[Xmca-l] Re: Aeon article - School of Failure

[Peter Farruggio]

Thanks for sharing this article. The author gives a personal description of the double-edged plight of Black folks in the US, oppressed by institutional racism and chronic poverty.  Working class African Americans, as expressed in the article, have been in a de facto economic Depression since the 1970s. This experience is happening to working class folks of all ethnicities now, especially since the bust of 2008.

Inner city and barrio schools are horrible, due to deliberate underfunding by conservative politicians since the 1970s. It's part of the broader neoliberal program of austerity imposed worldwide by the plutocrats (the so-called .01%)

But talking about education and schools, the author gets it wrong when he admires the alleged "success" of plutocrat funded charter schools, like Geoffrey Canada's operation in Harlem. Like most such heavily financed charters, the administrators game the system with various maneuvers to appear much better than they are. For example, they teach to the test incessantly, and get rid of kids who can't keep up, to make their test score numbers look good.

At least the author realizes that such school by school philanthropy can't overcome the overwhelming existence of poverty in Black neighborhoods.

Here's Stephen Krashen talking about poverty, followed by a much better example of quality education for working class kids.

Pete Farruggio, PhD
Associate Professor, Bilingual Education
University of Texas Pan American

http://www.joebower.org/2012/01/stephen-krashen-on-poverty-and-literacy.html

http://www.missionhillschool.org/a-year-at-mission-hill/



-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces+pfarruggio=utpa.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces+pfarruggio=utpa.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Annalisa Aguilar
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 12:28 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Aeon article - School of Failure

Hi Everyone,


This arrived in my in box today, thought I'd share:

http://aeon.co/magazine/society/how-african-americans-get-schooled-for-failure/<http://aeon.co/magazine/society/how-african-americans-get-schooled-for-failure/?utm_source=Aeon+newsletter&utm_campaign=02111b1de0-Daily_newsletter_April_274_27_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-02111b1de0-68662025>


by D. Watkins

(4,000 words)


an excerpt:


'There's a myth floating around that education is white culture, books are white culture,' said Eric Rice, an expert in urban education, when I went to visit him at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education this year. 'But African Americans have a long history of wanting education. The South had laws against teaching slaves to read, and people risked beatings and death trying to learn to read during slavery. There has always been a huge demand.'?


My apologies for list members on lchc for my double posting.


Kind regards,


Annalisa