A Teacher’s Farewell Treatise

2,733 words

Part 4

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

The landmark legislation Plessy vs Furguson (1896) allowed legal segregation of our schools. In Plessy, the Supreme Court upheld by a 7-1 margin that “equal but separate” public facilities could be provided to different racial groups. Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, May 17, 1954, overturned Plessy vs Ferguson, and stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” and violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. At the time it was a near imperative to make a political decision where the court essentially practiced sociology and not law in order to assert what they thought was good for the country rather than interpret the law according to the Constitution.

A compelling part of the argument for the ruling was black psychologist Kenneth Clark’s “doll study” about the color of dolls preferred by black and white children and their self-esteem. Only part of the research was presented (with contradictory portions of the study’s findings withheld). The case presented by lawyers based on the Clark study was, therefore, fraudulent by intentional omission. We are seventy years down the road from that 1954 decision predicated on unsubstantiated, intellectual faddism. Since that time it’s been established that segregation did not stunt black self-esteem; “separate but equal” is achievable; integration does not improve race relations nor does it improve black academic performance. Furthermore, as the title of an article written by Gregory Hood in 2019 put it:  “Access to white people is not a civil right.”

Fair treatment for all races and the right of free association is absolutely possible. We have seen over that a half-century of denying that right has been anything but fair, and has instead been detrimental. Busing, which began to phase out in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a disaster and forced integration is undeniably making our schools less effective and more dangerous. Might it be to everyone’s benefit to revisit a “separate but equal” option? Has anyone bothered to ask families and children of color if they would prefer schooling with others like them and not with those who aren’t? The worn out guilt trope that “people of color” are being underserved in order to advantage whites is a shameless straw man. The actual repercussions to maintaining the current system are to minimize the self-actualization of those who can and will. The lowest common denominator appears to have no floor so long as it’s not white. The education establishment is willing to put real potential and excellence on the back burner, while spending colossal amounts of money and manpower to cater to those who can’t or won’t (and who would be better served with programs that realistically address their specific needs).

Our people, white people, desperately need to regroup as Our People, with a distinct racial and ethnic identity who support and celebrate white European thinking, traditions, and excellence instead of allowing them to be repackaged and desecrated on the altar of leftist revisionism and smear. My hope is that people all over this country will do as I have: circle the wagons with my own kind and work vigorously to beat back trendy, fictitious, baseless liberal-slanted lies.

The current gauzy, critical theory nonsense is trendy and profitable to those who believe our young people are useful, easy to manipulate, expendable tabulae rasae. Our public schools do nothing to deflect or counter that. Largely they are “useful idiot” processing centers.

We are more than mere consumers and creatures of brainless, uniform compliance. Whites are already a minority of Americans under age 18. The negative consequence for everyone continues to be as glaring as metal-on-metal hip replacements. Why is this so important? Because the world and certainly the country need white culture and Western civilization to thrive and be the dominant cultural force in America.

Fact: The overwhelming majority of great accomplishments in modern history have come from white men living in Europe and North America. That’s not only an IQ thing; it’s a combination of IQ and a certain intrepidness, a somewhat nonconformist quality with which our people are undeniably blessed. Pay no attention to the anti-Western achievement bigots behind the curtain. This is not to sprinkle holy water on all Anglo-American cerebra (whites have their share of numbskulls and ne’er-do-wells), but consider that the United States has won approximately 50 Nobel Prizes in the sciences from 2000 to the present, but none by blacks. In fact, there has never been a black Nobel laureate scientist. Of the more than 900 Nobel laureates, only 14 (1.5 percent) have been black, and none in science. For more than fifty years we have been drip-fed the notion that the only thing boxing blacks out of the success lane is systemic (read: white) racism and that there is no difference in black and white intellectual ability but for anti-black bigotry. Renowned psychologist Richard Lynn wrote, “There is a normal distribution of psychopathic tendencies in all populations, and blacks seem to have markedly higher average levels than whites — who, in turn, have higher levels than East Asians. These tendencies do not lead to success in many fields other than crime and politics.” Whites don’t need a path cleared for them; just remove the anti-white stop sticks (DEI, affirmative action, racial quotas, diversity promotion, and other anti-white exclusion policies).

