When I read education blogs, I often come across people who make the argument I like to call "fix society first, and then we'll fix education." They argue that it is the racism and the inequalities of our society that are really behind many of our educational problems. And as long as inequalities remain, many children cannot be educated.
This argument bothers me in so many ways.
1) First, it assumes our society is irredeemably racist. Their yard stick is perfection and anything less counts for nothing.
2) There's no acknowledgment, or perhaps knowledge, of how far we've come over the last so many decades. The law of diminishing returns must have kicked in early.
3) It assumes only white people are truly responsible for their actions, while minorities are products of their environment.
4) It assumes that the mere idea of racism is a stronger deterrent to a good education than any real obstacle, such as bad schools, low expectations, or poor parenting.
5) It is to be completely ungrateful for all the opportunities we do have here in the States. Get out and travel. See how many people would love to get into our racist, flawed country and take a shot at getting a good education.
6) It assumes society can be reformed into a utopia devoid of human prejudices and flaws. That's called a cemetery.
Children don't have multiple childhoods to waste waiting for the perfect society to be formed. We have to do the best we can in the times we live. When would have been a better time to fix education? When will these people be content with the progress we have made?
I think it all comes down to laziness. Much easier to blame a society you find distasteful anyway than to actually do anything concrete.
Those people are either ignorant or socialists (one does not preclude the other however). It's ironic that we are actually the least racist society. We're just also the most open so we talk about our problems. Show me a country with fewer race problems and I'll show you a very homogenous country. It's easy to judge when you're not faced with the same obstacles. I also think people erroneously conclude that someone who is prejudice is a racist. Someone prejudice was likely not raised around whatever group they are uncomfortable with but don't hate. These are non violent people that can easily become more comfortable with people who seem different from themselves just by being around them. They learn that we're all basically the same (at least as far as race goes, socialists are kooks no matter what color their skin:). We will never have a hate free society. If we were all the same race those same haters would find something else to hate.
Posted by: The Accidental Carpenter | 03/13/2010 at 04:03 PM
I agree. And their solutions are the same solutions for every perceived problem. We need to remake society into their idea of the perfect society, and free Mumia, and get out of Iraq, and stop supporting Israel, and get behind the health care bill, and spend more money on education, pay teachers more, pay CEOs less, support Palestine, etc. The same solutions to every problem.
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