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Isn't this a copout answer? They're not in stem because they're not smart enough?
In science and engineering, we from time to time run across "goddunit" as an explanation proposed for things. In fact, it is constantly being pushed by conservatives to teach the "goddunit" theory of everything in the classroom. The main reason why scientists and engineers oppose to this is because it doesn't lead anywhere. No new questions are asked. No new discoveries are made. No new motivation to do anything else.
And this is what I see your answer as.
What a bizarre analogy. The are whole fields of science dedicated to understanding the evolution of humans, gene expression, and the role of genetic inheritance in the development of individuals, groups and societies. New discoveries are made all the time. You dismiss all that out of hand, don't even want to consider it, but somehow see your own attitude as supporting open inquiry.
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Entire groups of people avoid a certain field because they are not smart enough. No new questions about it because they are genetically predisposed to be not smart enough to go into stem. Etc.
It just seems too much of a copout answer to me.
No, not entire groups. There are many black people in STEM and many who are smart enough to be good at it. It's just that the percentage of such people within the group is lower than in other groups.
Of course not. I was just interested in what c-d posters considered to be the reason there's a dearth of women in undergrad engineering. Heredity? Or cultural?
There isn't a "dearth". Women have different aptitudes and interests. That's the reason there aren't as many women as men in engineering programs. And there's nothing wrong with that.
I spent a year working for a non-profit group in a very rural and poor area of the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam. The village kids don't even know what is a computer or smartphone looks like. Yet, they were doing advanced algebra at 7th grade. Their culture idolizes & reveres scholars and education.
Yes, school funding and money helps but it's not going to help when your culture idolizes rap artists or whoever can score the most points in a basketball game.
Republican solution to the U.S education system: You're on your own, sorry (but really, not sorry).
The reason the U.S has one of the highest inequality rate's in the developed world is because the system is designed to ensure those who are higher income continue to climb higher up the ladder while those who are middle class and under continue to struggle and fall. Republican solution? Keep doing the same thing. It's like beating a dead horse and hoping it comes alive. And whatever you do....don't look at how other countries run their school systems. The economic elite don't want American's getting ideas. Just keep calling Progressives a bunch of Socialists and keep the average American complacent and apathetic.
We are never going to solve the worst poverty rate in the developed world if we continue to do the same thing. But if you are more interested in creating new millionaires and new billionaires.....then we will continue to see business as usual.
Single parent with a good possibility that her spouse is incarcerated along with other family members, not really a revelation. These children are destined for failure and its not just about funding but the fact that these districts have less funding sure doesn't help. When people say we need to change the culture they aren't addressing large part of the problem which is teen pregnancy.
lots of people like to do lots of arguing back and forth, but there is 1 absolute truth -
Black single parent households: 67%
Hispanic Single parent households: 41%
White single parent households: 24%
Two out of every 3 black households are single parent.
We don't clearly know WHY it is this way, but we absolutely know it is THE reason for issues. The destruction of the 2-parent black household over the last 60+ years is THE reason.
go figure how many of the 1 parent there was a teen mom.
where the mom finished high school regularly, and attend ANY type of secondary education
figure out how many never were married, or in a real committed relationship where both parents were consistently present even through just 5 years old.
tell us the incarceration rate for adult black males. That they're "5 times as likely as whites to be incarcerated" means about nothing. It might as well be "You deserve to be incarcerated 5x more frequently". If 50% of black adult males are incarcerated, then that matters.
To figure out the WHY, we as a country rely on black leaders to find our way forward. We need to turn to the Eric the Preachers, the Les Browns, and yes, the LeBron James' of the country. As many of them will say, so long as the mindset is "We can't because ..." and not "We will, here's how..." then we won't make a lot of progress. It sure isn't the race-baiters and TV talkers.
And this is the problem. While whites are told they could be anything they want, blacks are constantly told they have to go into sports or rap to succeed. Very narrow set of fields.
who is telling the blacks they have to go into sports or rap? or can't go into STEM?
Isn't this a copout answer? They're not in stem because they're not smart enough?
