CORRECTION AND NEW CRITICISM: "AWAKE TO THE DANGER OF WOKE IN EDUCATION"

As a responsible blogger, I make public corrections when the truth requires them.  In this case, I make both one correction and new criticism.

In “Awake to the Dangers of Woke in Education” (12 Dec), I wrote that a Woke school board was closing racial gaps in enrollments in advanced courses by eliminating those courses.  I misunderstood my source, who clarified that the courses are being eliminated, not in my high school, but in elementary and middle schools.  The purpose is to prevent “tracking” since white students in earlier grades benefit from their strong socio-economic backgrounds; it takes blacks from weak socio-economic backgrounds longer to catch up.  My source opined that, as a result, enrollments of black and white students in the advanced courses in high school would be smaller.  I suggest that fewer students, black and white, will attain previous levels of academic achievement in those classes.

Nonetheless, my criticisms of eliminating the courses in high school applies equally to eliminating them in elementary and middle schools.  And the consequences are worse.  An apt analogy is nutrition.  Malnourished children will be smaller and weaker than those not malnourished; too little calcium as a child leads to weaker bones as an adult.  The adage says, as the twig is bent, so grows the tree.  Not meeting children’s education needs when those needs exist stunts their learning at the time and in the future.

Of course, eliminating what has educational value has no educational value, only ideological value for doctrinaire zealots of equality, not equity.  For fairness would demand enrolling students in courses suited to their needs, not Woke dogma.

The remedies for racial disparities in student academic performance and enrollment in advanced courses are a commitment of resources to students proportionate to their needs to compensate for weak socio-economic backgrounds.  Resources include smaller classes, supplemental classes, student tutoring, etc.  Effort should include intensive training of teachers for these students and determined outreach to parents or guardians for their support.  Detailed records of these resources and efforts should be used to assess them and, if necessary, to explain and address continued disparities.

In all fairness, although schools cannot require parents or guardians to participate, their response to outreach should be a matter of record.  My ex-step-son, an exemplary high-school teacher in Chicago, reports that some parents who are unable or refuse to support efforts to assist their children nevertheless complain when their children do poorly.  Even so, the schools should assume the responsibility as fully as possible for educating all students, with or without parental support.

Last words: Wokism purposes to punish white students, even if black students become collateral damage.  Its proposals must be vigorously opposed, but only if the proposals are, in fact, Wokist, that is, likely to down the ups, not up the downs.  The antithesis of Wokist proposals are proposals to help students overcome socio-economic disadvantages.  My concern is that Wokers’ counterparts will use inflamed opposition to Wokism (or CRT) to justify efforts to keep the ups up and the downs down.  If so, they embrace Wokism in reverse and must also be vigorously opposed.