Education League Tables Are Fuelling ‘New Kind of Racism’ in Schools
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Times of London
Education league tables showing Chinese children as high-flyers and Afro-Caribbeans as failing are fuelling a new kind of racism in schools, an academic has said.
Heidi Safia Mirza, of the Institute of Education, gave a warning that teachers can unintentionally hold back the performance of black children by underestimating their academic abilities.
Similarly, Chinese children, who routinely outperform teenagers of all other ethnic groups at GCSE level, often have their academic horizons restricted and are discouraged from studying arts and humanities because teachers assume they are good only at maths and related subjects.
In a lecture in London today, Professor Mirza will argue that the bureaucratic obsession with league tables results in the constant “sifting and sorting of pupils” into tiers and streams by perceived ability. As a result, she said, a “new cultural racism has slipped in by the back door”.
Professor Mirza’s comments follow research from Steve Strand, of Warwick University, suggesting that white pupils were significantly more likely to be entered for the top maths and science exams at the age of 14 than their black classmates.
(Posted on November 26, 2008)
Comments
Yep, those black kids are merely holding back for the time being. When they decide to unleash their immense academic abilities, watch out! I’m talkin’ Nobel prize performances just waiting in the wings!
The problem is, White folks just don’t understand the above concept.
Can I now get hired as an education expert? How about Easter bunny?
Posted by Proactive at 7:23 PM on November 26
So much more is involved than just academic abilities. But until they realize that, we’ll always be making execeptions and excuses, trying to include everyone.
Posted by GO DAWGS at 9:00 PM on November 26
“In UK, black students held back because teachers underestimate their abilities.”
LOL! Hahahahaha. I needed a good laugh, and I got it.
That reminds me of the black we had on here who was bragging about being a genius, but he obviously couldn’t communicate and reason above a shallow level, telling us MENSA chased him around when he was a teenager, harrassing him to join, but he never did. When asked why, he said his mother wouldn’t let him. Hahahaha. Priceless.
He said his Army test scores “were through the roof,” and that he was told he could have ANY job he wanted. When asked what he finally settled on he said the infantry, because all the other positions were filled, so they made a bullet stopper out of a genius. LOL! Too funny. Absolutely hilarious.
Posted by q at 9:24 PM on November 26
More of the same old same old… black fail, blame the test, blame the teachers, blame the school… blame Dick van Dyke… blame everyone and everything except the black students themselves.
Interestingly, many of our white ancestors and even fellow citizens went to school in sparsely furnished one room school houses, yet their intellects and academic achievements dwarf those of most of today’s students.
Posted by Angry Citizen at 9:36 PM on November 26
I had a particular student with test scores at the 30th percentile, but who hung around with the kids at the 90th percentile. As it turned out, she was as smart as her friends, but just too active to sit at a desk and do schoolwork. If a kid is smarter than the tests show, there will be some sort of behavior that alerts the teacher. True to her nature, this girl has just bombed her SAT, but we had lunch together and had an adult conversation. If the teachers aren’t seeing intelligence among the Africans, it’s probably not there.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 11:29 PM on November 26
How are the teachers “holding back” the blacks? Are they confiscating their math textbooks and giving them to the Chinese kids? Are blacks caught in the library given detention? What is the exact process by which the blacks are allegedly “held back” ?
Posted by dav at 3:18 AM on November 27
“Heidi Safia Mirza, of the Institute of Education, gave a warning that teachers can unintentionally hold back the performance of black children by underestimating their academic abilities.”
If that’s the case then why don’t they bring back the old way of high standards, discipline and comptetion?
Oh sorry, I forgot, blacks didn’t do too well under that system either.
Posted by the dumbo experience at 11:17 AM on November 27
So as a teacher is instructing a class he or she somehow makes sure the Chinese students understand but the black ones do not.
How do you do that then?
Posted by thumpers mate at 11:52 AM on November 27
As is often the case, the above-average performance of asians is the pink elephant in the room. It’s hard to blame minorities’ (these days, that word is always defined to exclude asians) poor performance on Whites when a non-White group is succeeding. Can any of these liberal types explain why an evil White racist teacher would purposefully, or even unintentionally, hold back one non-White group but somehow want another non-White group to succeed — often even beyond the performance of White students?!?