In science and engineering, we from time to time run across "goddunit" as an explanation proposed for things. In fact, it is constantly being pushed by conservatives to teach the "goddunit" theory of everything in the classroom. The main reason why scientists and engineers oppose to this is because it doesn't lead anywhere. No new questions are asked. No new discoveries are made. No new motivation to do anything else.
And this is what I see your answer as. Entire groups of people avoid a certain field because they are not smart enough. No new questions about it because they are genetically predisposed to be not smart enough to go into stem. Etc.
It just seems too much of a copout answer to me.
It's not a cop out answer at all. It is demonstrable that STEM students/grads have certain average/median IQ and one that's higher probably the highest of all college students. This barrier is true for all students regardless of race/identity.
The cop out answer is to blame "culture" alone which just creates a new question of what is the causation of culture. Inevitably, leading to the biggest or ultimate cop out answer of all "white people-dunit".
Interesting how the thread fell into a racist against blacks and hispanic threads as usual lol.
FYI - if someone's culture is based upon their skin color and you think their culture is inferior to another then you are engaging in racism (believing that there is an inherent charactersitic based on race that is superior/inferior to others).
As I note often, most of you don't know anything about black culture. One of the bastions of black culture today and historically is the importance of education and access especially to a quality education. Most of the debates and successes that have been had in this countries, really since the Civil War and in some areas before, are based on black activism in regards to public education. Even school vouchers are overwhelmingly supported by black Americans, which is why they and charter schools are prominent in urban districts with a large black population. It is also a reason why the black demographic has grown more in regards to educational achievement than any other demographic since the lessening of institutional racism in the 1970s.
On the article, it did say the majority/minority school received worse funding and resources than a wealthier school that was majority white. However, IMO it was based upon class/wealth versus the race/roots of the scholars at the other school.
Often wealthier districts have more resources, better teachers, better equipment, and higher school ratings because wealthier families don't have as many day to day stresses in regards to actual survival versus a lower income family of any racial background.
However, there are some cases where within districts there is racial discriminiation that occurs. Just the description of what happened in this article doesn't really show this to be the case as it seems more "class" oriented. Where I live we have a 99% black high school and about 10 years ago the black parents organization in our city sued the district and the suit was one about 6 years ago. The black parents association sued because the high school that is majority black did not have any AP classes offered to any students. They also had less technology versus our multi-racial schools (even those of the same income class - basically all our public high schools are Title I and serve working class or poverty stricken families regardless of ethnic background). The courts did find that the lack of academic offering in the 99% black school was racial discrimination and our district has responded and resolved those issues. However, it was a complaint that had been made when I was high school (and I'm 40. I didn't go to that school though as it was not my neighborhood school but 3 of my step sisters did and all of them admitted when they graduated that they were not prepared for college level coursework when they went to college. One of them flunked out of college and went to community college to basically get remediated course work to improve her skillset to go to the regular university. My own high school was statistically poorer than the black school when I and my sisters attended, but my high school had many Honors/AP classes and a diverse amount of vocational offerings as well - I was an Honors/AP and vocational student who learned computer science and "word processing" in high school. The only vocational programs offered at the black high school was cosmetology. At my school we had medical/nursing assistants, computer science/word/data processing, robotics, CAD/architectural design, and auto repair/auto body mechanics - my school was about 40% white, 25% black, 25% hispanic, and 5% Asian - we had a lot of Asian American refugees in our neighborhood - I'll also note that I never saw the parents of my Asian friends ever come to school to be "involved" and for most of my Asian American friends today they are not overly "involved" in school either. IMO people make ish up talking about "involvement" because what does that even mean. I don't go up to my kids school but I make sure she does her work and she gets all As. I got all As and my mom never came to my school. Dad came for parent/teacher conferences every year until I graduated, but that was the only time he came. Neither of them ever volunteered in any of my classes. They worked a lot - in factories and were tired after work and I didn't want them to come up to my school as I'd rather they rest and relax since they worked so hard - especially my mom as she went back to school herself and got her GED and college degree when I was in school. She always warned me to stay in school and graduate with a high GPA and that she'd reward me in any way to ensure I did. She wasn't the best mom but IMO she did well in regards to all 4 of her kid's educations - all 4 of us went to college and 3 graduated. She was not "involved" at all in school).
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