As part of our recent conversation about reconciliation, Anne pointed us to a post by Richard Rohr, which looked at reconciliation from a broader and more scholarly angle. Plunging into some waters in which I had only dipped a toe in my post, Rohr concluded:
We all need to apologize, and we all need to forgive, for humanity to have a sustainable future. Otherwise, we are controlled by the past, individually and corporately. History easily devolves into taking sides, bitterness, holding grudges, and the violence that inevitably follows. No wonder that almost two-thirds of Jesus’ teaching is directly or indirectly about forgiveness. As others have said, “Forgiveness is to let go of our hope for a different past.” Reality is what it is, and such acceptance leads to great freedom, and the possibility of healing forgiveness.
Taking sides, bitterness, holding grudges, violence - that seems as good a description of the civil unrest which has been convulsing our urban centers, ever since George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer.
That incident in Minneapolis which launched the protests is inextricably bound up with history. Think of it this way: had this been the first known instance of law enforcement killing a Black man with seemingly callous disregard, it's doubtful that the marches and the rallies (and, perhaps, the violence, burning and looting) would have been as widespread as it has been, or would still be continuing today, three+ months after that incident. Floyd's killing has resonated because it encapsulates history and experience: especially the personal histories of so many Black persons who have been singled out for unjust and unequal treatment by law enforcement.
What I suppose this means in practical terms is: within large urban police departments, which traditionally have been manned by white Americans, a culture has been implanted, for several generations now, that Black people should be treated differently than white people. Culturally, that practice and the prejudices which shape it has been transmitted across generations of police officers.
I expect that all of us, even those of us who are white Americans and therefore haven't experienced first-hand those injustices and indignities, can imagine, if only weakly, what it is like to be singled out for mistreatment by the police power of the state, over and over again, not as a single, isolated incident but as a recurring, predictable and unfair fact of life. That is not to say that we white Americans exercise our imaginations on a regular basis: I suspect that many white people live as blithely and ignorantly as I have, with these injustices out of sight and out of mind. Personal history, memory and testimony are critical tools to help the broader polity understand the mistreatment of an isolated minority.
I don't claim to be well-read in the experiences of Black Americans (in fact, I admit that I'm not at all well-grounded in it). Perhaps in consequence, I have been somewhat skeptical of the claims of writers and journalists such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, who insist that today's situation for Black Americans is explainable by understanding the country's history of mistreatment of Blacks. I believe his own immersion in that history, coupled with his personal experiences as a Black American, has left Coates profoundly pessimistic that the American people can do better than we have so far. I have not read a lot of Coates, but in what I have read, he's persuaded me that history can reach beyond the span of a single lifetime or generation to limit possibilities for our contemporaries. For example, it makes sense to me that the practice of discriminatory red-line lending, which has been illegal since 1968 but which may nevertheless continue yet today, has systematically impeded the ability of Black homeowners to accumulate wealth via home ownership. That in turn diminishes the wealth that is passed from one generation to the next.
,
I haven't entirely set aside my skepticism about the effects of history. Bearing in mind that the American Civil War was fought 150 years ago, and that the great heroes of the Civil Rights era lived 2-3 generations before my children (all adults now), I also believe that the effects of history diminish with each generation. I continue to support policies which are mainstream policies for conservatives, if anathema for liberals, such as school reform, charter schools and school vouchers, because I continue to believe that people can advance themselves in the United States, even if history has held back their forebears, and that education must be the engine of advancement.
So I would describe my views as admitting that history is not nothing, but neither is it completely determinative, and we shouldn't fall into the despair of thinking that it can't be surmounted.
And so it is of interest to me that Catholic colleges and religious orders which were slave owners in Antebellum days, now are seeking to atone for, and pay reparations for, that sinfulness. I would say that the current administrators of those colleges and members of those orders haven't inherited their forebears' culpability. Perhaps it could be argued that the slave owners' successors during the Reconstruction era had inherited some unjust advantages. But with the passing of time, the deaths of people of those eras, and the vagaries of circumstances, that culpability has dissolved.
My own parents are thought to have wronged some other people (as my parents are still living, I don't wish to describe the specifics here). If what they did was sinful, then their culpability hasn't been passed, genetically, familially or culturally, to me. My slate started clean. That is not to say I haven't sullied it since then, on my own account. But my basic view is: when people die, their sins die with them. Sins committed by social structures can outlive individuals, but even that culpability diminishes with the passage of time.
The time to reconcile is when we are still living. This is why reconciliation isn't just a happy idea; it is an urgent necessity. The clock of reconciliation is ticking, and we may not have much time.
African-americans are disproportionally poor but there are twice as many whites under the poverty line. Address poverty and inequality without racial preference and you will address racial injustice, even while helping twice as many whites. Capitalist neoliberalism will not do this.
ReplyDelete" But my basic view is: when people die, their sins die with them. Sins committed by social structures can outlive individuals, but even that culpability diminishes with the passage of time."
ReplyDeleteJim, I am in basic agreement with that. I think the real question is, what can we do in the present, and in the future, to ensure that people aren't left behind economically? I think it's counterproductive to address that out of perceived guilt, rather than simple justice.
About education being the engine of advancement, I think that is true. however I'm not sure charter schools and vouchers are the way to do it, these have their own built in drawbacks. An open question is, how is the pandemic going to change education? We are likely to find that things are fundamentally different when we emerge. I predict that we'll need to find new solutions that take into account changed conditions.
