Although I was sober yesterday I wrote a convoluted paragraph about the way to teach children that mention private schools and public parks. What I mean to say is that (as a generality) all children benefit from the same ways of teaching. I don't believe that there's a way you teach kids who'd attend Choate that is profoundly different than the way you'd teach kids who'd attend any big city's public schools. What had infuriated me with the Old Ravitch and others is that too often education is talked and written about as if there are some evolutionary differences between white and black kids. Or, more to the point in Our America: there are intractable differences between White and Asian (i.e., honorary white -- and if you don't believe me read some California history) and Black and Hispanic and Native American children. The dirty little secret is that so many folks on all sides of the issue fear that it is innate and genetic. (We are all evolutionary biologists now.) Maybe, just maybe Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein were right after all.
I said it then and I'll say it now; I call bullshit on that. My bona fides: I'm black, which means that the percentage of African "blood" exceeds the percentage of European "blood" in me and my siblings. And it means that by choice (and so as not to be classified as barkin' mad) I self-identify as such. I'm middle class -- always have been, and sigh, unless the real estate market in NYC really goes crazy, always will be. I grew up taking standardized tests such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and never met a standardized test I didn't like. And I'm not unique. So, can we stop with all lot of the racialized "black and brown" this and "black and brown" that and start looking at how class affects education? Then let's talk.
These dispatches are about convincing myself to take Diane Ravitch seriously, since the positions she promulgated, defended and believed in were so obviously flawed. I -- bet I'm not alone in this -- have trouble taking apostates seriously. (And yes, Glen Loury and David Brock I'm talking about You!!)
To be continued.
Thank you so much for writing about this taboo topic!!! It is is a very important one that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, brainwashing works and it is prevalent in our educational system. We are stuck with the assumptions that the current system has put in place. Even my brightest students of color often feel as if they are not as "smart" as their white and asian counterpoints. As educators we know that this is not true, but the current culture is so embedded that it becomes the DNA that justifies the genetic myth.
ReplyDeleteHow do we turn that around? Perhaps if more of the truth were included in the curriculum our children would begin to know where they come from and understand that they are just as intelligent...what's the answer?