Shes absolutely right. I had to give similar people talks to my students. But it’s not that simple. There’s a bunch of issues here that need to be unpacked.
1.) Integration vs. segregation-People dont understand the purpose of the ON-GOING fight for integration. I say on-going because schools are still primarily segregated today.
But the purpose wasn’t to teach blk kids alongside white kids as if their magical knowledge acquisition skills would somehow rub off on the po blk kids.
Integration was tied to the flawed lie of “separate but equal” where whites were trolling blks with the idea that they could keep blk kids in dilapidated schools, with no resources, poor funding, no resources, and outdated learning materials and then compare the progress of those kids to white kids attending state-of-the-art schools.
So integration was supposed to provide blk students with the same educational opportunities as affluent white kids through proximity. This was never fully realized because racists changed zoning laws to ensure schools remained segregated and impoverished....AND we lost the wealth of black instructors and culturally responsive instructional and behavioral practices our students benefitted from receiving when they were segregated communities.
2.) On top of all that shyt, the approach to education in America changed for all students. We shifted from the provision of authentic educational experiences to “teaching to the test”. That’s the issue this teacher is conveying. This shift towards an overemphasis on testing is due to several decades of conservative policy maker dikk sucking of big business interests, specifically the testing industry. They earn billions of dollars per year for standardized testing. And the materials marketed to “help” kids pass the tests. Because Bush passed NCLB act that tied federal funding to school performance on these tests, and that trickled down in many cases to teachers being fired if students didn’t pass these tests...now you have educational environments where students do not receive any real education or learning. It’s just worksheets, testing, lectures, no movement, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
This shift has been negatively impacting ALL American students. But any downward trends that affect regular Americans, hit blks disproportionately because we already don’t have the resources and infrastructures to cushion our kids from these issues like white and Asian parents do. They will send their kids to private schools or pay for expensive tutors to make up for the shytty educational system. Economically we don’t have those same opportunities. Also we aren’t just battling bad schools. We are also battling racist schools.
3.) The Tests...
Believe it or not, our students can actually read in many cases. But they are tired of testing and rebel by saying “fukk you” to the assessments...which are horrible in quality. There’s entire research departments dedicated to assessment evaluation and they’ve found that the assessments aren’t even aligned with state or federal standards. So, teachers are mandated to teach one thing....and the kids are tested on something else.
Becky and Mei King’s private tutors will help them make sense of these discrepancies but, Deshawn and Shaniqua is too busy getting suspended for breathing hard by racist teachers, much less being tutored privately. And Becky and Mei Ling will only be tested a handful of times in their private schools. Our kids will receive an average of 16 tests per year, per subject at the behest of McGraw-hill and friends they lobbied in Washington.
So by the time our babies get to their 18th reading exam, when they spent 157 out of 180 days getting yelled at, lectured to, being bored out of their minds, and tested to death...THEY DONE.
I had students who’d write “fukk you” on reading exams and then pull out the NOVELS they were really interested in.
Soooooo solutions: it’s simple. Raise teacher pay and benefits to make it attractive to black teachers so more will enter the profession. Hire more black teachers. Train ALL teachers/administrators in culturally responsive instruction, content and behavior management. Stop testing so damn much. A beginning exam, mid-year exam and final exam in reading and math is ENOUGH! Return to school being a place of holistic learning instead of testing factories. Fund black schools equally.
Get these things done and it won’t matter who sends their kids to school, they’ll fall in line. Otherwise, even kids from the best families will still be in danger of falling by the wayside.
I have studies to back up everything I said. And if this post is too long...fukk you. You need to read more anyway, you anti-intellectual, illiterate lil bytch.
Oh...also consider how reading instruction has changed as well. From emphasizing phonemic awareness through understanding Latin roots...to having kids memorize sight words....but that’s another debate.
55 percent of the black race was below the poverty line at the beginning of the 1960s
