NY Times Blames ‘Nice White Parents’ for Public Education ‘Failing Black and Brown Kids’
“If you want to understand what’s wrong with our public education system, you have to look at what is arguably the most powerful force in our schools: White parents.”
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First, there was the 1619 Project. Now The New York Times has a limited series called “Nice White Parents” because they’re the people who get in the way of “building a better school system.”
Not just parents. The NYT had to single out white parents.
It’s not the powerful teacher unions. Not the power-hungry politicians. Not the Department of Education. Not the lack of school choice. It’s totally those white parents!
The NYT explained:
We know that American public schools do not guarantee each child an equal education — two decades of school reform initiatives have not changed that. But when we look at how our schools are failing, we usually focus on who they’re failing: Black and brown kids. We ask: Why aren’t they performing better? Why aren’t they achieving more?
Those are not the right questions.
If you want to understand what’s wrong with our public education system, you have to look at what is arguably the most powerful force in our schools: White parents.
Can someone please explain to me why it is wrong to focus on who is not performing well? Aren’t those the question we should be asking ourselves? It puts the concentration on the kids who need help.
But no because the NYT wants to keep blaming white people and look woke for everyone. Instead of concentrating on the needs of the students, the publication wants to trash “nice white parents.” I’m honestly shocked the publication didn’t say, conservative nice white parents.
Isn’t this racist? This is a great point:
I am beyond sick of the notion that that the success of my black children/people is dependent upon white people having to do something, give something up, etc. We are going to find ourselves back in this same place in another 20 years of this is indeed the case.
— AllMeExceptTheName (@except_all) July 23, 2020
The actual problem with education is that too many people treat education as a one size fits all. As a former teacher, I can tell you that does not work. I mean, anyone can tell you that, but it really hit me after I experienced it.
The main problem is the Department of Education and its stupid testing. Next are the state education boards and the cities.
I noted in a previous piece that education is the most local issue in the country. Everything should be up to the school district and the communities within that district.
The teacher unions want to delay opening schools because of the coronavirus pandemic. I find it weird that they want to delay the opening until…the start of the flu season, which is just as contagious and deadly. But I guess that doesn’t matter. It’s all about opposing President Trump.
Again, why look to the feds? Every community is different when it comes to the coronavirus. Is it so hard for them to figure it out for themselves?
Plus, if you wait until everything is 100% safe, schools will cease to exist. I guess if a breakout happens they want to avoid blame because being an adult is so hard.
A teacher wrote at the Foundation for Economic Education “that much of their energy is spent advocating for various, non-educational political initiatives.” He listed the union’s commitments, noting that “many of these issues have only a tangential relation to education, if that.”
It also doesn’t help that unions hate reform. They hate school choice, even though competition leads to better products. They also oppose entrance exams for teachers, protect the bad ones, and don’t want “stringent teacher evaluations.” God forbid a teacher receives a salary based on his or her performance.
.@nytimes has become an evil force in our society, doing everything in its power to stoke racial tension. https://t.co/qoaks6tb79
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) July 23, 2020
Teachers unions are much more powerful than parents of any race in NYC.
— Lisa B. (@politeracy) July 24, 2020
Hey @nytimes at The @Heritage Foundation we’ve written about many of the problems facing the public school system: assignment by zip code, lack of merit pay, administrative bloat, powerful teachers unions etc.
None of those problems have anything to do with parents. Of any race.
— Mary Clare Amselem (@MCAmselem) July 23, 2020
Yeah, parents are the problem… pic.twitter.com/SV0k0qWDLo
— FinCentrixCircles (@FinCentrix) July 23, 2020
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Comments
First, the flu is at least 7 times more deadly among children than Covid.
But really, my daughter was a substitute teacher in several metro Detroit suburban school districts. She now teaches at a charter school that services Detroit students. Believe me, from the stories I’ve heard over the last three years, there is a big difference and it has nothing to do with “white parents”.
It also has nothing to do with money. Detroit students receive twice as much funding per pupil as the suburban school districts she worked at.
And the teachers my daughter works with are there because they want to help these kids. They want to make a difference. They work 11 and 12 hour days and weekends. Unfortunately, it’s so hard that there is a 30% turnover in teachers at the elementary level where she teaches. The stories are heartbreaking and it’s hard on the teachers mentally.
It is truly offensive, as a father of a dedicated teacher, that the NYT publishes an article like that. Shame on them. Shame on the people that buy that rag.
In fairness, some teachers are excellent. Most are good. The remainder are not performing.
IMO it isn’t the school’s or teacher’s job to educate a child. Rather, it is their job to educate a child that:
1. Is well rested
2. Is well fed
3. Completes assignments
4. Is capable of emotional and physical control
5. Is willing to put forth the effort to grasp the material
In other words it isn’t the function of schools or teacher’s to ensure the child is ready to learn, that is the job of the parents or guardians. There are numerous social programs that aid in achieving this for those with lower economic means.
The real problem with our educational system is the warehouse mentality of the bloated education administration. They treat the classroom as a storage unit for children, billing the taxpayers for each occupant with little regard for educational success.
Similarly, teachers are viewed by the public education system as replaceable cogs without differentiating between them. An excellent, dedicated teacher who gets results is viewed by the administration as equivalent of a burned out, jaded, low performing teacher who does just enough not to be exiled to the rubber room.
The public sector teacher unions have created this mess by refusing to allow disciplinary proceedings against their lower performing members.
The only way out is to provide vouchers that allow parents to select the school of choice. This competition will force school boards to renegotiate union contracts and improve their product.
“Can someone please explain to me why it is wrong to focus on who is not performing well?”
Oh, please! You know that asking that question is pure, unadulterated racism. We’ve been told this enough times.
“Aren’t those the question we should be asking ourselves?”
Yes, if we were being honest and genuine.
“It puts the concentration on the kids who need help.”
Which we cannot do. If that were to occur those black and Brown students would no longer be mis-educated grievance mongers and would reject being manipulated and used by the unions and democrats.
NYT should hire Geoffrey Canada to get any and every article they intend to publish on education. If you have not seen “Waiting for Superman”, please do yourself a favor and watch it.
Used to be back in the ancient era of the 1990’s Black kids were ridiculed because they were “acting White”. That was street-talk for wanting to get educated. Teachers were (and still are) targets for physical attacks by Black students (are they so large and/or aggressive because they were held back?). The Federal Department of Education, a gift to the Teacher’s Unions by James Earl Carter, keeps changing (read dumbing down) curriculums yet students STILL can’t learn.
Now look, the New York Times – only read in upscale White homes around NYC – is making the claim Black and Brown students are failing because of White families. Another way to look at this phenomenon is that White and Asian, families would prefer safer schools that actually TAUGHT students usable knowledge.
Such old-fashioned ideas.
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