Really fixing a problem
Hopefully we're almost near the end of the noise over the SCOTUS decision on affirmative action for a few weeks. I know it's not the overall end; never mind that the court has effectively put a 25 year limit on the practice, never mind that its opponents have essentially won (Shelby Steele's rant makes it clear that he and Clarence Thomas are so deep in bed together they should be happier about the striking down of sodomy laws than gay folks are). It's truly troubling how people who rail against European anti-Semitism, a truly worthy position, have little to nothing to say about the American equivalent—anti-Black racism.
Twenty-five years only sounds like a long time. When you're talking about a multigenerational problem, a 400 year old problem, it's merely the twinkling of an eye. Time to get on it. Well past time.
The other day I quoted Zenpundit who stated a simple truth: to eliminate educational disparities between the races will take nothing less than a comprehensive K12 effort. And he gave a link to Project Excite, run by Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development.
WHAT IS PROJECT EXCITE?
It is a research project designed to increase the number of minority students in the accelerated track of the Elementary School District 65 and in honors and advanced classes at Evanston Township High School. It is the result of the collaboration between the School of Education of Northwestern University through its Center for Talent Development, the Evanston Township High School, and the Elementary School District 65. It is a seven-year program that begins with third graders from four local elementary schools, namely Lincoln School, Lincolnwood School, Orrington School, and Timber Ridge Magnet School.
This is an interesting idea. I rooted around a bit, even found some resources I intend to forward to a home-schooling friend of mine. It is the sort of program that, widely implemented, can make a significant dent in the problem.
IDENTIFICATION AND SELECTION OF MINORITY STUDENTS
Minority students who participate in the EXCITE Project are selected on the basis of teachers� recommendations and their excellent performance on the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test. The identification process begins in the second grade. Second grade teachers are asked to fill out an evaluation sheet on each one of the minority students in their classes. These preliminary evaluations are then used by the coordinators of the EXCITE Project to draw up a list of potential candidates who are asked to take the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test at the start of the third grade. The results of the two evaluation tools are finally used to select the students for the EXCITE Project.
The
Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, being non-verbal, is specifically designed to test problem solving ability in a way that gets around language and socialization problems. In fact, it gets around physical disability issues as well. There seems to be a significant body of evidence that this test is a fair indicator of problem solving ability across cultural boundaries. And the EXCITE Project site gives me the feeling this is a well planned effort.
In the real world, however, I'm afraid it's going to come up short.
Why?
WHAT STUDENTS ARE CONSIDERED MINORITY STUDENTS?
Only students from minority groups that are traditionally under-represented in the scientific community are accepted in the program. This means that only African-Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic students can participate in the EXCITE Project.
This is not the sort of thing the SCOTUS will approve of, yet it's exactly what is needed to address the education gap. If this program became wide-spread, it will be called racial preferences and either opposed or thinned out by an insistance on the (in my opinion) inappropriate application of the 14th amendment. I say it's inappropriate because the amendment and the several civil rights bills that have been passed since were created to combat specific ills. They were created to protect the children of Africa, and to aid them in joining a society that violently opposed their inclusion. Yet the major use of these laws nowadays has been to protect the turf of the mainstream… how else can you explain their use to exclude Asians? How else can you explain their use to oppose the very programs whose creation they enabled?
How could this be?
Well, years ago I used to watch a distance learning channel on my local cable networks at odd times. One particular show which I never forgot was an introduction to business law. The professors started out by explaining why law should be studied relative to business, or at all.
What an enlightening discussion.
Key things I got out of it:
- Law is important because we are affected by it at every point
- Getting to understand how the law works can change it from an adversary to a force with which you can enhance your business
This means laws are like the rules of chess: you need to know them to play the game. You need to master them to win. And it is possible to make no errors and still lose.
- When studying law, the answer you get isn't as important as the analysis you do, because the results of applying legal principals depends on the actual events you apply them to
This means if you apply a law that was created for a specific purpose to a situation outside that purpose the outcome has nothing to do with the reason the law was passed
- Law consists of two parts. . . the part that defines rights and obligations, and the part that tell how to invoke the first part (statuatory and procedural)
This means you can claim to support the statuatory law and gut the procedural law.
- Law and ethics do not coincide, and law is enforcable while ethics are not
This is critical, and puts the lie to those who claim racism must be addressed morally rather than legally. It is an unfortunate fact that "law and order" <> "right and wrong."
The sad thing is, it
will take a strong dose of morality to correct this… a morality I'm pretty sure the average person either has or would find acceptable if the talking heads, K-Street boys and Republican extremists dominating the media would just
tell the truth.
posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/30/2003 05:35:01 PM |
Posted by P6 at June 30, 2003 05:35 PM
| Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1022
