Literacy Rates of High School Graduates

[Sliceitup]

The race of students should be irrelevant and administration of schools should be colourblind.

Ahh yes… color is irrelevant, but biological gender determine much.

*Edited by Mods for appropriate content.

[Josh]

The race of students should be irrelevant and administration of schools should be colourblind.

Ahh yes… color is irrelevant, but biological gender determine much.

Yes. Men and women are different. Boys and girls are different.

People with different skin colour are people. People with different hair colour (or no hair at all!) are people. It is not a fundamental, intrinstic biological difference.

Biological sex is very real and exists in every animal species. There is no such thing as "biological race".

[GaryK]

Josh. No school in the country teaches critical race theory to school kids. That is just the fevered delusion of a bunch of conservatives who are looking for the next culture war issue to distract from the reality that they no longer have any sort of positive agenda for the country. CRT is just a framework used for graduate-level legal research not something that is part of any K-12 curriculum.

And even if it was taught, what of it? Kids tend to be smarter and better critical thinkers than most adults when it comes to this sort of thing. What is it about America's racist past that you so desperately want to hide from them and why? Kids aren't going to be harmed by doing a little critical thinking on the topic of race, or any other topic for that matter. To the contrary. That's part of developing critical thinking skills. There is more to education than the McGuffey Reader.

The bigger question might be, are we seeing the start of CRT being tested on a practical level? Who would have thought, that in the 21st century, segregating classes by color would happen under a black principal? And this didn't stay in the news very long at all, which is quite telling, IMO.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/at ... d-n1276584

Shrug. There are tens of thousands of schools in this country and our educational system is set up to provide a great deal of local autonomy (as opposed to top-down Federal control that exists in some countries like Finland). So it isn't surprising that on occasion administrators or teachers might make well-intentioned mistakes or experiments one way or the other. As well as deliberately malicious decisions. We are about to roll into the season where a handful of HS football players will die of heat stroke because 'old-school' coaches make them work out in brutal southern mid-day August heat. Happens every year like clockwork. In any event, it seems to me that this sort of thing is more properly dealt with by local supervisors. Whatever this principal was thinking, she should know better.

But whatever this misguided principal thought she was doing it has nothing to do with CRT. Not every racially-related incident has anything to do with CRT. In fact pretty much none of them do.

Shrug? If a white principal would do this, I'm pretty sure the incident would not be so quickly dropped by the news media and I'm doubtful "well intentioned" would be used either. Rather, I think terms like oppressive and white privilege would be used, terms that are at the heart of CRT. I'm still not convinced that the current debate about racial issues had nothing to do with this case.

[GaryK]

That’s sounds like something that was maybe well intentioned, but still not a good idea. It would be interesting to hear from minorities and their thoughts on the impact of being the only person of color in a classroom, vs being one of several.

From my understanding, this was not about someone being the only black person in a classroom. This was intentional segregation "to build a community". In an earlier interview I listened to, the black mother who exposed this told the principal that she wants her child in a non-segregated classroom. The principal replied that her child would be the only black person in the class, which is the only mention of being the only black person in a classroom.

The question still stands, was this a practical outworking of CRT?

In another article there were a few more details. The parent wanted the child in a specific teachers class, to which the principal replied that then she’d be the only Black person. There were not ‘segregated’ classes in the context of all white or all black. Some classes had black students and others didn’t. That was my take.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/educatio ... -students/

And the only reason she would have been the only black person in the class with that teacher was because the principal had already segregated the classes. This is not about what you are suggesting.

[Sliceitup]

From my understanding, this was not about someone being the only black person in a classroom. This was intentional segregation "to build a community". In an earlier interview I listened to, the black mother who exposed this told the principal that she wants her child in a non-segregated classroom. The principal replied that her child would be the only black person in the class, which is the only mention of being the only black person in a classroom.

The question still stands, was this a practical outworking of CRT?

In another article there were a few more details. The parent wanted the child in a specific teachers class, to which the principal replied that then she’d be the only Black person. There were not ‘segregated’ classes in the context of all white or all black. Some classes had black students and others didn’t. That was my take.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/educatio ... -students/

And the only reason she would have been the only black person in the class with that teacher was because the principal had already segregated the classes. This is not about what you are suggesting.

I’m unsure of what you’re trying to say. I agree that the principal specifically put the Black students in certain classes so they were together, but I’m not sure if that’s what you think happened. You do think it was all white and all black classes?

Also, could you explain in some more detail how this would be a practical outworking of CRT? Like, what aspect of CRT goes through what specific steps to lead to this happening? I’m trying to get a clearer understanding of your thought process.

[Josh]

Sliceitup,

Did you read the article? The school intentionally segregated classes by race.

[Sliceitup]

Sliceitup,

Did you read the article? The school intentionally segregated classes by race.

I did read it. I also read another article with more details. What do you think I’m confused about?