It couldn’t be that different racial groups have innately different abilities, could it?
Posted by Kevin at 5:59 PM on November 27
So teachers are biased for the Chinese students and against black students? Is there a special treatment reserved just for the Chinese students? So is the school system geared to ‘empower’ and support mainly asian students since the asians seem to be doing exceptionally well in the western school systems. The main question is why are the blacks always underperforming in schools given the equal playing field that we have in the West except for individual and personal differences in personal circumstances, intelligence, and drive.
BTW, the teachers don’t assume the asian students are only good in math and sciences. Many teachers who are thrilled to have well behaved, hard studying, smart, and respectful students have done their best to help them get into any field they want to study.
Many asians and white students are treated with respect and encouragement because they want to do well and put in the effort to excel in school not because teachers are biased in their favor. Teachers are tired to dealing with flappy mouthed, lazy, slow, and ‘wild’ children. Who can blame them, we blame the politicians who continues to import stone age people into our world.
This puzzlingly stupid article only creates more questions and makes any sane thinking person how anyone could even allow such an article to be printed.
Posted by realist at 7:03 PM on November 27
Asian students have some of the highest IQs in the world. They build rockets, solve complex problems in mathematics, and are instrumental in computer science and engineering on a global basis. They hail from a relatively civilized society.
Black “students” have the lowest IQs in the world. They are from an uncivilized society where the inhabitants eat, reproduce, spread AIDS, and engage in tribal warfare with weapons from the stone age. Africa has never built rockets, solved complex math problems, or designed computer technology.
Egalitarians can pretend that racism is keeping the Black “students” from succeeding, but all of the empirical and anecdotal facts bear out the truth that their genetics are to blame.
Posted by at 11:09 PM on November 27
We saw cases earlier this year where Blacks failed to pass timed, standardized tests in law enforcement exams in Virginia. Remember? The results were discounted and charges of racism were leveled against the agency. The Blacks were then allowed to receive open book tests. They still failed. Then, they were given extra time and provided with the answers again (open book). They still failed. Not a single one passed.
Our fellow Whites can pretend that Blacks fail due to racism, but the truth is that they simply do not have the necessary intelligence to compete in the world. Empirical and anecdotal evidence consistently proves this fact.
Posted by at 12:58 AM on November 28
I am involved in education and have taught many blacks and Orientals. My personal experience is exactly the opposite to the message of the article.
On the odd occasion when a serious and intelligent black student presented themselves in my class I would put myself out for him or her more than I would for an Oriental student. This was because 1) There were many clever Chinese students. It made a change for a non-Chinese to knock them off their perch once in a while. 2) Clever black students were not helped by any other equally clever black students. They tended to be isolated and needed more teacher support, whereas cblever Chinese students flocked together.
Aren’t teachers wishes to be considered as well? As a teacher I want students who are well behaved, intelligent and intellectually curious. Does that make me an evil white teacher?
Posted by martin_uk at 4:44 PM on November 28
The article is from Times Online. Therefore they carefully selected five comments to publish. None of those comments point out differences in average I.Q. and none of them are controversial at all. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if those comments were actually written by Times staff and made to appear as if they came from readers. It appears that no more comments are being posted. Apparently they lack the time/manpower/motivation to screen them and filter out any they don’t approve of. Typical leftist behavior.
Posted by jewamongyou at 6:08 PM on November 28
Some interesting YouTube clips on fallacies about race & race realities:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JOkCTQf7EY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShLF3e9YHg8
Posted by Bob at 11:19 PM on November 28
He said his Army test scores “were through the roof,” and that he was told he could have ANY job he wanted. When asked what he finally settled on he said the infantry, because all the other positions were filled, so they made a bullet stopper out of a genius. Too funny. Absolutely hilarious.
Hey I take exception to the comment about the infantry! A good many people (men and women) in the infantry are exceptional people but, like myself, find the high tech jobs very dull and boring. There is something about the adrenalin rush of the job the infantry do. I personally was AI in the military and volunteered for SF because of boredom. But overall this article is a joke. As one of us mentioned, I too, went to a one room schoolhouse while in Boron, California in the 50s and I, like many here I think, am educated far beyond my station in life.