You seem to be saying that it's really up to African-Americans to stop whining, stop obsessing over history, forgive the past, and move on. Is that about it?
ReplyDeleteCan we change history or the past? All we can do is try to avoid repeating it.
DeleteI was responding to Jim's post generally. I'm unclear on his point.
DeleteYou should give me a bad grade: I sort of ended up in a different place than I thought I was going toward when I started.
DeleteI really don't want to use terms like "whining" and "obsessing". I apologize if that is what folks took away.
History certainly affects where we start from. But history shouldn't and doesn't fully determine what we do over the course of our lives. My message isn't "Stop whining"; it's "Don't despair."
Reconciliation has the possibility of redirecting history. It's what transforms grudges into peaceful and loving relationships. We can't change what happened to our forebears. But we can redirect relationships so what happened to them doesn't happen to us.
Thanks for your response.
DeleteI honestly don't know how African-Americans as a group can be expected to reconcile or not despair when it is clear that there are still inequities built into the system. My sense is that older African-Americans can see that things have improved, but younger ones, brought up on hearing about past suffering, are often quick to see themselves as merely the latest generation to have to deal with the same old sh*t in a more insidious or covert form.
Laws are great, but first you have to prove discrimination. That's hard, it costs money, and it is a time drain. A lot of people don't have those resources. That's why I started giving money to the ACLU again.
I'm pretty sure you have enough imagination to know what would happen if you decided to drive over to Kenosha and start preaching "don't despair and forgive" to the young people in the street.
I'm not sure how this all ties in with your conservatism. My conservative friends came from stable families, took regular family vacations and visits, had plenty to eat, a nice home, clothes that were bought new off the rack, were blessed with at least average levels of sanity and intelligence, had a range of educational choices and career options, indoor plumbing, electric range, central heating, automatic garage door opener--the whole schmeer.
They're all real nice, happy people who would tell you that their families were really very modest without understanding how "rich" that might look to someone else. I understand why they like the status quo or even want to tip it a bit more so that they can keep more of their money to improve the advantages and choices that they can offer to their children.
Some of them were brought up with a sense of noblesse oblige with regard to the "disadvantaged" and believe from those experiences that networks of do-gooders should be handling charity rather than the cold and impersonal bureaucrats in the federal government.
Oops, hit "publish" before this rant was done!
DeleteTo conclude:
I'm sure you are a nice person, Jim, but being nice isn't going to fix this. We need some hard-nosed S.O.B.'s to force some oversight on cops, demilitarize police forces, carve out funding to handle increasing numbers of homeless, addicts, and mentally ill people who seem to be roaming the streets unsupervised, and to take to task private enterprises that perpetuate discrimination in access to capital and real estate.
That would be the bare minimum.
I also think conservatives need to ask themselves some really hard questions about the kind of candidates they want to support for office.
Jean - thanks so much for putting the picture into sharper relief.
DeleteI was every bit as conservative as Jim (and the others you describe) for most of my life. My eyes finally opened. My main regret is that it took so long for me to see what was always there in front of me, but which I had literally been trained not to see by my very conservative family upbringing. My husband and I both lived in conservative bubbles - all of our family and most of our friends were very conservative. (The ACLU was the enemy!) I never heard a word of overt racism. But I heard plenty about why poor people are poor. And what I heard was mostly wrong.
Sometimes old dogs can learn too, can change. But when they do, the change can be pretty painful. But, to live with personal integrity, the pain caused by the changes must be accepted also.
"I'm pretty sure you have enough imagination to know what would happen if you decided to drive over to Kenosha and start preaching "don't despair and forgive" to the young people in the street."
DeleteYeah, that could be an exercise in spreading good seed on rocky soil.
At any rate, forgiveness usually comes after examination and repentance on the part of the other party. That's probably a better place to start.
"We need some hard-nosed S.O.B.'s to force some oversight on cops, demilitarize police forces, carve out funding to handle increasing numbers of homeless, addicts, and mentally ill people who seem to be roaming the streets unsupervised, and to take to task private enterprises that perpetuate discrimination in access to capital and real estate."
DeleteOk. But why aren't the current officeholders in our urban areas, virtually all of whom have been Democrats for the last two generations at least, being held accountable for any of this? Don't they do hard-nosed? Can't they demilitarize? Can't they investigate, fine and shame the redliners?
As I live in an urban area, I'll answer my own questions as they apply to my locale: no, they haven't done hard-nosed against the cops; yes, they can demilitarize but haven't, because nobody of any party can resist federal largesse; and they're in cahoots with the corrupt lenders and brokers. I will say they have done better than some of their brethren in other cities and states when it comes to burning and looting: we've only had two major incidents in Chicago, and so far haven't been treated to the spectacle of armed white vigilantes patrolling Michigan Avenue.
I am not lauding Democrats, who have largely abandoned the working class, white and black. Republicans have never cared about labor. I think it takes grass roots movements outside politics, but, as we see from Kenosha and Portland, that often isn't pretty.
DeleteIf you want to make it about Democrats, OK: Why don't they?
Lots of reasons, I expect: Inertia, waiting for "black leaders" to step in, apathy, preoccupation with other priorities, corruption, lack of awareness until all hell breaks loose, feeling the problem is too overwhelming, etc.
