Girls are doing better than boys in school. They are getting higher GPAs and standardized test scores, graduating at higher rates, attending college at higher rates, and less likely to get diagnosed with learning disabilities or cited with discipline problems. THEREFORE: Schools are discriminating against boys, right? It can't possibly be true that boys just aren't getting the job done, and that they collectively need to do a better job. Right? Clearly teachers are DISCRIMINATING, and universities need to create AFFIRMATIVE ACTION programs available only to boys, to get their numbers up. Right?
Afterall, these same FACTS charactorize black students compared to whites. (But wait! They also charactorize white students compare to Asian...)
2006-01-27
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There are differences between the overall lack of achievement by boys vs. the same for blacks.
For one thing boys don't receive lower amounts of funding for their education as compared to girls.
They get the same books, the same teachers, the same facilities.
Level the playing field for all students. Provide equal funding for all schools regardless of neighborhood, race or social class. That's a start. Then we'll see how things change.
Until then, your arguments are lost on me.
What about the very clear studies of black students in the Cleveland subburb of Shaker Heights, at a high school that is about half black and white, where the average family incomes, divorce rates, and parent education levels are statistically identical between the races. A black African social researcher compiled data on elective course curriculla, GPAs, and SAT scores.
The results: the black students at much higher rates elected out of AP classes, had lower GPAs, and lower SAT scores. Black and white students who took the same classes had nearly the same GPAs and test scores. In other words, the black students disproportionately chose not to take AP classes, but the ones who did take the AP classes did as well as the honkies, even on the SAT.
And what about the Washington, DC public school district, which has the highest per-student expendature of any public school system in the nation?
As for boys, are you willing to consider the possibility that boys on average are just making poorer overall choices? If so, might it also be possible that Asian students on average are simply making better choice than whites?
Just wondering. My "African-American" 20-year-old daughter is doing horrible in college. Stupid, easy major, and poor grades. She's had more financial resources than me, Tom, sister Sara, and probably you and Akanke. Her maternal grandma pays her rent and bills, I purchased her a car. But she *CHOSE* to take a silly major, and she *CHOOSES* not to assert herself scholastically. Her resulting poor grades and low income will get counted in the statistics that you will interpret to demonstrate racial bias in the US.
I have asked her to give me examples of white people mistreating her due to her racial catagory. Such discussions over my lifetime are amoung the reasons that have resulted in me eventually adopting the view that I now hold on these matters.
I cannot resist tossing into this discussion one of our Ben Carson families. A two-parent family, both college grads, living in a mansion in West Bloomfield. Two children. The eldest daughter is about 25. She graduated from West Bloomfield High. She is an absolute total bum. By bum I mean that she can't even earn enough money to care for herself. She lives at home doing *NOTHING*. I don't mean that she's a devoted college student living at home. She gets tossed out for drug use every few months. Her brother was one of our most hard-headed students. He graduates this year from West Bloomfield High. The family expects him also to be a bum.
What explains their poor outcomes? Racism? Or their poor outcomes? Their parents are doing fabulously.
OK, a final point. My daughter child, Alexis. 4.0 GPA. Did she overcome racism to achieve these grades? Or did she simply overcome the rigors of math, science, literature, history, and music?
Let me go before I add 100 more examples of hard-working blacks (my daughter 2, Andrew, Monifa, Ray Ray) succeeding, and lazy blacks (my daughter 1, Andrew's sister, Monifa's brother, Ray Ray's brother) achieving nothing. Hey, blacks are just like Asians and honkeys in 2006 USA! No wonder they keep immigrating *TO* here, and never migrate *FROM* here!
Andrew's family: very poor Georgia share croppers. Andrew worked hard in school and is now wealthy; his sister never asserted herself, and in Andrew's view, now a pathetic bum.
Ray Ray's family: poor Newark ghetto. He worked hard and is even richer than Andrew; brother did not work hard and is now a bum.
Monfa's family: middle class Detroit two-parent, college-educated parents. She worked hard, and combines with Andrew for annual income over $200,000 including their rental properties; brother goofed around after high school and just got out of prison for selling dope.
On and on and on.
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