Below I mentioned what I thought was an excellent column by John Derbyshire that reflected my own thoughts. This one on education and immigration, however, left me cold. I think it is a simplistic and almost deterministic view.
Derb lays out a long and complex list of ideas he calls “The Great Syllogism” while admitting that it really isn’t one. I don’t want to get into a point by point discussion of his 16 points. I think one point in particular is off and that this leads him astray. Here is point 3:
(3) Our very best efforts at creating a meritocratic education system always turn up the same unhappy results: students of Ashkenazi-Jewish and East or South Asian ancestry are over-represented among the educational successes, while students of West African ancestry are over-represented among the educational failures.
This is simply not true . . .
or rather it is true in the very limited sense that the educational establishment has blocked effective political reform for a long time. But the real problem with this point is that it implies that certain minorities can’t learn; that basic pedagogy is different for different races. Just because public school have failed to education the underclass doesn’t mean teaching is a great mystery. Yet this is what Derbyshire implies in his article.
In fact Catholic schools and other schools outside the tentacles of teachers unions and their ilk have managed to teach inner-city minorities just fine. Many Catholic schools in the educational hell-whole of Washington D.C. manage to send a high percentage of minority kids to college
What Derb is describing is a lack of will and political clout not some inscrutable educational mystery. This is bad in and of itself but what makes it worse is that Derb uses #3 to argue that massive illegal immigration and affirmative action are necessary for social harmony. First, of all I fail to see how this scenario is likely to bring social harmony in the long run. But more importantly it is a deeply cynical and defeatists attitude.
There is no reason why we can’t change our educational system to produce literate students. There is also no reason why middle class white, and inner city minority, kids can’t become plumbers and mechanics and other types of blue collar workers. These type of jobs are not low paying or demeaning as anyone who has paid for their services can attest. I will agree that are current education system and our culture is poorly positioned to funnel students into viable careers for which they are suited but surely we don’t need to throw up our hands and “turn a blind eye while several million unskilled aliens enter our country and stay here illegally.” I fear John has given into despair a little too easily on this one.