Pick any mayor of Chicago or Detroit and look at their administrations, and the many failings are there.
"I also believe that the effects of history diminish with each generation."
ReplyDeleteNot if the history is renewed in different form. In a discussion of dysfunctional Black families the other day, I noted:
"The first people to break up black families were slave traders. The second were slave owners. The third were conservatives who insisted on a “no man in the house” rule for child welfare. The fourth were the law and order types (Biden was one once) who insisted people like Joe White and John Black “do the time” for using weed, although, in practice, the law only applied to John because Joe got off with a warning."
That is a quick-and-dirty analysis, but in the end there is always a structure working against family cohesion over the course of 400 years. That doesn't die when a generation does.
Yes, I agree - when the history is renewed from one generation to the next, it stops being history in the "past" sense: it's present reality. It becomes what I think of as personal history: stuff that has happened, not just to my forebears, but to me.
DeleteThere are at least three factors that are present in this discussion: racism, economic opportunity and criminal justice. None of those is simple to address, but of the three, criminal justice seems the least hard, because fixing it should be a matter of legislation and regulation.
My view of economic opportunity and flourishing is that it's a function of education. In a sense, that's hard observation, because for nearly all adults, education already is over. If it didn't succeed in lifting us, then our window may already be closing - may already have slammed shut. Maybe what's realistic is doing better for our children and grandchildren.
As for racism: until Donald Trump's hostile takeover of the GOP, I believed, naively in retrospect, that addressing it was an intergenerational project. Each generation gets us a little closer to righteousness. My new, adjusted, more jaundiced view is that whatever progress we make on racism doesn't span an entire generation; it spans parts of a generation; racism itself is also intergenerational, and some racist parents pass their racism to their children. Makes me ill to think of it.
I think racism can also be "caught" from a peer group, not to mention if people hang out in a type of silo with their social media. Of course if they hang out there it's probable that they find the message agreeable.
DeleteWith Covid and politics occupying our attention these days we haven't heard much about ISIS or radicalized Islam lately, but recall how some people were radicalized online without a previous history of involvement. I believe it could be the same with racism.
Katherine, according to the FBI data, the numbers of hate crimes have risen sharply since 2016. In addition, there has been dramatic growth in the numbers of groups identified by the FBI as hate groups (mostly white supremacists and anti-Jewish). They have had great recruiting success online during the last couple of years, and they now use the internet to not only recruit, but to summon their heavily armed members to places like Portland and Kenosha, egged on by Trump. They admit that they are preparing for a fight if Trump is not re-elected or if he declares voter fraud. Trump made racism acceptable, brought it out from under the rocks, and now our country is paying the price. He now doesn't even pretend to hide the racist nature of his campaign.
ReplyDelete"Trump made racism acceptable"
ReplyDeleteNot in my house. Not in the households of people in my little circle.
Jim, maybe not in your house. But in a whole lot of houses and social circles the racists felt brave enough to reveal themselves. I was shocked at some of the comments I have heard during the past four years from a couple of family members and one very close friend for more than 35 years.
DeleteMost trump voters did not vote for him because of his racism, but they did vote for him in spite of it. They were comfortable, middle class, white voters who don't really get what has been driving the "black lives matters" movement, and trump's clearly racist views weren't enough to stop them from supporting him.
Anne, I'm also dismayed at the continuing racism. I thought that, as a people, we were better than that.
DeleteI don't know whether the issue of police brutality and mistreatment of Blacks is a different issue or the same issue. Urban police forces tend to recruit white working-class kids, so maybe each new recruiting class injects a fresh supply of bias. But its enculturation into police culture would seem to raise it to another level of poison.
The n-word is plainly back in places where it seemed to have been eradicated. The reason is, we don't have to be (air quotes) politically correct anymore. The president even gets to cuss at news conferences. I remember the hoo-haw when George McGovern called a horse's ass a "horse's ass." When you don't have to be (air quotes) politically correct, you can be as boorish as you wish.
DeleteWhen I was a kid, the word "politically correct" hadn't been invented yet. But my mother, who has an exquisitely tuned radar for all things trailer trash, banned the n-word from our house. I don't know to what extent she was motivated by any sense of racial justice which would pass muster with today's wokesters. From what I can tell, she just considered it an unworthy word. Racial topics were not discussed in front of the children. She and my dad both were products of 12 years of Catholic primary schooling in my hometown. I don't know whether views of racial prejudice and injustice would have been reinforced in those classrooms during their own school days, which would have been in the 1940s and 50s. Did the Baltimore Catechism have anything to day about it? No idea.
DeleteHer own family's history was one of "white flight". The block she grew up on was a white middle class block, not far from the city's Black neighborhoods. All the white people on that block sold their houses sometime in the 1950s or 1960s as the Black population expanded. I did hear her dad, my grandfather, utter the n-word once, years later, when he was watching a Pistons game on television and had a few pours of Canadian Club in him. So my overall take is that people of my mother's family's social class (they were a country club family) thought it was uncouth to use the n-word, but on that one occasion, my grandfather's mask slipped.
Education is probably the most important obstacle facing the poor, especially minorities. Charter schools and vouchers are not a really good idea. What IS needed is getting rid of depending on the local property tax as the source of funding for public schools. Obviously, the schools in a community like mine (well above average incomes and well above average property values) have a lot of advantages over public schools in inner cities, or pubic schools in many rural areas.
