Biology is destiny.
Then how do you explain people like Condi Rice (I don’t agree with her on a lot of things but she is very smart) and Dr. Ben Carson? Why can’t all black students excel?
I would say that expectation is destiny. There are blacks who excel....you only have to look as far as Jeopardy last year, when black men won both the Tournament of Champions and Teenage Jeopardy.
Even though average IQ socres are lower for some ethnic and racial groups than they are for others, that in no way means they should be held to lower standards. A certain percentage of minority students will excel if expected to do so.
B.S. And exactly how many times do the parents of these disadvantaged pre-schoolers them to the library, read a story to them at bedtime, teach them the alphabet, how to print the alphabet and their name, recognize shapes and colors, how to spell simple words, etc. Most all museums and zoos have free or reduced rate times. Do they ever take their children?
Once a child starts school, how many parents sit down with their child every night and go over their homework, meet the teacher and observe in the classroom, hold the school accountable for the quality of instruction and instructors?
Until such time as parents accept responsibility for teaching their children and being involved in the educational process beginning at the time of their birth nothing will change.
The thing is, people perform about as well as their cohorts expect them to. And the expectations for persons of African descent have been set remarkably low, both by the white liberals and by other black “leaders”, like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. The popular image of entertainers and sports stars of African descent seems to be they can “be as bad as they wanna be”, and there is no negative consequence for them.
But the soft racism of low expectations is no excuse for the slovenly behavior and seething rage that seems to engage an extraordinarily wide swath of these Americans of African descent. Decency and critical thinking are by no means genetic characteristics, yet they seem in short supply when dealing with the wider world, beyond their own thresholds.
There are good, decent and highly patriotic Americans of African descent, and some of them even take a principled position in support of the standards called for by the T.E.A. party organizations, and understand the real meaning of what the NRA preaches in terms of personal self-defense.
Regrettably, there are far too few of these good upstanding Americans among the black community, and many of the rest do not even seriously consider themselves to be “Americans”, but some wandering tribe dumped against their will in a foreign and hostile land. They have never left the plantation, even when the chains were struck off and the doors were opened. They do not know, nor shall they attempt to learn of, all that is America once had to offer.
But of course, Michelle is at last proud to be a resident of that territory once known as “the United States of America”. She doesn’t know, but she never has lived in that idyllic land. Never allowed herself to, that is for sure.
Look at the study habits of Jews, Asians, Whites, and Blacks and you will find a better correlation of intellectual achievement.
You are absolutely correct. But so many just don't want to face reality. Too painful, I guess.
Culture.
No, it is not. Given similar family situations, white kids will do just as poorly in school as minority kids.
I believe the single most important thing, from birth, up to middle school, is a parent or family member who will READ to a child. In this day and age, where every school has a library, and every town has a public library, there is no reason for a child not to have some book or another to read, or which can be read to him.
When a child is a good reader, the world opens up, and anyone can be self-taught, if the culture around him values intelligence and education, and not necessarily that which occurs within a school building.
If this is the case then we don't need political forums like Free Republic. Biology predestines us to be either sensible conservatives or liberal moonbats. No point arguing about it.