A False Equivalence

Nicholas Kristoff writes in The New York Times that the U.S. has stopped doing a world-class job of educating the masses, something it once did. He admits we still do a good job on what he calls "the elite."

In truth, he has created a false equivalence. His "elite" of today are the kids who once constituted the vast majority of U.S. students, in the days when we did a good job. Now the elite have few children, and a healthy percentage of those few attend private schools.

Today, the vast majority of public school kids are members of subgroups we never succeeded in educating in any significant numbers. Those subgroups once were tiny minorities and now constitute a majority of public school students.

We still know of no way to convince these youngsters to want to learn. Nor did we in the days when Kristoff says things were good.

Nicholas Kristoff, meet Charles Barkley, former NBA Hall of Famer. Barkley said the following recently, quoted on the Yahoo TV website:

For some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person.

It's best to knock a successful black person down because they're intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school and they're successful … It's just typical B.S. that goes on when you're a black, man.

Our public schools cannot counteract the overwhelming anti-education social pressure Barkley describes. Other authors have made similar claims concerning pressures on Hispanic males.