Saturday, April 14, 2001

Blacks And Education, And More Notes On Affirmative Action And Asians

It is a horrible idea to put lazy black students in the same class as nerds/geeks.  They were bullies.  They were violent.  They were always getting into fights.  Okay, fine, so the violence specifically, was mostly outside the classroom.

But inside the classroom, black kids still did not conduct themselves with much more decorum.  To be sure, fistfights broke out within the classroom only once in a rare while.  But that did not mean they were magical angelic little pristine angels.  They were rude, noisy, disruptive, disrespectful to the teacher.  The teacher had to stop teaching every five minutes to tell them to be quiet.  I know of what I speak.  I went to a middle school that had an incredibly sizable population of very low-class blacks.

Look, if they don't want to learn, then they don't want to learn.  Fine.  Stop wasting everyone's time.  Blacks, just leave the classroom.  Public School administrators, just usher the juvenile delinquent black kids out of the classroom and let the kids who actually do want to learn, to have their peace.

The teachers are absolutely exhausted.  They have to expend all their time and energy just on discipline alone.  This is effectively turning them into mere baby sitters.  They do not have any time left over to actually teach.

[[___ slowly deteriorating quality of public grade schools____]]]]

slowly dwindling [hopes ???] [[[[expectations]]]

Let it be noted that the nasty, apathetic, lazy attitude towards education described above is hardly limited to just black people.  I just read over this and I realize how terribly, horribly, disgustingly racist this sounds.

All throughout elementary school and middle school, there were also plenty of white kids that were bullies and aholes.  They are part and parcel of everything that is wrong with public education.  they teased and harassed the smart kids,
They were bullies that picked on nerds, sometimes physically and violently.

They did not want to be there, and we smart kids did not want them there.  The school and the kids' parents should have just done the logical thing and put those kids out of school.  Let them drop out of school and let them go ahead and start working in crap minimum wage jobs, which is the only thing they will ever be able to handle.  Don't waste the smart kids' or the teachers' valuable time.

Getting back to the subject of black kids in school.  The middle school I attended was about 25% black.  (They were mostly bullies and jerks much like the white kids described above.)  Out of all those black kids, there were maybe two or three who were serious about their education.  They were in advanced math and English classes, and they were enrolled in the AG program.  In high school, there were a few black kids, less than ten of them, who also were good students, were pleasant to be around, and they were serious about their futures.  They were enrolled in the advanced classes, they were in involved in several extracurricular activities.  The elementary schools I attended when my family moved to the South had similar demographics and similar performance from black kids.

This is why I cannot just walk around all happy-go-lucky like, "oh yeah, racism is totally gone and it's a thing of the past, we have achieved total equality now, there is no more racism, college admissions standards are like totally fair and unbiased; get rid of affirmative action and colleges will automatically start evaluating students on merit and skill and ability and potential; they'll magically behave even if we don't tell them to, like magic!!"  It's not that simple.  That's why I cannot just say, "oh suurree get rid of affirmative action because it's just not needed any more."

White people in this country are already born into privilege.  They have connections, they are more able to have ready admission and acceptance into quality colleges and academic programs.  White people already have tons of advantages.

Parents of white kids already went to college in this country.  Whereas my parents attended college in an entirely different country.

Minority students who are kids from immigrant families that came into this country, do not have the same already-familiar background that is comfortably snugly settled into this academic culture.  They have had to work from the ground up.  Their parents came to this country with no roots here.  Yet their kids work so hard to become excellent students and have earned a rightful, lawful spot in top-ranked universities and academic programs.

This is something that must be emphasized. Affirmative action is NOTTt about lowering the requirements for admission.  Colleges should still most certainly maintain their standards.  They should still check students' qualifications to ensure they will be able to keep up with the course work and rigorous demands.

That's why I don't think that if black people have horrible attitudes, they should still be allowed in.  I genuinely do have a good attitude.  I want to learn, I want to obtain an education, I want to prepare myself for the future.

Black people, the ones that do have good attitudes and do prioritize education, should be helped.  They should be supported in their academic and career endeavors.  Colleges and places of employment have this duty incumbent upon them.  Again, it's not about relaxing admission standards.

The few black kids who are good students should be encouraged to do their best.  The rest should not be the public school district's concern.

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