Yo Homie I Be Graduatin'!

Well, my "surprise streak" has ended. I just finished reading an article that points out something from the left that I have come to expect. A school district in California, that blue state bastion of kooky hippy dippy liberal ideas, has decided that what black students need is to be taught reading, writing and arithmetic in "ebonics" to ensure that they receive a "well rounded education."

The San Bernardino School Board wants us to believe that they are worried about the plight of the black students in their district, who according to their statistics, don't do as well academically as other races. In fact, fewer finish high school. Also, there are too few blacks who pursue college degrees.

So how do the caring liberals of the San Bernardino School Board plan to reverse this trend? The answer is simple. Make school more interesting for black students. [I guess "Sally Has Two Mommies" and the demonstration of how to place a condom on a cucumber video aren't doing the trick]. The best way to do this is to ensure all subjects are taught in street vernacular of the average "gansta rapper"

Here are some quotes outlining the rational for this brilliant idea from the article:

Mary Texeira, a sociology professor at Cal State San Bernardino, commended the San Bernardino Board of Education for approving the policy in June."

Texeira suggested that including Ebonics in the program would be beneficial for students. Ebonics, a dialect of American English that is spoken by many blacks throughout the country, was recognized as a separate language in 1996 by the Oakland school board.

"Ebonics is a different language, it's not slang as many believe," Texeira said. "For many of these students Ebonics is their language, and it should be considered a foreign language. These students should be taught like other students who speak a foreign language."

Texeira said research has shown that students learn better when they fully comprehend the language they are being taught in.

"There are African Americans who do not agree with me. They say that (black students) are lazy and that they need to learn to talk," Texeira said.

Beginning in the 2005-06 school year, teachers will receive training on black culture and customs. District curriculum will now include information on the historical, cultural and social impact of blacks in society. Although the program is aimed at black students, other students can choose to participate.

Board member Danny Tillman, who pushed for the policy, said that full implementation of the program at all schools may take years, but the pilot program is a beginning.

"At every step we will see positive results," Tillman said.

Tillman hoped the new policy would increase the number of black students going to college and participating in advanced courses.

Teresa Parra, board vice president, said she worried the new program would have an adverse effect.

"I'm afraid that now that we have this the Hispanic community, our largest population, will say, 'We want something for us.' Next we'll have the Asian community and the Jewish community (asking for their own programs). When will it end?"

Parra said the district should focus on helping all students who are at risk.

"I've always thought that we should provide students support based on their needs and not on their race," Parra said.

Tillman disagreed with Parra, saying programs that help Latinos already exist in the district. He cited the district's English- as-a-second-language program.

Texeira urged people not be quick to judge the new program as socially exclusive. She said people need to be open to the program.

"Everybody has prejudices, but we must all learn to control that behavior," Texeira said. She said a child's self confidence is tied to his or her cultural identity.

She compared the low performance of black students to starvation. "How can you be angry when you feed a family of starving children?"

Did you catch the sociologist Texeira's veiled threat? If you happen to disagree with her point of view you are not controlling your prejudiced, bigoted, racist nature very well. [This is a clever liberal tactic which involves a pre-emptive "name calling" strike against anyone who dissents to their argument, before the dissenter has a chance to respond. The hope is that mere intimidation will produce concurrence with the liberal viewpoint, no matter how whacky or dangerous it actually is].

Texeira also tags the ludicrous assertion that a person's self esteem is somehow tied to their ethnic culture to the end of her threat. Ok, Professor. Which came first: the culture or self esteem?

What a load of socialist crap. A child's self esteem grows and matures in direct correlation with his or her achievements. It has nothing to do with the color of their skin, or the culture of their ancestors. [Can somebody tell me why it is that the liberals, who claim to revere Martin Luther King as a saint, don't subscribe to his professed dream of a "color-blind society?]

Board member Danny Tillman's insinuation that "Ebonics" is just as much a foreign language as the Spanish that Latinos speak is nothing but desperate sophistry on his part.

Bastardized English slang, is not a foreign language. If anything, it is a dialect of the American English language, but not an entirely different language. Apart from a few Latin cognates, Spanish has nothing in common with English. [Hence the need for Spanish classes in high school and college].

The average kid listening to rap music today doesn't need to attend any classes in order to understand the message in the songs that he or she is listening to. However, you expose that same kid to Latino pop music and it's guaranteed that he or she won't understand anything that the Latino singer is singing.

Teresa Parra, the school board's vice president, raises a good point. Where do you draw the line in all of this culture consideration? I would venture to say that by the time the school managed to give equal time for all the different cultures that the school's students came from, it would be one cacophony of noise and confusion (a miniature Tower of Babel), or the school itself would become a museum of multi-cultures existing under one roof. There certainly wouldn't be any time for teaching reading, math, science and the number one business language in the world, (let alone in the U.S.), English.

It is beyond my understanding to see why Mr. Tillman can even be hopeful that this new Ebonics policy "would increase the number of black students going to college and participating in advanced courses." Does Mr. Tillman really think that college courses, and even advanced courses are taught in Ebonics?

These liberal pinheads don't really care about the education and future of their black students. Teaching them in Ebonics instead of English will only prepare them for lives as rappers or membership in street gangs. Or maybe they could be hired on as teachers to keep the useless cycle of Ebonics Education going on and on and on.

All of this serves to illustrate something that I have noticed about the liberals and the Democrat Party. They don't really care about minorities. They have no intentions whatsoever in seeing minorities succeed in anything other than voting the democratic ticket so that they can continue to stand in line for handouts. The Democratic Party hasn't really changed. Oh sure, they no longer speak with a "dixiecratic" accent. But, make no mistake. They have traded their white hooded robes and their racist, bigoted rants for the sly, socialist rhetoric of professors like Ms. Texiera. In both cases, the democrat’s plans for the minority race in this country aren’t good.

African Americans should have never been slaves in the first place. There's no reason for them to continue to be manipulated by the Democrats, who have done nothing more than exchange the metal chains of slavery for the socialist chains of big government programs. As the liberals tighten those chains around the minorities in this country, they rob their victims of their very dignity and honor. Liberal socialist programs also succeed on keeping the minority down and dependant upon the measly little handout the government affords them.

Black students aren't performing poorly due to the absence of black cultural studies being taught to school teachers, nor is it because they don't have access to "Ebonics friendly” textbooks.

Black students, other minority students, and white students, who perform poorly academically, will have a much better chance, when the public school system purges itself of all of the liberal propaganda it has been pushing as well as the absurd sociological experiments of vacuous, flabby headed professors like Texeira and returning to teaching the basics.