ReplyDeleteMany countries have far more effective educational systems than does the very fragmented US system. I don't understand why Americans are so arrogant that they refuse to look at what the successful countries do, (also in how they manage to provide universal healthcare at a fraction of what the US spends). Finland is rated among the very top and their system is fascinating. Their educational systems has a totally different emphasis, and it seems to work. Norway also has a very interesting educational system. There are several different models of education in the world that produce a better educated - and employable - populace than does the US. And these don't require that every student try for a college degree. Most American kids who start college don't finish. But they are stuck with a huge educational loan, pushed on them by the marginal colleges, especially by online colleges that are not part of a regular system (most of the online offering of state universities are legit).
But, without a really solid primary level education, most disadvantaged kids will never catch up. There are a few decent charter schools, but most aren't any better, and are often worse, than the public schools in their cities. Especially the for-profit charter schools. One of my sons taught in one of those for a year and his stories are hair-raising. The biggest problem is that they are trying to make a profit, and care little about the students. They just want that tax money with as little oversight as possible.
Our state allows students to opt into another school in the public system if they prefer it to the one in their area, if there is room (big "if"). There are some charter schools that are part of the public system, and are non-profit. I'm not quite sure how that works. I don't think we have allowed any for-profit charters yet. One big issue with opting into another school is getting there. There is limited bus service within one's area, but families are on their own for transportation outside that area.
DeleteOur town has two public high schools, the big town one, and the smaller rural one. There is quite a bit of back and forth with kids opting into one or the other. Both schools have a good reputation, which isn't always the case in more urban districts.
All charter schools are public schools - they are funded by the same funding that funds the "standard" public schools. That is one practical reason that teacher unions hate charter schools: they reduce the size of the pot available to pay union members.
DeleteCharter schools come in a vast variety. Some are extremely successful, with significantly better outcomes than public schools in the same district. Those with better outcomes should be studied, and their practices adopted more broadly across those school districts; it's pretty damning that the powers that be resist that.
Anne, in your comment, you disparage charter schools in the first paragraph, and then in the next paragraph urge school districts to try different approaches which have been successful in other countries. But that is precisely the reason for the existence of charter schools: to allow school districts to try different, alternative (and hopefully better) approaches. I don't have any reason to suppose that any large, urban school district would ever, by its own volition, undertake the self-reflection and reforming spirit to try different approaches which have been demonstrated to work elsewhere. Even those districts with charter school programs had those programs shoved down their throats despite the districts' all-out resistance to them. The energies of these districts (certainly including their teachers) are poured into maintaining the status quo, which apparently serves their administrators and teachers, but manifestly doesn't serve the students very well. If those powers that be could make the charter schools disappear, they would do so tomorrow.
This is from a book review of a recent book by Thomas Sowell which compares charter and public school performance.
Delete"Sowell’s major analysis considers the overwhelmingly black and Hispanic student populations in both charters and conventional public schools in New York City. Why these students? For one thing, Sowell has gone to great lengths here to compare students who are very similar to one another. In fact, Sowell’s main study is limited to charter-school students attending class in the same building as conventional public-school students in the same grade, in schools that are majority-black and -Hispanic, with a special focus on the charter-school networks that meet in five or more buildings, meaning the biggest charter groups: KIPP, Success Academy, Explore, Uncommon, and Achievement First. Focusing on these New York City students has a couple of added benefits: New York keeps track of students by ethnicity and socioeconomic status, facilitating a better apples-to-apples comparison, and — crucially, for the purposes of this kind of study — it assigns children to charter schools through a lottery. Parents have to nominate their children for a spot, and there is presumably some difference between the parents who bother and the parents who don’t, but the charter schools are not able to cherry-pick the best students and thereby pad out their performance numbers ...
"There is, as one would expect, significant variability in the performance of the charter schools, just as there is significant variability in the performance of the conventional public schools ... In almost every case, the charter schools — including the worst of them — outperformed the conventional public schools operating in the same buildings, in the same neighborhoods, serving very similar students. In most cases, the share of charter-school students achieving proficiency or better on standardized tests was a multiple of the number of the conventional public-school students doing so; similarly, in most cases the number of conventional public-school students receiving the lowest classification on those same tests was some multiple of the number of charter-school students doing so. Sowell lets the data speak for themselves, reporting the high and low English and math figures for each of his comparison sets."
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Delete"For the charter schools, the data are a litany of triumph, and for the conventional public schools, they are a lamentation. In the KIPP schools, for example, the majority of students scored proficient or better in English in ten of the 14 grades meeting the criteria for comparison; in the conventional schools housed in the same buildings, a majority of the students achieved proficiency in only one of the 20 grades. (Some of the buildings were home to more than one public school, which is why there are more public grades in this case than charters.) None of the KIPP schools had 40 percent of their students ranking in the bottom English category; the majority of the conventional public schools did, and in eight of the 20 grades the majority of conventional-public-school students were in the bottom category. At Success Academy, 0.00 percent of the students scored in the bottom category in English in 26 of 30 grade levels; in the publics, the majority of students in eleven of 20 grade levels were at the bottom. In the worst-performing Success Academy school, only 5 percent of the students scored in the bottom category in English — only one point higher than in the best-performing public. A majority of the Success Academy students scored in the top category in math — above proficient — in every grade level. In the conventional schools meeting in the same buildings, none had a majority in any grade level scoring in the top category, and in the vast majority of grades (26 out of 30), the majority failed to achieve proficiency."
