is not a taught behavior it is a learned one.

To these groups I say this.

Be careful parents one day you'll look at your child and see your self.

Thanks for the post - informative and challenging situation, eh?

My wife taught 3-4-5th grade for 35 years, the last 13 in a barrio school. My daughter is in her 4th year of teaching high school English and the AVID program in a suburban LA school. Their experiences are similar to what this teacher talks about in Pasadena.

The disruption, verbal abuse and physical threats (even from 4-5th graders) drove my wife to retire. There were always 3-5 boys (and an occasional girl) in her class that routinely disrupted learning to the detriment of every student in the class.

My daughter says that half of the kids want to learn and most of them try, but the other half goof off and don't try. It's a real pity.

My view is that it is the students behavior, their attitude toward authority and education, and the lack of parental control that is the real problem. A secondary problem is the accommodation and enabling by the school administration to avoid solving the problem.

What should be done? Have goal-setting and teamworking courses for the first days of each school year. Require a signed contract from each student and parent agreeing to the rules and to the mutually agreed goals.

Have an intolerance for disruption and violence in the school. When necessary, separate the cooperative kids from the disruptive. When disruption occurs routinely in a classroom, videotape (web-cams) the class for a week. Then bring all of the parents in (without the kids) and show them the videotape, and challenge them to deal with their kids. Remove all extra-curricular activities - sports, drama, etc from the disruptive students. Recognize only the kids who work toward their goals and succeed in them.

Maybe school should be treated more like a job. Pay kids who are cooperative and successful. Withhold payment from the ones who are disruptive. Make 10% of the per student grants from the state to the school part of this incentive program - and give the withheld money to the teacher who had to suffer the disruption. That would put the teacher in charge. My view is that the cost of education would go down since more kids would be working for the incentive, and more learning would occur.

Alas, the teachers union and district folks would never go for something like that.

Of course, there are many who make excuses for disruptive students. Like Assistant Superintendent George McKenna:

"Some of these kids deserve credit just for showing up" at school, given their chaotic home lives and troubled neighborhoods.

Spoken like a true burocrat. Make her spend 90 days...90 days? H-- 30 days! day-in-and-day-out down there in the trenchs and she'll be whistling a different tune PDQ.

========================

The Times quotes a mother, once kicked out of Muir, who went on to earn two masters' degrees.

First of all, what on earth is an "educational consultant"?? Second of all, she has two masters' degrees. Fine. In what? She also has two boys, whom she describes as "boisterous and occasionally unruly", yet no mention of the boys' father(s). And finially why does, and how could, an educated woman, with two masters' degrees, allow her sons to become like this? Especially when she knows first hand what it is like to be expelled from school.

======================

Why are middle-class black students lagging...For example, he said that middle-class black parents in general spent no more time on homework or tracking their children's schooling than poor white parents.

Apples and oranges. One set is middle class, and one set is lower class. Which only goes to prove that there is a big difference between having no money and being poor.

========================

Ogbu's "acting white" thesis rings true to me, though I'd also blame low expectations by principals and teachers.

I guess with a liberal that attitude is called "compassion". But with anybody else it's just plain racism.

Some kids decide to take advantage of education, and some don't. But if you mix members of the latter group in with those of the former, the otherwise high-achievers are downside-sticky, like velcro; they can be brought down. Meanwhile, the thugs are not generally upside sticky; it takes a miracle to pull them up.

That's sad, but there really is a very easy solution for this, you know, and it's the same solution they use in Japan:

You conduct a high-school entrance examination at the end of middle-school.

Those who have long since decided that Tupac and Biggie make good role models get their wish: they can drive trucks or catch a round in the chest. Why not? We need truck-drivers.

Meanwhile, those who strive for something higher can concentrate on their homework and substantive studies.

It's very simple, actually. This way helps everyone.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.