Some time ago when we had liberal radio talk shows, the surviving dean of talk shows, Michael Jackson (30 years at KABC) was interviewing a black leader. He was a sensible one and the interview was good.
On the subject of an easier track for blacks, Michael said: "Is it true that if a white mother carried her infant into a hospital and two doctors approached - one black and one white - she would hand her baby to the white doctor?"
The black guest replied: "If a black mother carried in her baby she would hand it to the white doctor."
This was the prevailing feeling that if a special deal was made for blacks, we would get rather less than the best in positions that the whites had to sweat for.
Also, when a token black is brought in politically, it is quite likely that he won't be the best - which will prove to the whites that blacks can't cut it.
A Georgist friend of mine who worked in the Naval Labs at Vallejo - north of San Francisco - on his way in from Berkeley would pick up a token black lady every morning - bringing her back at night.
She had nothing tasks to do and eventually she protested, insisting she should be allowed to work the computers (big corporate types). The executives were in a quandary. They couldn't let her touch the serious stuff, yet she would hit them with "discrimination" if they didn't do something. So, they worked out an unimportant "computer job" for her that kept her quiet.
Now, if they were offered a black kid computer specialist with good marks from college - they would wonder whether the marks were his, or a bureaucratic contrivance, and would prefer not to hire.
Most teachers are American liberals and I remember talking to an active type at a junior high school about the bussing of blacks from East Los Angeles to her school in the San Fernando Valley.
She told me she had never been nervous at school. With the input of black kids, she was actually frightened at times.
I don't blame the black kids. They had been ripped from their neighborhoods and dropped among white kids, with whom they had little in common. (It is usual in "diversified" schools that during breaks and suchlike, the blacks gather in one place, the Hispanics form their own groups - as do the whites.)
There is little or none of the diversity so beloved 0f the educational theorists.
During the bussing there was one part that stood out. This was not compulsory bussing but voluntary bussing. The parents were part of the system and made sure their kids were dropped off and picked up after school. They supported their kids and the schools they went to.
This was successful.
So bussing was cut. The union, whose main focus is not to teach children, but to get higher pay for less work, made sure that the successful voluntary bussing was the first to go.
The educational system seems to be in the business of warehousing kids rather than teaching them. Ending compulsory education would be a way of reaching excellence in teaching. The stock answer (from the unions) to that suggestion is that kids wouldn't come to school. They would cause trouble out on the streets.
So it is confirmed that the schools are a way of baby sitting potential offenders. But putting kids who could care less in classrooms diminishes the attention that can be paid to students who want to learn. I have seen various figures, but it seems that often a quarter of a teachers time is spent on discipline.
Some schools segregate the delinquents and waste the time of a good teacher baby sitting them.
I was walking the corridors of an Orange County school with a teacher friend who had been assigned the "H Group". We met the Principal who said: "Janet, you are doing a great job with the H Group."
Janet said: "He's never been near the class. What he means is that there's been no trouble from them. That means a I've done a great job."
More teacher time is spent on trying to get the recalcitrants to do their assignments. Teachers have told me they would fail 75% of their classes if they could, but this doesn't look good for their careers. Also, pressure comes from above to pass them anyway. The Principal doesn't look good if a large percentage of his students are failing.
A friend of mine has stopped pursuing his PhD and is teaching at junior college. His students would mostly fail so he asked the Principal what to do. The Principal told him how to produce more successes - marking on attempts rather than performance.
So, if we end compulsion we'll get fewer black kids into grade and high schools, but the ones who are there will want to learn and they will have the backing of their parents.
That's the way to get good black kids on the ladder to success.
(Incidentally, I would suspect that most black kids would go to school anyway, because their parents would insist. So, if the teacher said 'he's not working, so I'm dropping him' - the parents had better do something or he'll be their responsibility.)
Harry
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Bill wrote:
Harry,
I agree we need a fair playing field. I have found that accepting an African American into grad school with a GRE score 200 points lower predicts equal quality once in school. One school I taught at always had the files of legacies [not many Blacks, Native Americans, nor Hispanics there] marked so that admissions committees wouldn't forget.
How would you like to have Dr. Bakke be your friendly physician?
Bill
**************************************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: (818) 352-4141 -- Fax: (818) 353-2242 http://home.attbi.com/~haledward ****************************************************
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