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/07/27/the-collapsing-case-against-charter-schools/
When I hear "school reform," I reach for my Luger. Palm Beach County has two schools that turn up on many best-in-the-nation lists, and both are public. For both the student needs to pass tests to get in. Both draw from all over the county. Both have the best of everything the School Board can provide. Both have the best of everything their parents can provide, and isn't it a miracle that all of the parents come from the same socio-economic groupings and can provide for a lot most parents can't? It is a miracle that no newspaper or TV reporter ever had a kid fail to get in. Such a miracle. Can't imagine how those School Board-run schools got so good.
DeleteFor many years I served on the panel that made the college scholarship awards in literature for a program the newspaper sponsored for graduating seniors. It was truly a miracle that so many of the candidates from those schools had spent a summer at Duke or Stanford, in sort of pre-college lit courses, or had spent a summer abroad soaking up French. Very odd that kids from other schools failed to take advantage of such opportunities. Very odd that Sowell hasn't thought much about it.
Where did I put my bullets?
This article from Atlantic on charter schools is sorta kinda favorable, while pointing out some drawbacks.
DeleteObviously I have no personal experience with charter schools, they seem to be an urban phenomenon. It seems like they are somewhat voluntary, in that families have to opt in, or enter a "lottery" to get in. So some questions, can a student lose his or her place in a charter school, that is get expelled for disruptive behavior? The regular public schools are somewhat limited as to what they can do in this situation. Do charter schools have to provide special education services to those with learning disabilities or problems such as autism? Are they required to be handicapped accessible, and provide para aides to those with mobility problems, are non-verbal, or have other issues of this kind? If the answer is no to any of these, then they are to a degree cherry picking.
Teachers' unions get a bad rep, and we don't have them in smaller towns, seem to be able to deal with issues without them. However, they exist for a reason. In large urban systems the teachers need some recourse and advocacy, such as now with Covid. There is the matter of pay, too. Are charter teachers paid less in some instances?
I can see where charters could provide smaller learning environments, with a less anonymous situation for the students, also more innovation. If that is necessarily an advantage. Sometimes innovation is whatever is the latest and greatest theory to come out being pushed by givers of seminars and workshops.
The Atlantic article has this question; "Do charter schools lift students as much as they reflect the aspirations of political activists and private donors? It seems that the abstract idea of charter schools began to outshine hard evidence on whether they were having a positive impact on student learning."
Definitely a "for profit" aspect muddies the waters. And I have a visceral reaction to anything pushed by Betsy DeVos, and her sketchy family connections.
Tom, I can't speak to what goes on in Palm Beach County, but what you've described would be known in the Chicago Public Schools as a magnet school, not a charter school. Magnet schools in Chicago also appear on best-of-the-best lists, and just as you describe, not just anyone can get into them; they have entrance tests and other ways of culling out the less-than-elite. Magnet schools also are funded by public school funds, i.e. our tax dollars. I'm somewhat skeptical of them, as their chief purpose seems to be to burnish the reputation of school districts which on the whole have failed huge numbers of students, especially Black and Hispanic students, for generations. That said: if I was a parent, I would absolutely try to get my children admitted to a magnet school, because they certainly do open doors to colleges which otherwise would be difficult to budge for a kid coming out of CPD. That's basically a if-my-kid-succeeds-damn-yours approach which seems wrong (and certainly not in the spirit of public schools) but which the system forces parents to participate in.
DeleteAt least around here, and also in New York (which seems to be the source of Sowell's study as reported in that book review), charter schools are not permitted to show preference in admission. If the number of applicants to charter schools exceeds the number of available seats, the students are chosen via a lottery.
I have been following the progress of this school, Nelson Mandela Elementary. It is a free private school.
Delete"The criteria to attend Mandela is that students live within a 1.5-mile radius of the school and qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The families of each scholar commit 20 hours of their time each school year to volunteer and take classes."
It is interesting that the parental buy-in is 20 hours of volunteer time a year.
Jim, Yeah, they call them magnet schools here, too. But all they do, in a convoluted way, is show the public schools can educate the rich and supported very well. The public schools -- although no one believes this -- also can help he poor and unsupported rise above abject hopelessness. What the public schools can't do -- and what charter schools can't do, either -- is raise up the middling students. The kids who once would have found good jobs in the factories cannot, in any education system known in the United States (maybe in Finland or Japan?) lift up those kids, now that the factory jobs are gone, into the economy of which we are so proud.
DeleteIn Palm Beach County there are a handful of charter schools that, like our magnet schools, do a fine job of raising additional funds and producing achievement in kids who would achieve anywhere. The rest are of a piece with the public schools, although the teachers are not as well paid and the odds of them operating for eight years of an elementary education are not so hot. (A few shysters became millionaires on public money from charter schools before they decided that running one is harder than playing golf.)
The education problem is a class problem. Redesigning schools, renaming programs and reinventing curricula have proven ineffective at dealing with the problem. And now, after 30 years of "education governors" who played with one fad after another, we have a populace that drinks bleach (50 cases in Texas, once a hot spot for an education governor, alone) because the nincompoop says it's good for them and refuses to wear masks because the Constitution says they don't hafta (sic).
