Florida blacks eye boycott over graduation exam ***"These kids have done what they are supposed to do," he said. "They have gotten the credits they need. They have done community service work. This test is damaging kids psychologically, because there is too much weight to it."…………………. The students being supported by the activists have been given six chances to pass the test with a passing test score of at least 40 percent, but have failed at least one element.
But no matter how many chances are given to pass, a single test should not determine a student's future, said Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida NAACP. "There is more to education than writing an answer," she said. "You have students that can do so many other things, and all should be used to determine if they should be promoted."***
Poetry can provide a powerful surprise***Stereotype, n., v., a simplified and standardized conception or image of a person, group, etc., held in common by members of a group. One of my former students wrote the other day expressing concern for her son, a graduating senior at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale. Muscular, big and a fast runner, the young man has a college football scholarship.
The problem is that he carries a secret that, if exposed, will subject him to almost-certain ridicule: He loves and reads the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, he writes excellent verse and he wants to study English and become a poet of the non-hip-hop kind. I was told of his plight because mine was similar when I was his age, which I had shared with his mother and her classmates. Like I was at 17, this young man is a victim of one of black culture's self-imposed stereotypes: dark-skinned black males are dumb.***