Who is runnin our schoolz?

[CaptainStoner]

. . . Maybe it's their African centered education system or something.

African-Centered Education in the Detroit Public Schools will address both cognitive and affective development of students through a cultural and wholistic learning environment. Educational programs must be culturally based so that children are able to see themselves in the learning process. Cultural understanding for children is essential for improving academic achievement and creating self awareness as they analyze their role in a global society.

The educational process should allow students to engage in rigorous discourse on societal issues that impact them. African-Centered Education provides the basis for the development of self-determination and self-actualization within the context of the group’s cultural identity. History and culture will anchor African-Centered Education in the Detroit Public Schools.

Math... not so much.

"African-Centered Education"? WTF??

Did the United States become an African country recently? Did I miss something?

It appears to be an effort to add cultural context to the curriculum, and not just African, but recognizing Africa as the mother continent as it were.
If one takes into account an environment of poverty, of lacking Father figures, and of being cut off from one's cultural heritage, then including these elements in school makes some kind of sense. To add much needed grounding and positive values where they may be lacking.
It's easy to look at a school system like this and just assume firing everyone will help. We want it to be someone's fault. We don't want to look at the systemic issues behind it all. Just fire the School Board guy, and this one is an easy target. As if that would magically increase the math scores.

 

[Hound of UIster]

^I'd like to know how the addition of "cultural heritage" is going to address the debilitating effects of poverty and crime on the education system. Because from where I stand, It seems to be nothing, but a naked attempt at appealing to the core political base without addressing any of the actual problems of the Detroit school systems.

. . . Maybe it's their African centered education system or something.

African-Centered Education in the Detroit Public Schools will address both cognitive and affective development of students through a cultural and wholistic learning environment. Educational programs must be culturally based so that children are able to see themselves in the learning process. Cultural understanding for children is essential for improving academic achievement and creating self awareness as they analyze their role in a global society.

The educational process should allow students to engage in rigorous discourse on societal issues that impact them. African-Centered Education provides the basis for the development of self-determination and self-actualization within the context of the group’s cultural identity. History and culture will anchor African-Centered Education in the Detroit Public Schools.

Math... not so much.

"African-Centered Education"? WTF??

Did the United States become an African country recently? Did I miss something?

There is a reason why education majors have lower GRE test scores relative to other majors.

 

[Franklin]

. . . Maybe it's their African centered education system or something.

Math... not so much.

"African-Centered Education"? WTF??

Did the United States become an African country recently? Did I miss something?

It appears to be an effort to add cultural context to the curriculum, and not just African, but recognizing Africa as the mother continent as it were.
If one takes into account an environment of poverty, of lacking Father figures, and of being cut off from one's cultural heritage, then including these elements in school makes some kind of sense. To add much needed grounding and positive values where they may be lacking.
It's easy to look at a school system like this and just assume firing everyone will help. We want it to be someone's fault. We don't want to look at the systemic issues behind it all. Just fire the School Board guy, and this one is an easy target. As if that would magically increase the math scores.

You know, as gturner will point out, you're avatar is a major cash crop in Kentucky. I'll get some Makers Mark, you take care of your avatar, and we'll let these guys go. I give up on them.
I taught at a predominantly black school once where I had to explain to white students that Kwanza was no more to be feared than St. Patrick's Day. People forget that with race comes culture.

 

[gturner]

But American black culture has vastly more to do with American southern culture than anything it retained from Africa. Why not teach southern-centric values?

If a predominantly white school was failing at math, they'd make the students double-down on math, not immerse them in their heritage as drunken Irish, mad Scots, English Wankers, Frogs, Krauts, Pollacks, wops, and nasty Scandis.

There have been numerous studies showing that attempts to artificially raise students' self-esteem can actually increase violence and hurt academic performance. The January 2005 issue of Scientific American has an article called "Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth." The article starts with:

Boosting people's sense of self-worth has become a national preoccupation. Yet surprisingly, researchshows that such efforts are of little value in fostering academic progress or preventing undesirable behavior.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=exploding-the-self-esteem

Franklin, don't despair for me. I'm not one of the unfortunately students in the Detroit School System. Despair for the 90,000 kids whose futures are being frittered away a year at a time by a school system that's breaking records for incompetence.

