The Educational Circus Act

I once read about an army officer famous among his colleagues for battle plans that went into extraordinary detail.  In a scathing indictment, one fellow officer said, "Yes, he takes into account everything except the disposition of the enemy."  In the same way, the Education Mafia seem to have a lot on their minds, not including the education of children.

In other words, the Education Mafia, like the misguided army officer whose name I have long forgotten, are so consumed with tangential details they have lost the point.

When my son, who is half Asian, was in NYC public schools, not one time was I concerned about whether he was the darkest-skinned child in the class, or the lightest.  I was concerned ONLY that he was safe and that he was getting an education.

Safety and education, nothing else mattered to me.  Yet, I find my concerns nowhere in this NY Times article about the NYC public schools.  And, if it is true, as the article suggests, that many parents are also consumed by tangential issues, then it is no wonder the public schools have collapsed.

In 1954, when the SCOTUS decided Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS, one could argue that integration was the only way to break the back of real institutional racism.  Astonishingly, that was not the argument.

Beginning with the amicus curiae brief by the Justice Dept (sic!), arguing that segregated schools hurt the American effort in The Cold War, the court considered cultural assimilation, states' rights, judicial activism, the psychological effects of segregation, and I don't know what else.  It seems they considered everything, not including the education of children.  And you could see that in the final decision,

"Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does. ...
"Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children."

"Upon the colored children."  Why not also upon the White children?  This was the beginning of the magical White child.  It seems that something magical happens to Black children when they sit beside White children.  And integration became a fetish.

Please understand, I am not against integration.  It's just that I care about education more.  Since the 1954 decision, however, rather than taking care of business, rather than grappling with the really difficult issues of teaching children, politicians and education theorists and  school administrators have succumbed to the toxic distraction of racial integration.  I would be all for integration, if the Education Mafia were taking care of business, but they dissipate their time and energy, and large sums of public funds, in this and other issues that have precious little to do with teaching and learning.

And it shows.