[GaryK]

In another article there were a few more details. The parent wanted the child in a specific teachers class, to which the principal replied that then she’d be the only Black person. There were not ‘segregated’ classes in the context of all white or all black. Some classes had black students and others didn’t. That was my take.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/educatio ... -students/

And the only reason she would have been the only black person in the class with that teacher was because the principal had already segregated the classes. This is not about what you are suggesting.

I’m unsure of what you’re trying to say. I agree that the principal specifically put the Black students in certain classes so they were together, but I’m not sure if that’s what you think happened. You do think it was all white and all black classes?

Also, could you explain in some more detail how this would be a practical outworking of CRT? Like, what aspect of CRT goes through what specific steps to lead to this happening? I’m trying to get a clearer understanding of your thought process.

You used the term "well intentioned" and I'm trying to understand what is "well intentioned" about segregating classes by color, when the civil rights movement worked so hard to end this very thing. I understood you to be suggesting that the principal was "well-intentioned" to not want to see only one black child in a class, which is not what this incident is about. Maybe I misunderstood you.

It seems clear to me that there were all black classes in this case. Otherwise, why would the school district stepped in to stop the practice?

My question about CRT is whether the recent push to understand the oppressor/oppressed dynamic, which I understand to be one of the main components of CRT, allows for things like this incident to happen?

[Sliceitup]

And the only reason she would have been the only black person in the class with that teacher was because the principal had already segregated the classes. This is not about what you are suggesting.

I’m unsure of what you’re trying to say. I agree that the principal specifically put the Black students in certain classes so they were together, but I’m not sure if that’s what you think happened. You do think it was all white and all black classes?

Also, could you explain in some more detail how this would be a practical outworking of CRT? Like, what aspect of CRT goes through what specific steps to lead to this happening? I’m trying to get a clearer understanding of your thought process.

You used the term "well intentioned" and I'm trying to understand what is "well intentioned" about segregating classes by color, when the civil rights movement worked so hard to end this very thing. I understood you to be suggesting that the principal was "well-intentioned" to not want to see only one black child in a class, which is not what this incident is about. Maybe I misunderstood you.

It seems clear to me that there were all black classes in this case. Otherwise, why would the school district stepped in to stop the practice?

My question about CRT is whether the recent push to understand the oppressor/oppressed dynamic, which I understand to be one of the main components of CRT, allows for things like this incident to happen?

If there were all Black classes then I’m in complete agreement that it was wrong and segregation. I can’t see how anyone could think that’s a good idea in this situation. But I’m also not seeing anything that explicitly says there were all Black classes. It seems that would have been noticed years ago and called out as unacceptable. It would be very hard to hide something like that. But dividing a handful of Black students amongst white students in two classrooms, rather than across all six, that could be done much easier.

[Ken]

Shrug? If a white principal would do this, I'm pretty sure the incident would not be so quickly dropped by the news media and I'm doubtful "well intentioned" would be used either. Rather, I think terms like oppressive and white privilege would be used, terms that are at the heart of CRT. I'm still not convinced that the current debate about racial issues had nothing to do with this case.

I'm not sure what you are talking about. If you google the principal's name you will find at least a dozen news articles from the past several days. I'm not sure you understand how the news business works. If they run a story and there are no new compelling developments then they move on to the next day's news.

In any event "do what?" What exactly are you accusing this principal of having done? And are you sure the accusations are accurate? There are now other parents who have come forward and challenged the whole narrative about segregated classrooms as false. For example: https://atlantaintownpaper.com/2021/08/ ... ry-school/

However, other Black parents at Mary Lin have refuted Posey’s claim of segregated classrooms.

“It did not happen,” parent Stacee White told Atlanta Intown. “My children were never separated into a ‘Black class.’ You can look at the yearbook and see that there are no all Black classes at Mary Lin.”

White said she was “bewildered” by Posey’s allegations, and was upset that a false narrative of segregation was being pushed to the media. White said she pulled her kids from a private school just so they could attend Mary Lin. She said her children have thrived at the school earning all As.

“I believe trying this case in the media causes harm to the students and the community,” White said. “It’s unfortunate and unfair.”

Parent Rian Smith agreed with White. “I’m in shock. The allegations that there are Black classes can simply be disproved by looking at a school yearbook,” Smith said. “It’s factually inaccurate.”

Smith said there might be an appearance of segregation simply by the fact that there is a small number of Black students at Mary Lin, but her children were never segregated based on their race.

According to data from the Georgia Department of Education, Mary Lin has 599 students in grades kindergarten through fifth, with 60 of those being Black. The second grade class has 98 students, 12 of whom are Black.

Smith had nothing but praise for Principal Briscoe.

“I think Ms. Briscoe is wonderful,” Smith said. “She has a gift for remembering and knowing all the students and parents at the school and she always has the best interest of the children in mind.”

Social media posts and Facebook groups created by Mary Lin parents – both Black and white – have also dismissed the allegation and defended Briscoe.

It sounds like there is more to the story than you suggested.