Monday, July 11, 2005

ONLY SOME RACIAL HARASSMENT COUNTS

The banner headline of the City Section of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sunday edition read: “School Mishandled School Violence. When I read it I thought the Inquirer was talking about the racial harassment of two white students who attended the 99% black Samuel B. Huey Public School in West Philadelphia. The harassment was so terrible that the mother of the students, 33 year-old Shannon Berthiaume, became so distraught she rammed her minivan into the school’s front doors May 25th. She did this rather desperate act after hearing students calling her kids racial slurs as she dropped them off at school that morning.

'I'm sick of them calling them names. I'm sick of the spitting and the fighting. These people won't listen to me, " she was quoted as saying. Berthiaume has one son Justin, 12, and one daughter Destiny, 9, who are white. Her youngest, Pedro, 7, is half Puerto Rican. The children began attending Huey School in January after moving from the Kensington section of Philadelphia. Shortly after, the racial harassment began.

Berthiaume complained several times to the school administration. Yet nothing was done. Despite the fact that her kids were terrified and depressed to go to school because of the racially motivated, anti-white, harassment they were experiencing, the school only offered to transfer them. This is tantamount to racial segregation from a school district that claims to be concerned about diversity....

This is the same school district that several years ago considered teaching about racism by using a curriculum that claimed that white people who are victims of racially motivated crimes do not suffer as much as black people do. White kids being victimized by black kids is not considered a racial hate crime by the news media, the school district, or the police in Philadelphia.

Instead of writing an in-depth article about the racially motivated harassment of white students by black students in a Philadelphia school, the Philadelphia Inquirer chose to do an article about harassment by cadets at a military school. One has to wonder: would the Inquirer have done a feature article about an incident at a military school instead of one concerning white student racism if the incident at the public school concerned black students being harassed by white students.

Of course, most people already know the answer to this. The Inquirer and other mainstream media would make an incident where black students were terrorized by whites a feature piece for weeks... There would be editorials and special articles, as well as broadcasts about the incident. Not only would the media be outraged, the school district would dispatch counselors and dispute resolution experts and conduct a series of meetings with parents and students about racism. Police would be called to arrest individuals. None of which occurred here. Because when it concerns white students being terrorized by black students, the media largely ignores it, police do not involve themselves, and the school district does not consider it a worthy problem.

It seems that Philadelphia’s political, academic, and media elite are acolytes of the teachings of Herbert Marcuse. They, like Spike Lee and Jesse Jackson, spout the Marcusian fallacy that blacks cannot be racist because blacks do not control institutions. They feel whites do not suffer from racism because they are white – only blacks can suffer from racism. Maybe they could ask Ms. Berthiaume and her kids.

More here





DUMBED DOWN BRITAIN

Teenagers are so out of touch with modern science that they cannot name a single living scientist, a survey reveals today. Environmentalist and broadcaster David Bellamy was the closest that two out of almost 1,000 respondents got. Others cited Madonna, Chemical Ali, Leonardo da Vinci and Christopher Columbus. Some students even plumped for their science teachers.

Students, aged 13-16, were asked to name a famous scientist in an online survey carried out by exam board OCR. Isaac Newton (39%) and Albert Einstein (29%) topped the list, which included Marie Curie, Charles Darwin and Alexander Fleming; but the students were stumped when it came to naming living scientists.

The findings also reveal that although eight out of 10 students (79%) said scientists were clever, just 7% said they were "cool or fun". Over half (51%) said they thought science lessons were boring, confusing or difficult - feelings that intensified as students progressed through secondary school in years 9, 10 and 11.

Students also resented the fact that science is compulsory, with many wishing to drop it at GCSE. If given the choice, 45% of students would take biology GCSE, 32% chemistry, 29% physics, 19% combined science and 16% would opt out altogether. Clara Kenyon, OCR's director of general assessment, said: "The results go to show the growing apathy in today's students about science ... It is startling that no students named those responsible for recent scientific advances, for example, Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly the sheep, or Professor Colin Pillinger, who headed the Beagle 2 space probe to Mars project. "If we can't enthuse and inspire young people about the subject while they are at school, then who will carry on [Britain's] great tradition of scientific discovery? "Universities are reporting falling numbers of science students and there is a widely reported shortage of science teachers and lab technicians."

OCR is offering GCSEs from September designed to help students understand science by touching on everyday subjects such as mobile phone technology and cloning. Ms Kenyon said she was encouraged "that unprompted, over one-third (39%) of students stated the best thing about studying science was taking part in practical experiments, with 24% telling us the best aspect of science for them was gaining knowledge. "Students may not see science as interesting, but they appreciate that it will be relevant to their future."

Source

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


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