Innovations to Combat Racism 2

What makes someone do poorly in school? In their career? In life?

I doubt it is the color of their skin. You can do the nature versus nurture debate all you want, but genetically we are the same. It is the picking out of our differences, that classification, that makes you believe we are different.

To truly identify and help those in need, we need to stop saying it is because of the waves in their hair, and focus on the way they have grown up. Culture is not race.

Idea 2: Survey by Location, Not Face

I've talked about them before, the full-of-holes standardized tests. When you first fill them out, you are made to put down information on yourself: female or male, age, and race. Most of the time, it is a "Choose One" scenario. This data is sent to colleges, graduate schools, parents, and surveyors. It is collected and, as whole community, judged.

The reason minority test scores are low isn't because they have a lesser ability to be educated. It is because statistically we are a minority. Less of us have good jobs and, in turn, live in the better neighborhoods. Less of us are privy to a great educations and teachers who motivate with high expectations (Pygmalion Effect/Self-Fulfilling Prophecy). Therefore, less of us do well.

Imagine you are a child living in the ghetto. You barely have enough to eat and you worry about your safety every day. Not even your home is safe. Are you likely to sit down and read a book that the teacher assigned, knowing full well she doesn't expect you to succeed? Or are you going to go out looking for something that will make you money, and put you in a secure place in the community?

It's simply Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, his pyramid. It is not that the child is Black or Latino. The kid could be White and in the Deep South, where he doesn't have the parental or extracurricular resources.

What we need to do is change the question to: "Where do you live?" or "Zip code" or "County" or "Income-Level / Class."

It's obvious that the poor communities do worse, but it isn't because they look different. It isn't because they are unwilling to be educated, that their culture dictates them to be that way. It is because they are poor. They need help.

Getting Assistance versus Losing Funding

But the school districts cry, "If they know it is us who do not produce optimum grades, then it is us who will lose what little funding we have."

Wrong. It is easy to blame others. It is hard to take responsibility, but the fallacy of one race being smarter or more academic than another needs to stop. We need to help these kids and make them feel secure so that they want to learn. And how can we do that if we cannot find them?

The areas that have lower-income families deserve more of the money so that they may produce better results. They need more resources to set these children on the right path. The higher-income areas can afford to do more fundraising, and more donations are able to be given to the schools.

Give the schools time-limits with set goals to make; similar to No Child Left Behind but more flexible, more specific to each area. For example, the kids within the "problem areas" that scored well on the test like those in Honor classes will not need to be tested. Also, find another way aside from standardized tests so that teachers do not teach to the test and nothing more. Perform closed interviews with students, asking how they feel about the changes and what they are learning. Create portfolios of assignments that demonstrate the growth in classes. 

We have new media technology, integrate that with video of the children at the beginning of the semester, midterm, and end. Let them keep a blog of their work and see how their academic writing develops. (This is, of course, for the older children who can write or blog. For privacy issues, blogs can be kept on secure .edu servers seen by those grading them, or make access password-coded.)

If the school districts cannot make the goals after the set time, then they do not receive as much funding.

Tax Dollars

"Well, I don't want my tax dollars to pay for hooligans. I don't want my son Timmy's education to suffer for them."

You make more money, you deserve better. I get it. I'm not saying divert a whole lot of money. Just enough to give the school some gently used computers or a few new books. Not Mac Labs or a new wing for the library. But, do raise the salaries of teachers that motivate their students, whose children get good grades. Not every teacher.

Honestly, you won't be paying for future criminals because you are working proactively. You are stopping the development of hooligans by giving them a future. That's one less person you have to worry about breaking into your house when you're in The Bahamas. 

Also, Timmy's education will not suffer. When distributed right, it would only be the "wants" that would lessen in fulfillment. His media class would work with iPads rather than the iPad2. The class trip may go from visiting NY for five days to visiting the free museums in D.C. for three. 

And if you're really worried, put him in private school.

America is a community of diverse peoples. We must help one another if we want our community to be better than the one next door and we will never accomplish that by being selfish.

Idea 1