 

[Stiletto]

The dictionary disagrees, citing nukular as an accepted pronunciation.

It doesn't matter, in GWB's case, it's called an "accent"! Pronounciation doesn't mean squat. I know quite a few people from Texas that pronounce it the same way, doesn't mean that they're dumb. Sure, GWB is deficient in a lot of areas, but getting on him for the way he pronounces, that's ridiculous.

(this isn't directed at you, GTurner, but people in general)

 

[Franklin]

Franklin, don't despair for me. I'm not one of the unfortunately students in the Detroit School System. Despair for the 90,000 kids whose futures are being frittered away a year at a time by a school system that's breaking records for incompetence.

I'd have no problem opposing the guy on any tangible basis. I have every problem if opposing the guy based solely on a disability. I have a problem using it as ammo against him.

I have a front row seat to DC school district politics every day. It's a circus.

Despite our disagreements, I'd split an Ale 81 with you if we're ever to meet.

 

[gturner]

Franklin, don't despair for me. I'm not one of the unfortunately students in the Detroit School System. Despair for the 90,000 kids whose futures are being frittered away a year at a time by a school system that's breaking records for incompetence.

I'd have no problem opposing the guy on any tangible basis. I have every problem if opposing the guy based solely on a disability. I have a problem using it as ammo against him.

I have a front row seat to DC school district politics every day. It's a circus.

Despite our disagreements, I'd split an Ale 81 with you if we're ever to meet.

WTF? Get your own Ale 8-1! I ain't sharin'!

 

[scotpens]

I taught at a predominantly black school once where I had to explain to white students that Kwanza was no more to be feared than St. Patrick's Day. People forget that with race comes culture.

“With race comes culture”? How so? Race is genetic. Culture, by definition, is learned; it isn't passed from generation to generation through the DNA.

Some years ago, I saw a TV newsmagazine item about interracial adoptions. There was this one white couple that had adopted a black child, and they were taking great pains to make sure the kid was aware of his “cultural heritage.” This Mr. and Mrs. Wally Whitebread were celebrating Kwanzaa -- I kid you not -- and their adopted son was three years old! I mean, at that age the kid barely knows where his dick is. I swear, it was like something out of a comedy sketch making fun of Political Correctness.

Race/ethnicity and culture are not inseparably linked. You can be Greek and you can marry an Irish Catholic woman and you can raise your kids as Hindus if you want. When group identity based on biological ancestry is over-emphasized, as I believe it is in today's culture of “identity politics,” it becomes destructive and divisive. It Balkanizes our society. It makes us more race-conscious instead of less.

BTW, I've never met anyone, white or otherwise, who was “afraid” of Kwanzaa. What did the white students think happens on Kwanzaa? That the blacks go all Mau Mau and start chucking spears? The legitimacy of that holiday is debatable, but that's a topic for another thread.

If a predominantly white school was failing at math, they'd make the students double-down on math, not immerse them in their heritage as drunken Irish, mad Scots, English Wankers, Frogs, Krauts, Pollacks, wops, and nasty Scandis.

They're “Polacks.” Pollack is Sidney. Pollak is Kevin or Cheryl.

There have been numerous studies showing that attempts to artificially raise students' self-esteem can actually increase violence and hurt academic performance. The January 2005 issue of Scientific American has an article called “Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth.”

Hear, hear! Even young children understand on an instinctive level that true self-esteem can't be taught or given; it must be earned.

ADDENDUM: I used to think Kwanzaa was an airline.

 

[Franklin]

I taught at a predominantly black school once where I had to explain to white students that Kwanza was no more to be feared than St. Patrick's Day. People forget that with race comes culture.

“With race comes culture”? How so? Race is genetic. Culture, by definition, is learned; it isn't passed from generation to generation through the DNA.

Some years ago, I saw a TV newsmagazine item about interracial adoptions. There was this one white couple that had adopted a black child, and they were taking great pains to make sure the kid was aware of his “cultural heritage.” This Mr. and Mrs. Wally Whitebread were celebrating Kwanzaa -- I kid you not -- and their adopted son was three years old! I mean, at that age the kid barely knows where his dick is. I swear, it was like something out of a comedy sketch making fun of Political Correctness.

