Pa. School Experiment Separates Students By Race And Gender (status, kids, working)
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I witnessed that just the other day in an 8th grade classroom.
There was a class activity and were told they could form their own groups.
Blacks, Whites, Hispanics all segregated themselves. It was interesting to watch..no animosity or any kind of attitude..they just grouped and did the work and then went back to their desks like there was nothing to it. At their desks they all talked to each other.
Adults take this forced diversity too far.
Forced diversity is just as extreme as forced segregation.
It's interesting that the issue of the Raleigh, NC school is considered, by the diversity police, to be rolling back the gains of the civil rights era, but creating segregated classrooms at a PA school is not. The hypocrisy and illogic...astounding.
Seperating boys and organizing them into competative academic teams helps them learn because they get easily bored without team-based competition.
Well, as I've already stated, how will they be able to attribute success or failure to racial segregation when either could be the result of gender segregation.
In other words, a racially diverse group of girls may perform academically as well as a racially segregated group of girls, but this school will never know.
Their decision seems to suggest that maybe they don't want to find out either.
Forced diversity is just as extreme as forced segregation.
It's interesting that the issue of the Raleigh, NC school is considered, by the diversity police, to be rolling back the gains of the civil rights era, but creating segregated classrooms at a PA school is not. The hypocrisy and illogic...astounding.
I say give it a semester and see how it turns out.
You never know..kids are not adults yet.
That's entirely true that people go only towards those that look a like. We do segregate into groups. While race is the most obvious choice, there are many other factors. For example, I was mostly with the White kids most of my life. I'm half Black, but I'm half African and was born abroad. I grew up in a mostly White community, that only since the mid 1990s was VERY diverse (it has the lowest rate of residential segregation in the nation). So, naturally what I know is more Afro-European and White American. A White friend of mine has almost no White friends...he grew up in Compton (yes, Compton) and later moved to the suburbs.He identifies with those people that moved from the city to the suburbs.
People also segregate by class and culture more often than race. I've seen it where I had a party full of people from various backgrounds. What ends up happening is that people from similar socio-economic situations end up with each other, regardless of race. However, in our nation race and class are very tied.
Racial segregation is a bad idea. We need to instill a sense of oneness, not further fracture along race/socio-economic lines. Looking back at it, I'm happy that I got to know more Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, Persians, etc. I have more of a base to search commonalities. It's actually better to not segregate since you are forced to learn to deal with such issues. In a global economy, the top players are cosmopolitan. Knowing how to deal with issues is a weak point in countries such as Korea. That's why they have foreign teachers...so that their kids know how to deal with different cultures and races. China, Japan, and Taiwan are doing the same.
Also, let's not forget about self fulfilling prophesies. Teachers who make remarks such as the following example, "Tommy, you will never pass with that attitude", have a higher rate of having their students "fulfill" the prophesy. The student actually believes that they have no chance and will continue to act up. Male students in supportive classrooms are more likely to succeed. Black male students do face more of those sort of comments which do have an impact in success. Not saying that this is the sole factor, but this is a factor. With segregated schools, it is very possible that a teacher's bias will do MORE harm. Basically, the ENTIRE class could just not try if a teacher singles out one member (since that member is more likely to resemble the rest of the class, thus each student will take that message on a personal level and then more people could fail). There are numerous studies on how teaching messages and discipline affect performance. It's intriguing.
Kids do live in homes with adults that look like them, but they are more shaped by their peers than potentially their own parents...at least in middle school onwards. So why shouldn't they be exposed to a wider variety of people?
I agree that we need to perform better academically, but racial segregation is not the key. What potentially is one of many keys is more class integration. The students will still form cliques, however, knowing the possibility of college exists as well crossover (since group selection is never 100%, it is dynamic) having those peers could in fact serve as a window into a world that few lower class people know. In urban sociology, my prof. cited a study that showed that a group of failing students did better in a middle class h.s. than their lower income school. One student cited it was because he saw the possibility of going to college as a motivator.
Of course there are many other things that need to be done, but going down this route is a bad idea.
Forced diversity is just as extreme as forced segregation.
It's interesting that the issue of the Raleigh, NC school is considered, by the diversity police, to be rolling back the gains of the civil rights era, but creating segregated classrooms at a PA school is not. The hypocrisy and illogic...astounding.
The gains of the civil rights era are not being eroded by integration. Rather, by increased class SEGREGATION and a widening wealth gap.
I say give it a semester and see how it turns out.
You never know..kids are not adults yet.
That's the thing...we do know. The data is not 100% conclusive. It has worked in some schools, however, those schools did receive a lot of funding and were primarily middle income schools. They were also very small. I forgot the baseline, but if I remember the gains were not tremendous.
We should look at examples of integrated schools that have worked. There are plenty in this nation. My high school succeeded due to an extensive tutoring network and open enrollment into IB. My elementary school worked for a number of reasons. It was located in a nice part of town, had generous donations from local businesses, had recognition from NASA (it's a NASA explorer school), has teachers that have been in the profession for a LONG time...but it's 30% White...30% Hispanic, 20% Black, 10% Asian, 10% other.
So clearly there are other factors besides race that determine educational attainment and success.
From the OP link..it sounds like the school is honestly trying to improve the scores of the Black students. 6 minutes a day with a Black mentor and 20 minutes twice per month.
The kids are not segregated all day every day. Give the schools the chance to at least try it; they have some data themselves that they used. Enough with the PC and emotion. What if it works ? Would that change how you feel ? Is it more important to integrate then educate ? Only 27% Blacks passed math...27%. Yes, it is time for drastic and maybe uneasy measures..but 27% ? At this point they have nothing to lose..6 minutes a day.
From Link:
"She said research had shown that grouping black students by gender with a strong role model could boost both academic achievement and self-esteem.Some students, staff and parents were against the segregation, saying that it ran against everything the school stood for - with students from diverse backgrounds.
But it was something Mr Jimenez thought was worth trying.
In all segregated classes, mentors track their students' grades, test scores and attendance.
One such mentor is Michael Mitchell, who hopes to inspire his black male students during their short daily meetings."
I say give it a semester and see how it turns out.
You never know..kids are not adults yet.
I'm not trying to stop them.
But I do think it's stupid to even open that door when there is nothing to suggest that racial integration is responsible for poor academics.
My view is stop putting skin color and ethnic labels on people, and stop arranging and categorizing them that way. "Equal" sure is a difficult concept apparently.
From the OP link..it sounds like the school is honestly trying to improve the scores of the Black students. 6 minutes a day with a Black mentor and 20 minutes twice per month.
The kids are not segregated all day every day. Give the schools the chance to at least try it; they have some data themselves that they used. Enough with the PC and emotion. What if it works ? Would that change how you feel ? Is it more important to integrate then educate ? Only 27% Blacks passed math...27%. Yes, it is time for drastic and maybe uneasy measures..but 27% ? At this point they have nothing to lose..6 minutes a day.
From Link:
"She said research had shown that grouping black students by gender with a strong role model could boost both academic achievement and self-esteem.Some students, staff and parents were against the segregation, saying that it ran against everything the school stood for - with students from diverse backgrounds.
But it was something Mr Jimenez thought was worth trying.
In all segregated classes, mentors track their students' grades, test scores and attendance.
One such mentor is Michael Mitchell, who hopes to inspire his black male students during their short daily meetings."
Then a question arises. Is the segregation really needed? Why not just have more mentors? If mentors are not present, will there be gains. I think that the mentoring is the key of this scheme.
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