A society is guaranteed to devolve when the “dull” increase in reverse proportion to intelligent people who solve problems and add value by maintaining and contributing to an edifying culture. America’s producer-class is increasingly being saddled with the burden of financially subsidizing a protected money-suck population of parasites and hostile practitioners made over as a victimized protected class that is allowed to live outside the law and civilized norms. The delusional approach to our diverse population is by no means limited to education. The liberal, fashionable notion that the bottom 30 per cent of America is the exploited “backbone” of this country (1619 Project) is chip-on-shoulder, manufactured fantasy. Call it what it is: this is the segment of society responsible for the most crime and multiple pathologies such as drug addiction, their penchant for mayhem, and the financial burdens they impose on the net-producing class that is largely responsible for the country moving forward.

Ben Shapiro actually got it right when he stated, “Meritocracy happens to be the only system ever devised by man that has positive externalities that help other people. When meritorious people —the smartest, strongest, and wisest—end up at the top of the heap, it has good effects for everybody else.” When our most able are free to actualize, we all benefit. Today’s suicidal zeitgeist is to kill the golden white goose.

The opposite is also true and explains our downward trajectory as a nation. IQ scores in US have dropped for the first time in nearly a century. Researchers are finding that the steepest declines have been among young people (problem solving, numerical series assessments and verbal reasoning). Most cite the education system as the main reason for this. That’s only part of the reason (do a deep dive into “dysgenics” for the largest factor), but it’s undeniable that the presence of smart phones in schools is a major (though not sole) contributor.

Here is the indisputable truth about phones in school: they can not be allowed in the classrooms where students are expected to learn. Nonsensical measures such as pockets in the front of the room are a delusional “tease”. This single issue alone defines how serious or not we are about learning in our public schools. If a student and a phone are not separated by a wall (or more) then all other educational efforts are a diminishing return. The learning model will not improve if that one variable remains an unaddressed constant.

The United States spends staggering amounts of money trying to prop up students of all colors who won’t or can’t. Denying the reality is a drag producing wing flap on our public schools. It also does a disservice to these students who can be served with curricula better suited to their ability and need. In bowing to the gods of equity over quality and meritocracy we’ve scrapped reading the classics for soup recipes and rap lyrics. Our best and brightest are not sharing space with those of similar ability. Rapid learners are held back by slow and/or limited (some with psychosocial issued) learners. In such an environment abstract concepts are squelched. Students don’t explore broader implications of the things they study. The occasional honors or AP credit class are sometimes a “cut-above” offering, but many are little more than half-baked cupcake sprinkled frauds. The culture that our high achieving students function in is mediocre at best. I have heard over and over in different public school systems, “They’re smart, they can teach themselves.” In order to truly self-actualize excellence young people need encouragement and an environment that holds excellence in esteem. The classroom culture for these students must be at a qualitatively higher level. Larry Bird, Nikola Jokic, and Michael Jordan limited to driveway pickup games does not produce champions; it produces frustrated wastes of potential who walk away. The same is true for our best and brightest students.

The cultural expectations for white kids is that black and brown kids will likely get as many “mulligans” as it takes to move them to the next grade level. And they’re right. Working class whites are particularly pessimistic as they perceive every effort, preference, and break being given to people who don’t look like them yet are being supported by the tax dollars of working class whites who see the quality of life in their communities negatively impacted by those they’re forced to pay for. Many black and brown kids complain that the things they’re asked to study in school have no relevance to their lives now or in the future and that the value of delayed gratification is being forced on them.

It’s time to allow freedom of association and disassociation in our schools and not just for families who have the resources to send their children to private schools with desired demographics. COVID-19 taught American students and their families that attendance was optional. Since then the percentage of chronically absent students (missing 10 per cent of the school year or more) has doubled from 13 per cent in 2016-17 to 26 per cent in 2022-23. How have districts responded? By relaxing the standards. (A passing grade in many systems is embarrassingly low and falling). The decision makers have reduced the value of a high school diploma to the essential value of a junk bond. Zippy the Chimp could pass by doing the minimum, and teachers are left with a tacit understanding that the graduation rate needs to be as high as possible while still being believable. The same Powers-That-Be who don’t tell teachers, “Give them the grades they deserve and we’ll have your back” instead ask teachers to “remediate” those failing from absenteeism or anything else. This adds to a teacher’s work load exponentially. It’s far easier to just pass the kid and devote one’s efforts to students who are there to learn than expending time and energy on kids who don’t care (and probably never will.) So, yes, some fall through cracks because this operational flaw is the best worst alternative to “dying on that hill.” Yet we still hold our tongues when outsiders and know-nothing pundits throw around the descriptor “failing schools” when the blame lies mostly on the student, their family, the home environment, and other factors beyond the control and influence of the school. Often the result is teachers who “sandbag” their lessons so they don’t have to teach them twice and three times when absent students return. Which makes it even more unattractive and uninspiring to students in attendance who will put forth the effort.

