Racism in the Public Schools
by Suzanne Fields
Nothing dramatizes the two-tier public-education system quite like the announcement by the First Couple that their daughters, 10 and 7, will attend Sidwell Friends, perhaps the elitist of the elite private schools in Washington, tuition $30,000 a year.
"Sidwell," the parents joke, "is where Episcopalians teach Jews how to be Quakers." The Obamas called Sidwell, as the locals refer to it, the "best fit" of security and comfort for their children. No doubt. ...
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Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Comment: #1
Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:16 AM
Ma'am;... If the rich pay for good schools and we pay for bad; then that is our fault.... We have so many people who let faith hamstring the process of education, who let churches write their text books, and revise reality to suit their prejudice... If the churches would pay their due, and get out of the way, then every school could be first class...There is nothing patrician about the truth... The rich have their idea of Noblesse Oblige all laid out for them... It's crap... They are kings in a castle of cards... And all the poor have to do to have an education is to read between the lines... If they learn how to learn they will look upon the propaganda of a public school education as a waste of time, and an impediment...I think the only true impediment to education is lack of opportunity... There is no obvious money in it...If people started handing out hundred dollar bills with progress reports, kids would be there with bells on, but once educated you could not deny them opportunity because they would make their own... You don't teach people to work by telling them to...Throw pennies around until people tire of picking them up, and then throw dimes... Once people learn to bend their backs for cash, the thought of bending their minds is natural... But don't ever think you can rein in opportunity, and spur achievement and get anywhere... No... The only thing about our educational system that is two tier is the fact that the top does not burden their minds with a lot of ideological religious garbage...If you do not have the impediment of an uninspiring environment, and grinding poverty all around you then education makes sense... When people see that nothing works, that the lottery is a better chance to get rich than labor, you will have a difficult time teaching them labor... And in fact, labor is only a step, and not a destination... Thanks...Sweeney
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Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Comment: #2
Fri Dec 12, 2008 9:52 AM
Ma'am;... In one sense at least, educational opportunity does play a huge part in our predicament in this land... We have always been denied democracy in this country because we are uneducated, and because we are denied political power we can be denied education... It is the original catch twenty two... But it presents other problems as well... The myth and magic of religion would cast no spell reality could not break but for ignorance... And religion makes the faithful the tools of their authority: uncritical, thoughtless, and unquestioning... If we go at the speed of the slowest we will never get there, and if we go alone we will never get there....So we are trapped... We are on our own searching for truth, for knowledge and understanding... The sooner everyone realizes that our forms of our government and faith only keep us in poverty and bondage, the sooner we can break free, alone, or as individuals... The truth belongs to all of us... It is our common property, the same for both rich and poor... Whether they know it or not, when the rich put truth and knowledge beyond the reach of the poor they push it out of reach for themselves... When they use ignorance as an excuse to keep us weak they imperil the whole land..If ignorance is bliss you wouldn't know it by me as I find it an easily treated desease, and a national shame neglected and maligned.... Thanks...Sweeney
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