Tom, there is such a thing as invincible ignorance. I don't know if it altogether a class problem. Isn't there a Scripture quote about "...none so blind as those who will not see"?
DeleteTom, you raise a good point about the "middling students." It's all about getting kids into four-year colleges and a bachelor's degree now. "Industrial arts" programs, which were vibrant when I was in school, are pretty much dead now.
DeleteSome of the kids who are "good with their hands" go into the nuts and bolts of computer careers. The Boy has a small side business in sound recording, and is quite good at it. But often those who can't deal with the rigors of a four-year degree have to pick up this stuff on their own.
Also, jobs that should be valued often don't pay squat. Nurses assistants, veterinary techs, massage therapists, physical therapy assistants, hospice workers, barbers and beauticians who rent chairs--skilled workers usually have a couple years of post-high-school training, but often can't command much more than $10 an hour or get benefits.
If you are at some kind of ethnic disadvantage and can only afford modest training after high school, just getting through the program and getting hired is a struggle, never mind trying to live on the wages you'll earn.
A somewhat dated report on how charter schools failed in Detroit. I have read similar articles more recently. I will need some time to gather my info on Finland, Norway, and some of the other educational systems.
Deletehttps://tinyurl.com/y5qw95w3
This is a pretty good summary of the charter school movements history and effectiveness over 25 years.
Deletehttps://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/17/05/battle-over-charter-schools
Tom, concur with all of your observations about the school situation where you are. Pretty much the same here. The kids from wealthy neighborhoods mostly succeed whether in one of the public schools, which are well funded and good quality, or a magnet school, or a private school. There are no charter schools in our county, but there are a few in DC. They also have a mixed record.
DeleteAnne, I read both the articles you linked, and as nearly as I can tell, they didn't give either the charters or the traditional public schools very high marks for outstanding educational achievement. Money is part of it but maybe there are other pieces missing.
DeleteI haven't heard too many people justifying Trump's racism. What I have heard is "At least he's not a baby killer."
ReplyDeleteKatherine, I don't hear my educated, respectable, professional family members and friends "justifying" trump's racism - they are too sophisticated for that. But it doesn't bother them either. What I hear is a lack of understanding of why blacks have had it up to here, and a feeling that the tax cuts and stock market gains are more important than trying to do something about racism. I have only one relative who is in the single issue vote camp - abortion is the only evil she sees.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of Republicans who are bothered by Trump's dog whistles. For some of them, that is a deal-breaker (one among many). For some of them, it isn't.
DeleteUntil 2016 I voted for the GOP candidate for Pres, even if I had to hold my nose to do it. In 2016, I held my nose and voted for Hillary. I saved something I saw after the election in 2016 because it expressed my feelings quite well. It appeared in a Florida newspaper website.
Deletehttps://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/letters/fl-letter-donald-trump-supporter-anger-20161130-story.html
Those of us who have voted in numerous presidential elections surely have had wins and losses. After each of those losses, I suspect that you, like I, were able to accept the results and move forward.
But I am having serious problems "getting over" this one. Recently I came to the realization that the problem goes much deeper than just coming to grips with who won. Rather, I have finally discovered that my continuing malaise and distress are due to the reality that several long-time friendships have been changed, most likely forever.
The other day I sent the following email to two friends who were particularly adamant and outspoken in their support of the now president-elect:
"Please understand that I am not mad at you because Clinton lost. I am totally unconcerned that you and I have different 'politics.' And I don't think less of you because you voted one way and I another.
"No, I think less of you because you watched an adult mock a disabled person while addressing a crowd and still supported him. I think less of you because you saw a candidate spout clear racism day after day and still backed him. I think less of you because you heard him advocate for war crimes and still thought he should be given the reins of government. I think less of you because you watched him equate a woman's worth to where she landed on a scale of 1 to 10 and still got on board. I think less of you because you stood by silently while he labeled Mexicans as criminals and Muslims as terrorists.
"It wasn't your politics I found repulsive. No, it was your willingness to support someone who spouts racism, sexism, and cruelty almost every time he opens his mouth. You sided with a bully when it should have mattered most, and that is something I will never be able to forget.
"So in response to your post-election expression of hope, no, you and I won't be 'coming together to move forward.' Obviously, the president-elect disgusts me; but it is the fact that he doesn't disgust you that will stick with me long after the election."
Phil Shailer, Hollywood
Trump has shown himself to be even worse than he revealed himself to be four years ago, something I had not thought possible. So many long-time conservative friends told me "it's just election talk. Hyperbole, He won't do it". Well, he did it and much worse.
So, we no longer have any close relationships with Trump supporters.
I have no problem with disagreements on trade policy, or tax policy, etc. Those are normal political issues.
Since abortion will not end in this country, no matter how much hot air is put out there by politicians, especially Trump (who is anti-abortion for political reasons and not for moral reasons), I looked at the hate that trump was exuding from his pores, and voted for Hillary. It makes me sad that so many Republicans - more than 90% still support him. It makes me even sadder that more than 50% of white Catholics also support him. And that more than 70% of evangelicals still support him (at least that has declined somewhat in the last four year).
If I unfriended everyone who was a Trump supporter I might as well just move to a desert island. I view many of them as having Stockholm syndrome or being in a cult. I refuse to discuss politics with most people and try to keep in mind the good qualities that I liked about them prior to all this happening. They are in denial and think the liberal media just made it all up because they hate Trump.
