Dumbing Down America Still More
by Jeff Davis
The dumbing-down of America continues apace. Not enough black and Mexican kids have been able to get into “advanced” classes reserved for children who demonstrate higher IQs. These classes invariably fill up with mostly white children so the NEA-dominated public school system is responding by lowering the admission standards. (Who do they think they are? The United States military?)
The International Herald Tribune reports that “Florida policymakers are considering changes to the state’s gifted education program that could redefine the smart kid and let more join the club next school year. The proposal, which effectively lowers IQ standards, has the potential to reshape one of public education’s most loved and loathed programs.” It takes no special gift to read between the lines here: “redefining the smart kid” means redefining the white kid out of the picture.
The Herald Tribune goes on: “The new admission requirements could strip the program of its elitist aura, opening special classes to students who work hard, not just those who post genius IQ scores.” Well, working hard is fine, and in today’s society it’s certainly a rare attribute in public school students, but it doesn’t rate as gifted, especially since “working hard” by today’s standards probably wouldn’t have even earned a passing grade forty years ago when public schools had serious standards and those who didn’t meet those standards failed a grade. “Elitist aura,” as we can all guess, means “the smart white kids are making the blacks and Mexicans look bad again.”
The Herald Tribune babbles on: “At the heart of the debate is the question of what it means to be gifted, a subject educators have debated since the first IQ test was developed in 1905, but which has reached a fever pitch in the past decade as more states turn away from the time-honored intelligence measure to things like artistic talent and even a student’s motivation level. If the rules are changed, students with IQ scores of 120 to 129 (just below the gifted mark and only one level above average) would be admitted as long as their FCAT or national test scores are high enough. Parents and teachers, long frustrated by limited access to the elite program viewed as key to success in every step of life, are cheering. Parents of gifted children and some gifted-education advocates say the changes could steal services from the truly gifted students who need them.”
There’s more to the article, but we all get the picture. Advanced classes of the kind now being virtually eliminated from all public school systems around the country are one of the few ways in which it has been possible for white children from poor and middle class families to get a decent education of sorts, if only because it removed them from an environment filled with noisy, obnoxious and very stupid minorities who make it impossible to learn because it is simply impossible for anyone to hear the teacher over their non-stop talking.
For many minority students school is just a place to hang out with their friends –never mind the “old White fool” at the chalk board trying to teach something. It is an open secret that many teachers and administrators who still felt some sense of duty to their students have long used advanced classes as a means of getting around the destructive effects and results of racial integration in the schools, a way to make sure that the white children are not dragged down completely to the chaotic level of the gang bangers so they can have some chance to learn. Now it looks like this last avenue of escape will be cut off. Decent education will belong only to the rich who can pay for private schools which are safe, competently staffed, and mostly white.