The 4th Of July – A Quintessential American Holiday
Embodied in our founding documents is the promise of unparalleled “Opportunity For All”. This is what makes America unique. In no other country can children of poor immigrants rise to the pinnacle of wealth and power. Talent, education and hard work are building blocks of the American success story, not birthright or ethnicity.
Have we done enough to preserve our special heritage - Have we been good custodians of our patrimony? As the son of bootblack I know firsthand the opportunities that can arise when you mix education and hard work. The American system has certainly worked well for this boy from the Bronx as well as for a half African-American lawyer who recently became President of the United States and countless tens of millions of others who have risen from poverty.
In our good intentioned attempt to right injustice we seem more often to fail than succeed and I fear that in subtle ways we erode the very foundation of the American experience. Freedom to stand and fall on our own has been the hallmark of American culture. It is what foreigners admire about us and what we admire in ourselves.
We are ethically obligated to provide a safety net for the less fortunate but must do so in a way that preserves unlimited opportunity for all. Despite all our efforts to right societal wrongs we still have a bifurcated class structure in the United States but it is not rich vs. poor but rather educated vs. uneducated. For example, the current 9.5% unemployment rate is not equally distributed: the unemployment rate for college graduates is 4.7%, for those who have not graduated high school 15.5%, African American men 16.4% and for African American men and women under 20 it is a whopping 37.9%. The high unemployment rate among African Americans is correlated with the disproportionately low levels of educational achievement.
We must find a way to ensure that every American has access to the education that will ensure prosperity the 21st century global economy. We can’t go backward to the “good old days” of unskilled factory jobs for the masses; we must educate our entire population to take advantage of the opportunities of the future. All other social programs are doomed to failure if we don’t educate our children.
The United States is the single greatest investor in education in the world. For the latest year in which we have comparative data, 2004, expenditures per student for the United States were $9,368 at the combined elementary and secondary level, which was 42 percent higher than the average of $6,604 for the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). At the postsecondary level, U.S. expenditures per student were $22,476, which was nearly twice as high as the OECD average of $11,418.
Despite this expenditure, the 2006 Program for International Assessment, which measured the applied learning and problem-solving skills of 15-year-olds in 30 industrialized countries, found the U.S. ranked 25th out of 30 in math and 24th in Science. Maybe it is time to deal with root causes rather than continue to delude ourselves into to believing that by just spending a little more money we will fix a failed system. I don’t mean to imply that all school districts have all the resources they need; only that in the aggregate we already spend the money and do not reap the appropriate value for our education dollar.
First, we have to admit we have systemic disease in our education system and two aspirin won’t cure it. Second, you can only improve your average by bringing up the lower 50% not by dragging the top 50% down to the least common denominator. Our children are bright and our goal must be to must maximize their talents and stoke their ambitions. Seems simple, but it runs counter to most of our education policies.
Our inner city public school systems are a disaster. The simplistic conclusion reached by policymakers is that if we simply spend more money the gap between whites, African-Americans, Latinos and lower income students will simply disappear.
A recent report found that only about half (53%) of all young people in the nation’s 50 largest cities are graduating from high school on time. Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap, prepared for America’s Promise Alliance by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, shows that despite some progress made by several of these cities between 1995-2005, the average graduation rate of the 50 largest cities is well below the national average of 71 percent, and there remains an 18 percentage point urban- suburban gap.
Let’s address head-on the greatest challenge facing our education system: incorporating the African-American community into it. The data clearly shows that all policies to date have been a colossal failure. If I were asked whom to put in charge of solving the problem my answer would be Bill Cosby. Doctor Cosby has a firm grasp of the sociological problems within the community, the need to involve the whole family, to make doctors and lawyers as cool as athletes and rock stars and not to disadvantage our children with an illiterate and incomprehensible dialect that separates African-Americans from the rest of American society. We also need to redistribute some of our education dollars into the inner cities, but money alone will do little unless we take on the bigger issues and get the dedication of parents, teachers and the community.
On this 4th of July lets dedicate ourselves to one objective, educating all of our children so that we can truly say America is the land of unlimited “Opportunity For All”.
