Dr. Ben Chavis, a Native American from North Carolina who earned
both a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in education from the
University of Arizona, took over a failing charter school in Oakland,
Calif. He instituted high academic standards and was a tough
disciplinarian who passed out detentions freely. Dr. Chavis’ American
Indian Public Charter School (AIPCS) has been consistently rated as one
the top five of the roughly 1,300 junior high schools in
California.
Back in the Old Pueblo, I heard Michael Block in a radio interview
discuss one of his motivations for starting the BASIS charter school
here in Tucson and Scottsdale. BASIS, you may recall, has been
consistently rated one of the best high schools in the country by
Newsweek magazine. Anyway, he had two daughters who moved from
Europe to the United States and entered a Scottsdale public school.
According to Block, they were treated very well, accepted and welcomed,
but they were not learning anything academically. Therefore, he started
his own school with high academic standards, and the rest is
history.
Meanwhile, Tucson Unified School District is preoccupied with
“diversity” and “social justice.”
TUSD’s “Post Unitary Status Plan” (a PDF copy is available online),
adopted in July 2009, contains the following: “Each school’s plan
should specifically address the academic needs of African-American and
Hispanic students who are not performing at grade level and or meeting
the standards as assessed by Terra Nova and AIMS. Each plan should also
address the issue of underrepresentation in Honors, AP and Gifted
programs.”
Yikes! Let me break it down for you.
Each school’s plan should specifically address the academic needs
of African-American and Hispanic students who are not performing at
grade level and or meeting the standards as assessed by Terra Nova and
AIMS. This is a good idea, but how about the Anglos, Asians and
Native Americans who are failing? Is that not a problem, too? Now,
before you question why I included Asians, let’s just say that it is
possible that an Asian kid might be failing in some school somewhere.
(Hey, all I’m saying is that it could happen.) Anyway, “equality” is
repeated throughout the document as an important principle. Are some
kids more equal than others?
Each plan should also address the issue of underrepresentation in
Honors, AP and Gifted programs. It’s always been my understanding
that these programs are not legislatures with every group having equal
representation. Participation is based on individual merit, which makes
over- or under-representation meaningless. Believing that demographic
patterns for those in special programs must match the demographic
patterns of the school as a whole is like saying that each time the
dice are tossed, they must add up to seven. The fact is that sometimes
they do, and sometimes they don’t, because they are unrelated. When
Ronald Reagan was governor of California, he supported colorblind
admissions standards for the state college system. Some tried to
frighten him by saying that if there were no affirmative-action
admission standards, the student body would be 80 percent Asian, to
which he replied, “So what?”
If you want to see how deeply destructive this document gets, go to
the “discipline” section, where you will find the following: “As
appropriate, the Department of Student Equity will interact with each
school to review suspension data (in-school and out-of-school). School
data that show disparities in suspension/expulsion rates will be
examined in detail for root causes. Special attention will be dedicated
to data regarding African American and Hispanic students.” And, “The
Equity Team will ensure that disciplinary policies focus on improving
students’ future behavior, rather than inflicting punishment, and that
they represent a commitment to social justice for all students.”
Finally, the ultimate attack on the individual: Not even punishment
for breaking the rules relates to behavior. In fact, punishment itself
is passé.
So now we teach children that they are not responsible for what they
do. Bad actions do not lead to bad consequences. Everyone is equal,
except that some are more equal than others. We are no longer committed
to justice for all; rather, we are committed to social justice for all.
I don’t know what “social justice” is, but it is not
“justice”—hence the addition of “social.”
I understand that TUSD really wants that desegregation money, but if
you have to do this to the children, is it really worth it?
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2009.
the problem is that tucson has a do good female superintendent…eveerything is ok as long as everybody feels good….goodby academics…..
Is the point that TUSD needs more academic rigor and less social justice? Why is this an either-or proposition? Where is the “academic standards” in this article (which is long on opinions but short on supporting facts)?