One egregious “pig in a poke” about American public school excellence is that of charter schools. The fact is charter schools have consistently had a higher portion of students of color compared to district schools. According to recent data (2021-22 school year), 70.7 percent of charter school students, versus 53.8 percent of district school students, were students of color (according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.) They are essentially being used to “narrow the achievement gap” between students of different races and produce better results than urban neighborhood schools for some students. The results are not conclusive with plenty of “it depends” attached to assessing their success. In my home state of Tennessee, about 80 percent of the tax payer financed, privately operated charter schools have a lower success rate than the districts where they are located. Charter schools are not the fast lane for America’s best and brightest.

One step in the excellence direction might be to establish in America the British grammar school system. Grammar schools are paid for by the government and reserve a certain number of places in a “grammar stream” for high achieving students admitted entry based on their performance in an age 11+ entrance assessment. These schools are completely merit based and get results. This is more than demonstrated in their test scores and professional success regardless of their demographics. Some successful alumni from British grammar schools include Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Margaret Thatcher, Anthony Hopkins, and David Attenborough to name a few.

Sadly, there are those who would like to abolish these schools in the UK declaring that they are elitist and divisive. Liberal progressive ideology is also a cancer in the United Kingdom as it is here in the United States. A 26 year ban on these schools in the UK has resulted in only around 160 grammar schools remaining there, one of many contributors driving their children and the country’s future into the rocks.

American institutions across the board are in a free fall in terms of trust and the belief that they are also competent. Education administrators are often selected to be obedient and not necessarily excellent. They are absolutely discouraged from being honest to the point of rocking the boat. For thirty-plus years, I left it all in the classroom and treated every student, no matter their color or circumstances, with dignity and respect every day. They all got my best. I still love to teach and may do so in a homeschool cooperative here in White-topia. I don’t think I’m better than anyone else, honestly, but my hopes for this education system are very low despite the many enormously dedicated and hard working teachers out there. The system also needs to welcome more people who would come to teaching from other occupations and real world experience. For decades teaching has been a closed system of officious and covetous licensing hoarders who resent nontraditional paths to becoming an educator. Great teachers are born, not made.

My hope is that public education goes the way of Sears Roebuck. At one time Sears was the world’s largest retailer. Denial hubris about evolving consumer preferences and competition innovation (Walmart, Amazon) accelerated its demise. Institutional hubris and denial about the ongoing crisis and a lack of urgency on critical changes will and should similarly kneecap the education system. I say the sooner the better.

The bloated misguided behemoth that is public education is reaching a point of implosion. Their solutions always involve more bureaucratic, central control and more funding. This is the lit cigarette in a fireworks factory. You want to save education? Defund and decentralize the whole, godforsaken dumpster fire. The marketplace is creating nontraditional workarounds in the form of computer based learning and homeschooling. Both are becoming quite sophisticated, but ultimately they are better-than-nothing circumventions of the ailing, expensive, misdirected leviathan. (A voucher system is worthy of consideration but would come with catches). Giving students and families the right of association and disassociation in school choice would be a giant step in the right direction.

Simply put: the public school system is a self-licking ice cream cone that plans on staying that way. I mean no offense to the many people in this system who work extremely hard under increasingly difficult and often impossible circumstances with little respect, low wages, compounding duties, and little input. I’m grateful for the many joys that were mine as a teacher but also happy to leave. It’s what I was put here to do. My parting gift to a profession I love and a mission that was my working life are to offer the truths I’ve written about here.

Now, I’m off to clean out a desk.