DeleteMy husband doesn't like Trump either, but he's never been a very political animal and wishes people would just get along. Can't say I'm all that much different.
I'm kind of glad my mom didn't live to see this because she was a political animal; even ran for the state legislature once. I hope she would have been a Lincoln Project type of Republican, because there's no doubt that she would always be a Republican. I couldn't avoid talking about politics with her and it didn't always end well.
There's a song about "in heaven there is no beer", I'll be happy that in heaven there is no politics.
DeleteI like to think that in Heaven, we forget everything except that we love God, creation, and Jesus. No more beating ourselves up over our sins or gossiping about how the person seated next to you at the Table was a real blister in his/her life on earth.
DeleteKatharine, we do live on a deserted island more or less. Fewer social contacts these days. But better to be comfortable with our fewer than before family/friend social contacts than to have strained conversations with everyone tiptoeing around the trumpian elephant in the room.
DeleteI think that the US is facing an existential crisis right now. Garrison Keillor posted a comment on FB noting that this election will reveal who we really are as a people. Not reassuring.
In a little less than two months, we will find out something we need to know about our country, namely who we are. An article in a current magazine argues that the Trump administration has held a mirror up to the nation and shown us how twisted and irrational and racist and violent we are and how the country needs a cultural revolution. Mr. Trump is not like anybody I’ve ever known or met, nobody I’m related to, nobody I’ve ever worked with, and if indeed he reflects this society, then it’s obvious that I don’t belong here. What we need is not a revolution but a respect for decency and honesty. My people left Yorkshire and Holland and came to the colonies for economic reasons. Some of them were of a strict religious minority that was somewhat out of tune with the world around them but they were able to live at peace here and practice their faith and not feel persecuted. But the evidence mounts that the man represents an impulsive, paranoid, self-gratifying, proudly ill-informed, contemptuous view of public office, and if this succeeds in November, the nation is suffering from a death wish and why would a person who loves this country want to stay around and watch more of the same awful drama? It is horrifying to see how close the race is in Minnesota, my home state. Perhaps I know nothing whatsoever about the Midwest. If so, then who am I? It’s an agonizing time. Joe Biden was a decent senator from a safe seat in a small state, no giant in the Senate, and Democrats were in no rush to nominate him, but the man has risen to the moment, and he has come at Trump good and hard for his sheer indifference and laziness and contempt for the Constitution, his contempt for science and for our military, his psychotic break with reality. He is waging war. Progressives might wish for more but when you're fighting for the life of the country, you don't think long term, you focus on the immediate, and in November we must rid America of this man. We're in the hands of a showman who has no principles, no idea of what principles are, only a deep craving for attention. Pack him off to Florida and let's have a president.
I don't criticize anyone who has had their personal relationships wounded or even severed over Donald Trump.
DeleteAt the same time, I'd be remiss if I didn't note Jesus calls us to reconciliation. At a bare minimum, I think that means not giving up on those friends and family. Somehow, we have to find a way to witness to what is true and right, in a way that is loving and open and without compromising on what is true and right. Very hard, and likely to leave us with many bruises.
The lyrics to the song Katherine cited:
DeleteIn Heaven there is no beer
That's why we drink it here
And when we're gone from here
All our friends will be drinking all that beer
La, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
In Heaven there is no beer
That's why we drink it here
And when we're gone from here
All our friends will be drinking all that beer
La, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
https://genius.com/Frankie-yankovic-in-heaven-there-is-no-beer-lyrics
Now who will pen, "In heaven, there is no Trump"?
Well, we'll hope Trump gets to heaven. But heaven's a big place, right? He doesn't have to be in the corner I'm (hopefully) in!
DeleteI’m not really sure what reconciling with friends or family who support trump means in practice. People end friendships for many reasons. This is just one of many reasons a friendship might end. When values are no longer shared, there really is no reason to force it. We don’t choose our relatives, but we can choose whether or not to interact with them and at what level. Once again, if fundamental values are not shared, even if dna is, there is little reason to interact. I email my trump loving family members occasionally, but minimally. Only as needed. I have no desire to see them though. They probably feel the same way about me.
DeleteJim's point about reconciliation, or forgiveness, came up Wednesday morning because next Sunday's Gospel is the 70x7 forgiveness Gospel. It's one thing to forgive someone who has said or done something to hurt you once. We agreed it is hard but can be done. But when the hurt is widespread, done to others even more than to you, and continuing, then when is the TIME for forgiveness. At which 490 points in the life of Hitler or the man who consistently bullies his family (or country) are we called to forgive?
DeleteTom - Jesus' teachings on these matters seem very much to be about our personal relationships with one another, and a person's individual place in the church. For problems of a wider social dimension, like racism or genocide, I think we're looking at some variation on a truth-and-reconciliation process to try to bring about healing.
DeleteAnne, that Garrison Keillor reflection is great. I shared it with my wife.
DeleteKatherine, yes, in heaven there are many mansions, kind of like Mar-a-Lago but cloudier.
DeleteHere is my first draft:
In heaven, there is no Trump
So let's kick him in his rump
With him, we're up a stump
All our friends want to send him to the dump.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
No rights reserved.