When I was in high school in the 70’s I wondered why we had to take 4 years of history and english, but only 2 years of math and science. Now that my daughter is in high school I’m still asking that same thing. It seems to me that our children’s educations need to focus on real world skills, as well as college prepararion. Let’s start with communications, relationships, responsibility, and coping skills versus beating, stealing, or shooting each other. Then, make personal finance a 4 year requirement instead of an elective. And, by the time a student graduates, they should know a computer inside out and upside down plus programming, analyzing, and troubleshooting. History should have been covered enough before high school. There are too many other critical things to learn- there isn’t time for 4 years of history in high school, or English for that matter. Being able to disect a sentence, or knowing what a gerund is isn’t necessary when writing an effective resume. Why aren’t kids learning about the stock market, real estate, taxes, entrepenuerial skills, or writing a business plan. If somone is that interested in history they can study it in college. More math and real world skills will help land the job–unless it’s at the museum!!!
July 4th, 2009 at 11:15 am
as a teacher in an adult ed program.. the epicenter of failed students.. i will tell you that poverty is one of the principle reasons students do not finish.. that is to say, the economic demands of their life conflict with their educational goals.. we really need to address THAT problem if we want to bring the african american and hispanic communities to the table..
SO many students do not finish or barely finish my classes because they have other life responsibilities.. they work full time, they have childcare duties, they live in a single parent house and need to help with the bills.. we cannot be surprised as a society when those students fail math or science classes because of the amount of outside of the classroom work required..
so i guess its a chicken and egg proposition.. are african americans poor because they are not educated, or are they uneducated because they’re poor
i’d say it’s a little bit of both
July 5th, 2009 at 5:11 am
@Kris
One thought - I grew up in the Bronx where the immigrant Irish, Jewish and Italian families were were far from rich but the parents extolled the virtues of education and sacrificed and we were fortunate in NY we had a free education system with schools like CCNY - My contemporaries who had no money took advantage of this opportunity - Unfortunately very few African-American families had the same motivation but those that did had the same success. Two notable CCNY graduated Colin Powell and Charlie Rangel
July 5th, 2009 at 5:33 am
i would suspect.. that if you looked across demographic groups.. you would find that the rates of educational accomplishment decline significantly as income declines.. that is, poor people generally do not finish the same level of education as middle and high income groups..
that’s what i was getting at.. the % of low income households among the black community in the US is vastly higher than other groups.. in some cases its cultural in other cases its structural.. i live in the south, so to say that the centuries of slavery and institutionalized segregation have not had a severe impact would be naive at best…. that has also had a dramatic impact on culture as well.. yes some black students do very well and go on the greater things.. but we can’t approach this by saying “see, some made it, why can’t all of you”
July 5th, 2009 at 7:50 am
also, remember, an educated african american can do anything except become white, just as barack obama =)
if you don’t think race is important.. remember all of the bizarre stories about his lack of birth certificate, secret muslim allegiance, etc.. do you HONESTLY believe that would have been possible, or even credible if he were white? prob. not….
so that’s important as well.. a an african american can do anything in our society except become white
July 5th, 2009 at 7:56 am
The biggest myth propagated by the whining liberals is that the sole cause of the lack of education amongst blacks is poverty.
I have spent a large part of my life in Africa, there is no public education, health care of welfare for most. The people know if they do not get an education their life will be rotten. I have seen barefoot kids trudging for miles to go to a “school” which consisted of nothing but a blackboard under a mango tree and a dedicated teacher. I have seen families give their last chicken in lieu of school fees. I gave them the bricks for the walls and the corrugated for the roof, they did the rest themselves. Luckily I stayed long enough to see some of those kids to go to University
all while living a life of poverty that makes those of US poor blacks look like living in the lap of luxury.
Poverty has never been an impediment to education, many of the world’s great minds grew up in poverty. Lack of motivation is.
July 5th, 2009 at 9:21 am
so you’re saying that there’s no correlation between poverty and education level?
there’s a whole mountain of evidence that says otherwise throughout the developed world..
but hey, just keep saying it enough and it’ll become true
July 5th, 2009 at 10:25 am
i would even bet, call me crazy here, that there’s a larger correlation between lack of education and poverty in africa.. but like i said.. just keep bringing up anecdotal stories, which may or may not be true (anecdotal stories mean that there’s no evidence, so i’ll tell a story to make you feel good or bad =)..
like ronald reagan’s apocryphal welfare queen…
July 5th, 2009 at 10:31 am
@Kris
You were right the first time it’s a chicken and egg problem but all of the immigrant groups including the more recent Koreans, Chinese Indians etc. who arrived with nothing in their pockets have found a way to take advantage of the US educational system and thrive. Motivation is the key. Dr. Bill Cosby has a firm grasp of the sociological problems within the African-American community, the need to involve the whole family, to make doctors and lawyers as cool as athletes and rock stars and not to disadvantage our children with an illiterate and incomprehensible dialect that separates African-Americans from the rest of American society.