Posted by Skip at 4:48 AM on November 29
Heidi Safia Mirza, of the Institute of Education, gave a warning that teachers can unintentionally hold back the performance of black children by underestimating their academic abilities.
————-
I don’t get it, why don’t they just put this to a simple test, and start giving all these dark skinned Einsteins classes in physics an advanced mathematics then?
Seems more than anything this is just a veiled threat to teachers that if their black students do poorly that means the teacher is “racist”. The unspoken message is if the teacher doesn’t want to get branded with the R word they are supposed to fudge the grades to make the black kids appear smart to confirm the truth that we are all exactly equal…
Posted by AJ at 9:51 AM on November 29
Bob at 11:19 PM,
Wow! Those videos were excellent — the best I’ve ever seen. they should be required viewing for all humans. Thanks for alerting us to them.
By the way, there is one other important reason to speak honestly about race. That is, to implement reality-based public policy. Basing public policy on falsehoods can only fail. For example, blaming achievement differences on racism leads to “fighting racism” and massive transfers of wealth to make up for past racism. However, if racial differences in achievement have little to do with racism, but, instead genes, then “ending racism” will have little effect on solving racial differences. This is why 50 years of trying everything under the sun has not closed the White-Black or the Asian-to-Black achievement gaps. Admitting the true cause of the problem is the first step toward alleviating the problems caused by racial differences.
Posted by at 5:00 PM on November 29
“This is why 50 years of trying everything under the sun has not closed the White-Black or the Asian-to-Black achievement gaps. Admitting the true cause of the problem is the first step toward alleviating the problems caused by racial differences.”
This is the truth. It would be far better for Blacks and everyone if the truth, that far more Blacks then Whites or Asians aren’t as gifted academically and as such, schools started tailoring programs for Blacks that work with them on THEIR level instead of forcing them to compete equally against Whites/Asians. Don’t get me wrong, some Blacks are very intelligent and can compete academically but a much larger portion aren’t. Also, there are some Whites/Asians who are dull too and it would be unfair to expect these to compete against smarter ones academically.
Posted by at 2:22 PM on November 30
Bob at 11:19 PM,
Wow! Those videos were excellent — the best I’ve ever seen. they should be required viewing for all humans. Thanks for alerting us to them.
I totally agree. Watch both of them, everybody, please.
They’re technically quite simple — short but punchy paragraphs of common-sense text over public-domain type graphics, with some generic techno as the soundtrack — but they’re extremely effective! They are saying the same kinds of things about how race is NOT a social contruct etc we say all the time here on AmRen — but which we VERY RARELY HEARD SAID ANYWHERE ELSE!
The fact that any of us — Race Realists, White Nationalists, or however you like to think of yourself — could put together something like this in a couple of hours using only commonplace 2008 computer software, is an exciting development in our movement. So far, at least, Youtube doesn’t seem to be censoring this kind of stuff.
Check out this guy’s other youtube vids too, he’s definitely coming from a place similar to ours.
Posted by at 5:33 PM on November 30
They are just setting up to get rid of white teachers
Posted by at 11:11 PM on November 30
Why start at the middle? Why not try and reduce the oriental-black gap? Why set aspirations for the middle and not the top? Trying to reduce the white-black gap makes as much sense as trying to reduce the pakistani-black gap… Or would trying to reduce the Pakistani-black gap, be too divisive?
Why indeed aim for average. Why not try and reduce the oriental-white gap, one that’s actually been growing. Or would that actually be going too far? Would that one be the antithesis of everything they stand for?
Posted by Must. . . keep. . . them. . . down at 11:40 AM on December 1
The whole educational bureaucracy seem to miss the most important element in succeeding in scholastic ventures.
It’s called study.
If you have any experience with Jewish or Asian students,
you will know that study is inculcated in them by their parents. Sometimes quite severely.
The educational institutions have been telling us that they
test potential but what they actually test is what a person
already knows. The more he knows the greater the potential
to make the connections needed for higher learning.
Basing any potential on schemes that comes out
of the educational bureaucracy is one of the biggest
mistakes we as a people have made toward students.
MikeH
Posted by MikeH at 2:04 PM on December 1