I really hope no one here is taking the holy name of Frank Yankovic in vain. I live in a heavily Czech-German-Polish area of Michigan, and I could turn on the local radio station right now and hear wall-to-wall polkas for 24 hours straight. Fortunately, Raber only listens to the polkas while doing the dishes. Usually that's their dedication hour. People take their polkas, their kolaches, and their cabbage rolls pretty damn seriously. Which reminds me of John Candy and Eugene Levy who used to do that Schmenge Brothers schtick. Cabbage rolls and coffee, mmm mmm good! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzCPTsVtmAw
DeleteA few articles about educational systems in other countries. The one that most appeals to me is Finland's and I have linked to several articles on their system.
ReplyDeleteAn overview of several countries
https://ncee.org/what-we-do/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/
A selection of articles on the Finnish way of educating their children.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/10-reasons-why-finlands-education-system-is-the-best-in-the-world
https://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/finland-school-system-107137
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/
In the US, most education majors and teachers now come from the bottom quartile of their college classes. In Finland, teachers receive extensive training, and places in the teaching schools are harder to get than medical or law schools. The teachers are highly respected and well paid.
https://hechingerreport.org/teacher-voice-in-finland-its-easier-to-become-a-doctor-or-lawyer-than-a-teacher-heres-why/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/07/i-have-seen-the-school-of-tomorrow-it-is-here-today-in-finland/
Insights from an American who teaches in Finland
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-joyful-illiterate-kindergartners-of-finland/408325/
Several European countries, such as Germany, issue tests at age 11 or 12, selecting students to go to an academic high school for university prep, or to a more vocational school. I have mixed feelings about that approach as 11 or 12 is really too young to be closing doors. On the other hand, the kids who go to the vocational schools receive outstanding training, often including work-internships while still in high school, that open the way to well-paid, even though,non-degreed jobs. I believe that this is the approach taken by the Jesuits Cristo Rey schools which are tuition free.
https://www.cristoreynetwork.org/
A few years back I read an interesting study on Norway's system. They also provide high school options, but the students themselves select their future educational path at age 15 for their final two years in secondary school. Once again, the "vocational" path is well-respected, and again offers real world training on the job, academic courses, and reliable assurance of a future with growth in their chosen field of interest.
Thinking a little bit more about magnet schools and Finland: I wonder to what extent our national history of racial and class segregation plays a part in this. Without thinking about it very much, my wife and I did our part to segregate: when we decided we wanted to have children, we looked around at where we were living at the time - Chicago - and said, "We don't want to rear children here". So we moved to the suburbs. The schools are pretty good around here. That's how we solved the urban public school problem - we went somewhere with better schools. Not to mention lower crime and, frankly, nicer people.
ReplyDeleteNot saying that to brag or be an idiot, just commenting that this is how parents operate in the US. Like any other parent, the problem - bad urban schools - was not of our making, and not something we could fix. So we fled. Other parents may not have the option to flee or may not wish to move away, so they look for alternatives, like Catholic schools or charter schools or magnet schools.
Maybe Finland isn't as segregated as we are. Maybe the gulf between the haves and have-nots isn't as wide and deep as it is here. Just guessing.
I'm going to have to read up on the educational system in Finland. But what I'm picking up is that they do a better job of providing a path for those who aren't college bound. Relating to what Tom said earlier about lifting up the middling students, which seem to fall through the cracks here.
DeleteThe Finnish system is dramatically different from the US, starting in the early years. The attitudes toward play as learning, little in the way of standardized testing, the education of teachers, etc - I don’t know how much of their approach would work n the US, but think some of it would be worth a serious look. Especially since they are considered #1 internationally but without putting kids through the extremely rigid and stressful model that produces high international test scores in countries like South Korea.
DeleteYou might find reading about it to be interesting. I did, but I have found that not many people’s minds work in the same ways or have their interest captured by the same things.
Finland pays teachers more, and the bar for becoming certified is higher.
DeleteThe U.S. is still on an idiotic nine-month school year that puts kids behind at the beginning of the school year. How good would you be at your job if you took a three-month hiatus every year?
Our huge income disparities mean that rich districts = better schools. People who are mobile can improve their lives. Others are stuck.
People in the U.S. look out for their families first and have far less civic/social pride. We are less interested in raising up everyone than on competing for as much as we can get.
The US gets dissed for their 9 month year. I believe that not all worthwhile learning takes place in the institutional school. Catholic grade school back in the old days had its strengths. But it was also very rigid and did not encourage creativity. Summer break was what kept me sane. I read, helped my mom, spent time with grandparents, learned to cook, rode horses, did art, hung out with cousins, went to the county fair. Tried to provide some similar experiences for my kids. Year round school sounds absolutely soul sucking.
DeleteUsually with year round school, kids have two weeks off between quarters, so they are getting the time off spread over a longer period.
DeleteKnowledge retention and self discipline are problems for many kids when they are off for three months.
Many kids are signed up for an exhausting array of summer programs by their parents who have to work, so not sure that school would be any more exhausting than that.
Times are different, and there's no parent to keep an eye out for a whole summer. When The Boy was little, he wanted to go to day care up at he school a few days a week because that's where all his friends were.
Anne, that is a whole syllabus! What I read so far is good stuff. Thanks.
DeleteAnne,
ReplyDeleteI second Tom's comment. Thanks for going to the trouble to compile these pieces for us.