I could see your argument if the playing field were level. For generations, educational opportunities have been denied to these groups. To this day the educational system is skewed to the higher achievement of the more affluent of this society who enjoy the smaller class sizes, the most modern equipment (i.e. computers, books, supplies) and the better educated teachers. Although the plan seems to be anti-academic, it purports to make inroads to better education for these groups by acknowledging that there is a short fall in providing the education the other groups enjoy. Due this fact, there is a great divide between these groups in representation in the gifted and honor programs. The system that states that education should be equal for all students should be made to be equal. I believe this is a small step in that direction.
I went to school with refugee kids from across Europe. Heaven knows what horrors they witnessed, but they thrived in our schools. Know why? Because the teachers and the parents insisted on it. Period.
I have been in Tucson long enough to know that the three predecessors to the current superintendent of TUSD also gave high order to ‘social justice.’ The immediate predecessor giving it the highest order to it, which by logic, overall academic performance received less consideration. Although seemingly impossible, the current superintendent has upped the ante in the import of race based outcomes, and again giving short shrift to overall academic performance. How is it that we expect better overall performance? Is not the definition of of insanity when one expects different outcomes when the same actions are performed repeatedly?
You say ‘social justice’ as if that’s a bad thing? Liberty & freedom doesn’t mean: “Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.” – Bertrand Russell
We must free ourselves from this “either/or” duality, which unfortunately is our undemocratic political system, and continues to dig us into a deeper hole. “In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.” – Bertrand Russell
So I offer this to ALL of Tucson’s media, academia and business communities to bust out from our archaic ways of dealing with human problems. IF you like a culture of non-violence, justice, grassroots democracy and sustainability…then you might consider subscribing to this sweet nugget.
http://www.greenchange.org
http://network.greenchange.org/
http://www.gp.org/tenkey.shtml
If you do not then stay this course and go the way of all history…failed & forgotten!
As you can see I stand on the shoulder of giants in my view of our species and world problems which includes Tucson. Go figure? See we know all we need to know to move forward so we may learn more. Our problem lies in the proper application of such principles like “social justice.”
I’ll leave with this… “What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer.” – Bertrand Russell
But we soon must deal with this problem: “The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.” – Clarence Darrow
Some clarification for those who truly misunderstand the importance of an honest unencumbered education versus corporate indoctrination posing as education plus further evidence as to why TUSD is too big for its own good. Lessons that should of been learned from the historically recent collapse of the British & Soviet empires. Alas we cling to the false myth that “bigger is better”, just ask Wal-Mart and all the small businesses it has destroyed globally.
“Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.” – Bertrand Russell
“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” — Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed)
And why this educational transformation cannot take place.
“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth — more than ruin — more even than death…. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.” – Bertrand Russell
“There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dares not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.” — Bertrand Russell, Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954), quoted from James A Haught, “Breaking the Last Taboo” (1996)
“I mean by intellectual integrity the habit of deciding vexed questions in accordance with the evidence, or of leaving them undecided where the evidence is inconclusive. This virtue, though it is underestimated by almost all adherents of any system of dogma, is to my mind of the very greatest social importance and far more likely to benefit the world than Christianity or any other system of organized beliefs.” — Bertrand Russell, “Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?” (1954)
I believe it is their wisdom that so challenges our species dogmatic selfish position that they are so ignored in our academic & political institutions for they do not serve our need to fulfill our greed justified by false fears.
Isn’t TUSD under a desegregation order because of a lawsuit that still hasn’t been settled? Aren’t they trying to get the deseg order lifted by jumping through all these diversity hoops? It seems to me the blame lies at least equally with greedy plaintiffs, attorneys, judges, and special interest groups, all of whom are never satisfied and won’t let this case go.
Isnt all this reverse discrimination?
TUSD actually has some of the best schools in the state serving their Anglo population and some of the worst serving their hispanic population. From a social justice standpoint, they are an atrocity. These paper it over concepts of equalizing discipline and La Raza concepts of creating an idealogy of rationalization just cover up what is a failure to perform over a very long period of time. Superintendent Fagan is very good, but is faced with superhuman problems.