Posted on 03/23/2008 6:31:48 PM PDT by river rat
Latinos’ Education Failure is Their Own Fault!
Latinos score lower than whites on tests and drop-out of school more often and it is largely their fault!!!! The same goes for Black American youth! Wow!!! That was risky. One can get fired for saying such things. So to cover my buns let me just clarify that nothing in this paragraph had anything to do with race. Culture, not I.Q. or innate ability, explains this discrepancy. And if you really want to minimize the achievement gap between Latinos, Asians, Whites and Blacks, you should read on.
Fifth graders in Taipei, Taiwan spend an average of 13 hours a week on homework; their counterparts in Minneapolis spend slightly more than four hours a week on homework. In Asian cultures not having completed one's homework normally results in shame. Completing your homework is positively associated with academic success. Cultural differences provide a complete and satisfactory explanation as to why students in Asian countries do better at math.
The concept that racism plays any part in the achievement gap comes from the twisted logic of education professionals. As much as anything, their thought patterns create the disparity. Educators' fealty to multiculturalism makes us unable to do anything but praise cultural diversity. Yet, at heart, these multicultural educators take cultural diversity to be very shallow. They cannot imagine that it could be so important as to impact something as fundamental as study habits or the love of education. After discounting culture as a factor, the educators correctly discount innate ability as a factor. And from here on the errors of their assumptions lead to more and more destructive conclusions.
After discounting culture and race as possible sources of the achievement gap, the education professionals still have to find a culprit. Their solution? Institutional racism. This means that the achievement gap becomes proof of schools being racist. The other cause cited is poverty. But since this cannot have anything to do with culture or race, this explanation becomes proof that society is racist.
Teaching the youth of your country that your society is unjust and racist is something no culture that wanted to survive would ever do. Beyond endangering our society, though, it fosters anti-social behavior in youth. Would you work to fit into a racist society in which you have no hope of success? This attitude pervading the education environment largely explains why so many Black American youth consider studying to be "acting white" and giving in to "the man."
To help, we need to be willing to take a culturist point of view, to consider that culture might in fact be able to impact achievement. Such an explanation would reinstate the vital connection between merit and achievement. Culturist interpretations of the achievement gap can prompt cultures to take a good hard look at themselves. Meetings and community based solutions - such as tutoring centers - could then be discussed as solutions. The culturist perspective has the merit of better reflecting reality than saying schools are racist against Latinos and Blacks, but not Asians and Whites. Beyond this, it is much more likely to motivate students and close the achievement gap than calling schools and society racist.
John Press is an adjunct professor at New York University.
AND building the stinking fence. Gotta stop the flood before you start to use the buckets.
AND again we see that there will be absolutely no difference in the way MCDole or Obama/hilltlery deal with this.
All schools, 100% of them 100% of the time should teach in ENGLISH only -- except of course in "Foreign Language Studies"..
"Who should be teaching children how to behave, and respect teachers?
NOT the schools or the teachers... Send the little bastards home, and see how long it takes for mommy to kick their asses into gear to get them out of her hair and back into school.
"A lot of people can’t home school or afford private schools."
Then those parents should have NO complaint meeting the minimal requirements to keep their kids in PUBLIC schools..
Discipline, Attention, Do the class work, do the homework - or stay the hell home with mommy.
It REALLY is as simple as that..
That was the way they ran the schools I went to.
“...if you haven’t learned to read or to speak English.”
I’ll have to reread this to see what I missed. The biggest problem with Hispanic kids isn’t not knowing how to speak English. Most Hispanic kids who are born here do speak English. How well they speak and write English is another matter. I live in an area that is 85 percent Hispanic, and out of the thousands of kids in the school district, there are probably fewer than fifty who don’t speak English. ...Anyhow, I’m not arguing the English point. Do away with bilingual education, and make classes English only, like they used to be. I will stick to my premise that the big problem with our educational system is that parents have quit taking responsibility for their kid’s education.
“Then those parents should have NO complaint meeting the minimal requirements to keep their kids in PUBLIC schools..
Discipline, Attention, Do the class work, do the homework - or stay the hell home with mommy.”
Reread what I’m saying. I don’t think we have an argument here. If parents do their part, kids will learn.
I knew we were on the same page — we just pronounce the words with more or less “force”....
But I still think I hold the schools, their unions and their boards more responsible for the failures that you do.
*Latinos’ Education Failure is Their Own Fault!*
Living in San Diego, the title of the article is more correct than you know.
They are costing the S.D. school dists. which is the second largest in Calif. tens of millions of dollars.
The various dists. in the county that have a large Mexican pop. are the worst.
Most drop out early in high school. Also it is a myth that most native born speak English. Not uncommon for three generations to not speak English.
I’m Hispanic but my family isn’t stuck in an anti-education, work-before-school mentality. I’m on my way to be a mathematician, my brother is an endodontist, my other brother is an electronics engineer with an MBA, another is a avionics engineer, and still another is a private detective. And yes my parents were both born in Mexico and came over legally in 1950.
I know.... I’ve friends who were forced to leave the area for that very reason.
The schools and neighborhood were becoming too much like Tijuana.
Obviously - you and your family ASSIMILATED...
Obviously - you and your family took full advantage of the opportunity to SUCCEED..
I didn’t interpret the article to damn all immigrants, but to point out that too many failing immigrants allow their “culture” to stand between them and that which is POSSIBLE in America..
I’m a first generation American myself....and the first on either side of my family to get an education past the 8th grade!
I live in the heart of the city and don’t have that problem other areas have.
In general - which parts of SD have been most negatively effected?
South Bay, East S.D., N. Cen. part of county
Some other parts in general.
With San Diego county the size of the state of Connecticut
there are still large areas free of the third world type.
I live near downtown and enjoy the area.
Then is sounds like North Island/Coronado, North Harbor and Miramar as still in American hands?
How about the Gaslamp Quarter around Broadway and 6th Ave?
How about the Gaslamp Quarter around Broadway and 6th Ave?
Gaslamp area is upscale restaurants, many high rise condo bldgs at multi millions a unit, high rise hotels.
The Hillcrest, Bankershill, downtown, Point Loma,
Beach area, Coronado, La Jolla and basic core area is
upscale. The basic coastal area is great. The area where Marimar Marine air base and the suburbs around it are great.
My neighborhood has condos from 800,000 to over 4 million a unit. A new 43 story condo bldg just finished tops at 12 million a unit.
bookmark and thanks
Well, it sounds like all the important core areas are still in American hands!
Thanks..
I really need to get back down there.
Lots of VERY fond memories from decades ago.
No, I know you didn’t interpret the article that way either. I was just pointing out how I felt toward immigrants who refuse to assimilate and instead dwell in the kind of subculture that dooms them to a cycle of poverty. Many Hispanics here in L.A. are compelled to never rise above their class, which is funny because in Mexico, status is everything. If you are a doctor or an engineer, everyone respects you. It’s a bit odd to me how when many come here, many (not all) fail to take advantage and progress.
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