July 5th, 2009 at 11:22 am
i agree with you mostly =)
big difference is that the chinese and koreans you mentioned are immigrants.. immigrants do better in everything than the rest of the population.. even military medaling.
black america has been subjected to slavery, segregation, state sponsored violence, much of which is prevalent to this day (google what “guliani time” means)
that does not make for a culture of winning..
you are right, that this has led to culture that does not favorably view the long term economic value of things like education..
the point i’m ultimately making is that let’s not be naive and pretend that race doesn’t matter
July 5th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Race matters only in that Blacks have been held down by a system that encourages them to not work. The most negative result of the welfare state is the destruction of a Black business class. An entire group was enslaved to Uncle Sam. I argue (as others have) that the welfare is the New Plantation. While Kris may call it anecdotal, everywhere I see a Black family with parents who value education and discipline, I see a successful family with children who do well in school. The lie that has been perpetuated is not that there is no relationship between poverty and education/success, but rather that “Black people can’t succeed because….” It is cultural in that Blacks have been told for so long that they can’t make it without the largess of the White man that it has become the truth.
I have lived extensively in the south as well as the north in my 53 years. I know what it was like and what it is like. I have seen people from all walks succeed and fail. The only commonality is their values of education, hard work and self-discipline.
July 11th, 2009 at 3:44 am
Benjamin Franklin said in a letter dated 1766 to Messieurs the PUBLIC and CO published in the London Chronicle.
So sure Kris, there may be a correlation between poverty and lack of education but the real problem is not that their poor it’s that government lets them be poor by providing them all sorts of subsidies that just take the motivation factor away completely.
I think one of the best ways to ensure a successful school career is to start very early teaching critical thinking skills. I mean the whole shebang not just problem solving. Teach children about rhetoric so they can learn to recognize it when their laziest teachers and public officials use fallacious arguments to further their agenda. I tell you what, if our young people of voting age today weren’t so naive they wouldn’t have voted for Obama or McCain. Especially in Obama’s case they would have been able to see his arguments and promises for exactly what they were, empty fluff to woo a crowd.
July 12th, 2009 at 8:35 am
My parents always brought me up with the idea that saying “Them what has, gets” leads to ruin. I grew up in the midwest with plenty of poor people, but few or no minorities. What I noticed was that, our school system was not well funded, we had old books and older equipment. But if you wanted to learn, and your family supported you, then it didn’t matter. Sure, you had kids who missed school to help with the crops in Spring and Fall, but they were there during other times. The kids who didn’t do well were the ones who didn’t care. That is where the difference is. It doesn’t matter if your Math book was printed in 1940 or 2009, 2+2=4. Whether you write it on a scrap piece of paper, a chalkboard, or a powerpoint, it doesn’t matter. In my highschool, 4 years of math, science, english, and history were required. If you got below a C, the coach pulled you from the team. We didn’t win much in sports, but we focused more on education and were rewarded for it.
I think one problem with our education system is the idea of grades, ie 1-12. Someone may read at a 8th grade level, but only be able to do math at a 2nd grade level. So while they can read, they can’t count change back. I think we would do better to teach to the students instead of the grade. But that is just my thoughts. Instead of turning out graduates who can read billboards and television ads, but can’t do their own bills at home.
And it doesn’t matter where, I had a bagger at the grocery store in a expensive suburb with good schools stare at me dumbfounded when I told her to put all my produce in one bag. She finally asked what is produce? Not sure, but I think you have to be 15 in Kansas to work. Sad really.
Anyway, while I do believe that Race and poverty play a role in education, I believe it is more the cultural basis of the individual and their family that determines success. If their cultural values education, then they will do better as more is expected of them. I don’t think wealth has much to do with a real education. I come from a town with a NASCAR track, and those tickets are expensive. I know plenty of “College Educated” individuals that like that sport, but to me, I can’t see the thrill in, “Another Left Turn”. These same people then do insanely stupid and ignorant things. It scares me to see someone boast about having a Masters degree and then lose their house in a foreclosure because they over extened themselves. Obviously all they have is an expensive piece of paper and no education.
July 20th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
race IS NOT important.. a man is a man.. and they deserve just as much apprieciation, respect and power as a whate man does..
August 12th, 2009 at 1:58 pm