News-Record.com

OMG .. a decent idea ..

Put Mr. Wynn in charge of the school board. He has more sense than all of them combined. Interestingly, right now, the district is filtering-out teaching applicants that answer questions wrong on the screening test, regardless of their credentials. If they answer that parents must be involved in the education of the students, they are not hired. They must believe that the schools are the only answer. I kid you not. Why do you think that is so?

Mr. Wynn,
You are absolutely correct in your analysis of the
"achievement gap" - it is a cultural problem, not an instructional or institutional problem. (Bill Cosby has been saying the same thing for years). Until individual
African American families and students realize that
"hip-hop" culture just isn't cutting it in a world of global competition, China, India and Japan will be happy to
eat our lunch for us..

I'm affraid this doesn't fit the normal pattern.
Which has become to "lower the standard if the test prove to hard for some to pass."
This will make the teachers appear to be better at what they do for a living. It counts for little if the children leave school as idiots.
The teachers union can then brag about how many they graduate each pay cycle, demanding a bigger pay raise.

Mr. Wynn, I agree with the general premise of your letter, especially the last two paragraphs. If the abysmal state of: education, violence and out of wedlock births can't serve as a catalyst for this "cultural overhaul" that you are asking for, I can't imagine what will. You are asking for the African American community to have a love for something that was kept from them for a long time. And when it was given to them, it was given to them grudgingly. What do you suggest to bring on this watershed moment?

Shouldn't the fact that blacks had to fight so hard for educational rights make education that much MORE precious to them? That's what I don't understand. Shouldn't parents be saying to their kids "People were attacked with fire hoses and police dogs so you could go to school--now do your homework!"? I'm sure many families do, but there are obviously some who don't.

I was never a victim of segregation, but I do know that, as someone who got through college with barely enough money for food sometimes, I valued my education more than those who did NOT have to work for it and were having a four year party with daddy's money!

Ghost from White Oak, you have no idea what you are talking about. North Carolina has no teachers' union and for the past several years, the test standards have been rising.

As a former teacher, I can offer an opinion based on PERSONAL experience. The LTE is right on the money! The opportunity is there for the taking. The black males mentioned in the study do not achieve because they don't TRY to achieve! The old adage applies: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can put a student in a classroom (even the very best state-of-the-art with a top teacher), but you can't make him/her learn.

Yes, Bill Cosby has been saying all this for years, and the black community by and large laughs at him. Until the black community changes its views and black parents (note, I said parentS - meaning a mother and a father) demand their kids apply themselves, the achievement gap will remain.

Personally, I'd love to see neighborhood schools put back into play. Staff the schools in the low achievement level areas with top-notch teachers. Fund these schools with extra money to provide hands-on learning tools, extra programs, tutors, etc. to create an interesting and fun learning environment. Also, by having schools closeby, parents could take a more active part in the school. (I can remember PTA meetings where we would have no parents because they lived across town and had no transportation to the school.) Neighborhood schools would reduce busing, hence saving money that could be used to EDUCATE rather than transport. It would be ideal if, in nice weather, unemployed parents could walk with their child to and from school, using the time for both exercise and sharing.

"Yes, Bill Cosby has been saying all this for years, and the black community by and large laughs at him." The black community does not laugh at Dr. Cosby. It's just hard for the admonitions of a 70 yr old man to register with his target audience. Also, one of Cosby's most vocal critics is a PhD who should know the value of Cosby's message. But, the critic tags Cosby with the "elitist" tag.

"Personally, I'd love to see neighborhood schools put back into play..." Isn't "neighborhood school" just a return to the days of segregation?

Conundrum: Isn't "neighborhood school" just a return to the days of segregation?

No. The "days of segregation" was assignment to schools based on race. Desegregation, the original understanding of the Brown decision, is the elimination of race as a criteria for assigning students to schools.

Nonetheless, people do tend self-segregate of their own free will --- into neighborhoods with people like themselves.

Whether it is government's job to break up those neighborhoods to achieve proportional representation by ethnicity or to sort children with that same objective in mind is, of course, a contentious issue.

Conservatives would argue that freedom of association is a bedrock American principle. Liberals would argue that for the greater good of society schools and --- if they could get away with it --- neighborhoods ought to be engineered by the state to produce maximum racial and economic diversity.

It's just these sorts of philosophical differences between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, that make politics so contentious in America --- and so interesting.

Will an Obama presidency bring a fresh new wave of liberal social engineering via liberal appointees to the federal cours?

Will a John McCain presidency result in the kind reach-across-the-aisle policies that have made him such a darling of the news media --- or will there be enough Republicans in Congress to restrain his tendency to seek to the love and affection of the liberal media ?

Who knows?

MemberName,

You are technically correct. North Carolina teachers can not unionize, but they do have the North Carolina Association of Educators, which acts in every respect as a union with one exception. Teachers do not have collective bargaining.rights. But, they do have an "association" that is very involved in political activism. Of course, like all unions, the NCAE is in the Democrat camp. In April, they endorsed Bev Perdue, Kay Hagan, and John Edwards, among many other Democrat candidates.

"This is a watershed year for North Carolina and the nation," said NCAE Vice President Sheri Strickland. "The message of 'change' in politics has resonated
with citizens around the country. And we believe they are also looking for leaders who will assure great schools and an improved quality of life. NCAE,
and its local affiliates across the state, have identified those individuals who offer the best hope to lead us toward a strong, vibrant economy driven by a strong system of public education."

Change, huh? Where have I heard that one lately?

When you consider that African immigrants are the most educated segment of our population (even more than Asians, so much for stereotypes), you realize it really is about culture. This fusion of 'black excuses' (from the community)and 'white guilt' (from the school board), will destroy a whole generation of children

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