Posted on 02/14/2012 7:47:01 AM PST by Perseverando
The Philadelphia Inquirer's big story Feb. 4 was about how a budget crunch at the Philadelphia School District had caused the district to lay off 91 school police officers. Over the years, there's been no discussion of what has happened to our youth that makes a school police force necessary in the first place. The Inquirer's series "Assault on Learning" (March 2011) reported that in the 2010 school year, "690 teachers were assaulted; in the last five years, 4,000 were." The newspaper reported that in Philadelphia's 268 schools, "on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, or victims of other violent crimes. That doesn't even include thousands more who are extorted, threatened, or bullied in a school year."
I graduated from Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin High School in 1954. Franklin's students were from the poorest North Philadelphia neighborhoods — such as the Richard Allen housing project, where I lived — but there were no policemen patrolling the hallways. There were occasional after-school fights — rumbles, we called them — but within the school, there was order. Students didn't use foul language to teachers, much less assault them.
How might one explain the greater civility of Philadelphia and other big-city, predominantly black schools during earlier periods compared with today? Would anyone argue that during the '40s and '50s, back when Williams attended Philadelphia schools, there was less racial discrimination and poverty and there were greater opportunities for blacks and that's why academic performance was higher and there was greater civility? Or how about "in earlier periods, there was more funding for predominantly black schools"? Or how about "in earlier periods, black students had more black role models in the forms of black principals, teachers and guidance counselors"? If such arguments were to be made, it would be sheer lunacy. If white and black liberals and civil rights leaders want to make such arguments, they'd best wait until those of us who lived during the '40s and '50s have departed the scene.
Over the past couple of decades, I've attended neighborhood reunions.
I've asked whether any of us recall classmates who couldn't read, write or perform simple calculations, and none of us does. Back in those days, most Philadelphia school principals, teachers and counselors were white. At Stoddart-Fleisher junior high school, where I attended, I recall that only one teacher was black, and at Benjamin Franklin, there might have been two. What does that say about the role model theory? By the way, Asian-Americans are at the top of the academic ladder, and, at least historically, they rarely experience an Asian-American teacher during their K-through-12 schooling.
Many black students are alien and hostile to the education process. They are permitted to make education impossible for other students. Their misbehavior and violence require schools to divert resources away from education and spend them on security, such as hiring school police and purchasing metal detectors, all of which does little for school safety. The violent school climate discourages the highest-skilled teachers from teaching at schools where they risk assaults, intimidation and theft. At a bare minimum, part of the solution to school violence and poor academic performance should be the expulsion of students who engage in assaults and disrespectful behavior. You say, "What's to be done for these students?" Even if we don't know what to do with them, how compassionate and intelligent is it to permit them to make education impossible for other students?
The fact that black parents, teachers, politicians and civil rights organizations tolerate and make excuses for the despicable and destructive behavior of so many young blacks is a gross betrayal of the memory, struggle, sacrifice, sweat and blood of our ancestors. The sorry and tragic state of black education is not going to be turned around until there's a change in what's acceptable and unacceptable behavior by young people. That change has to come from within the black community.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
Bussing brought on a lot these problems
Bussing brought on a lot these problems
Illiteracy and innumeracy would be better than being subjected to this physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse. Illiteracy and innumeracy can be fixed and is done all the time in our nation's community colleges, but the wounds inflicted by attending these “Lord of the Flies”, Marxist dominated, atheistic schools may never heal and may have life-long, even eternal, consequences.
Finally....From afraidfortherepublic's post chances are that your suburban or rural school system isn't all that great either.
This has become worse since Obama usurped the office of POTUS, and has potential to explode in November when America fires and evicts him and his grifter “spouse” from the WH.
Bussing?
All throughout Africa, if a child gets educated and speaks good english he is chided by his peers as “whitey”. It is a culture that exists by itself in Africa and needless to say here too. Immigration and family culture keep it alive.
To me? Its a certain percentage of the population regressing back to savagery and tribalism, a bush condition still practiced all across Africa today. Its all backwoods traditional politics with the chief by day and chief by night.
That is why as a people, they have continued to be a backwards lot.... just like the followers of Islam.
It is all regression.
Just like our dear friend, Obama, regressing to the foreign thoughts aka Soetoro, and then his fathers anti british/ communist/ anti white sentiment.
They claim it takes three generations for a person to integrate into North American society culture and practice. Another reason for natural born.
I've never heard/read of this happening in Africa. Can you site a source?
Go there.
IT is particularly noticeable in West Africa.
It is the destruction of the family that has done this Limey. If the teachers were allowed to carry guns and use them frequently on the abusive students the discipline problem would be solved. ;)
Philly good-guy ping!
... Sources? Robert Mugabe, Nelson Mandela, the ANC just to name a few.
Wherever there was colonialization. Then some want to blame their backwardness on the white man. Poor bastards never had civilization.... maybe once, the “great” zimbabwe.
(I think it was based on proceeds from selling the neighboring tribes into slavery... not from farming.)
ping
If you check my profile though you will see that murders in Philly have dropped significantly since concealed carry was allowed.
Regardless, I suspect if we allowed prayer and Bible readings and The 10 Commandments back in the schools -- you know like they did for most of the country's history -- and started once again teaching that there is a God to whom we must account that would work better than guns.
Nigerians have the highest educational attainment of ANY group in America. Africans who move to the U.S. often express amazement at the level of disruptive behavior of black American students citing that there is no such lack of discipline in schools in their homelands. Many children in those countries don’t attend school but those that do tend to value education and those schools have better discipline.
Students in West African countries wear uniforms (girls wear long skirts) and discipline is harsh. I don’t think that you can compare those students to black American students and I don’t believe that academic achievers in Africa are called “whitey”.
“Contrary to the idiot Mayor Bloomberg, the main issue with violent crime in our cities is not the industrial production and distribution of guns, it is the social production and distribution of the criminal class the uses them.”©Wuli 2012
Pal? Go there and get amongst the people.
What you will also witness is as you indicate, there are Christian based achievers from those places who WANT to succeed. They recognize the value in getting educated. They recognize the value in getting into the stream. Many recognize the value of the G7 and its Christian roots.
The uniformed children? If they do well and they intermix with their local counterparts.... who do not have access to the money or uniforms... they suffer the whitey syndrome. Poverty, corruption and tribalism are still huge contributors.
I have great respect for the immigrants who buy into the American dream.
I have greater respect for those who buy into the Christian values in Africa.
As a Brit you don’t seem to understand.
This is a school where there are no guns allowed (just like the UK) so the criminals can do as they wish without fear of the victims fighting back (just like the UK). So the laws protect the criminals while making the victims more available.
I’ve seen the British reports that showed that after the UK made guns illegal the crime rate rose by over 400%. Now if you look the same thing has happened in “gun free” areas of the USA too.
You see, the absence of guns is not going to make the criminals act any better. It will in fact make them act much worse. They will know they can commit their crimes and violence against society because the government has pulled the teeth of anyone who would try to defend themselves (just like the UK).
So before you come here and post your ignorant and snarky remarks learn a little bit about things before you prove yourself to be a fool.
Thank you, Lyndon Johnson.
Years ago kids would bring their guns to school for gun club - they’d walk in the hallways armed. No one thought a thing of it. That was back before police officers were stationed in schools - back when the biggest problems in most high schools was kids chewing gum in class - and spit balls.
Agreed and complimented in my #39.
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