Race/ethnicity and culture are not inseparably linked. You can be Greek and you can marry an Irish Catholic woman and you can raise your kids as Hindus if you want. When group identity based on biological ancestry is over-emphasized, as I believe it is in today's culture of “identity politics,” it becomes destructive and divisive. It Balkanizes our society. It makes us more race-conscious instead of less.

BTW, I've never met anyone, white or otherwise, who was “afraid” of Kwanzaa. What did the white students think happens on Kwanzaa? That the blacks go all Mau Mau and start chucking spears? The legitimacy of that holiday is debatable, but that's a topic for another thread.

If a predominantly white school was failing at math, they'd make the students double-down on math, not immerse them in their heritage as drunken Irish, mad Scots, English Wankers, Frogs, Krauts, Pollacks, wops, and nasty Scandis.

They're “Polacks.” Pollack is Sidney. Pollak is Kevin or Cheryl.

There have been numerous studies showing that attempts to artificially raise students' self-esteem can actually increase violence and hurt academic performance. The January 2005 issue of Scientific American has an article called “Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth.”

Hear, hear! Even young children understand on an instinctive level that true self-esteem can't be taught or given; it must be earned.

ADDENDUM: I used to think Kwanzaa was an airline.

Well, what I meant was a term like "African-American" is generic. It conveys no ethnicity or nationality. A lot of these black students were into trying to discover more detail about their identities. It would be like calling all European immigrants to America European-Americans and being done with it.
It's hard to explain without being there, but in the broader context of what was happening at the time, the idea of some "being afraid" of Kwanza would've made some sense. It honestly made some students nervous that others had decided to wear traditional clothing to class that reflected their specific African cultures. Others wore t-shirts with expressions like "40 Acres and a Mule" on them.
My point was that this was no different an expression of one's self and one's collective past as is wearing green on St. Patrick's Day or lederhosen for Oktoberfest. Why be nervous? One student told me some of them looked, "militant."

And by the way, a Jewish baby boy observing the rite of bris doesn't know where his dick is, either. But he undergoes the rite, anyway. So if the white parents of an adopted black child want to introduce that child to his heritage at a young age, so what?

But, I'm off topic.

 

[RJDiogenes]

If a predominantly white school was failing at math, they'd make the students double-down on math, not immerse them in their heritage as drunken Irish, mad Scots, English Wankers, Frogs, Krauts, Pollacks, wops, and nasty Scandis.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you were trying to make some kind of a point through sarcasm, but that kind of language is inappropriate in Misc. Let's not have any more like that, please.

 

[bluedana]

Culture-centered curriculum and mathematics (or a good education) are not mutually exclusive. It's not like oh, this is African-centered so we're not going to teach you algebra. My son's school is African-centered which means mainly that instead of starting World Studies with Mesopotamia and Alexander the Great (Greek to Roman Empire), they spend a good deal of time on Egypt and Nubia and other ancient African civilizations, and the development of math, written language, and science/engineering in Africa (which I, a black kid growing up in an all white town, never encountered). They read novels and plays by black people, not just the white, European canon of literature. They study prominent black people and their accomplishments, not just the folks that signify during the Civil War and Civil Rights chapters.

And while, yes, that 3 year old knows nothing about Kwanzaa, his white parents are instilling in him from an early age the sense that being black and having black culture is okay. That is who he is, along with whatever culture he's been adopted into. And honestly, if you (1) aren't black, and (2) have no experience with adoption, you have no basis on which to make any sort of judgment on them.

 

[Teelie]

English is a language that steals from other languages and it's constantly changing or adapting from other languages. It's not even spoken or written the same as it was a century ago but grammar nazis still fight to the bitter end for their version of "proper" grammar. There are some basics left unchanged and it shouldn't be just given to the wind and let go but at the same time you can't expect it to stay static forever too.

Or, to put it another way:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that the English language is as pure as a crib-house whore. It not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."
-- James Nicoll

That's the quote I was remembering and sloppily paraphrasing from.