Treatise on Inner-City Education - Part I

On occasion of the Dr. King “holiday” and beyond, we will hear every last egg-sucking one of the typical “progressive” folks talking about race relations in this country and offer idiotic solutions for the “correcting” of bad things going on in our urban areas. These ideas are usually a simple rehashing of already failed Socialist policies, and they never change or work. Why supposedly intelligent persons would try to push forward these ideas that have never worked anywhere is a testament to the stupidity of our masses and our intelligentsia. Maybe it's because they aren't supposed to work, they are designed to make folks feel good. Or maybe those "solutions" are designed specifically to keep the minority races in their place. I choose the latter.

Since the 1950's and 60's, the situations occurring in the urban areas of our country and the poorest sections of our towns and hamlets have never gotten better, they have gotten much worse. Placing the blame is vital to moving away from the actions that have all but ingrained the thought patterns of those people affected. This is where I step in because I can easily place the blame on the guilty parties with no fear of retribution outside of my normal punishment from illiterate e-mailers that actually think I care what they think.

I think that we can all agree that the quickest way out of the ghetto is to be seven feet tall and know how to handle the rock, (Not crack Junebug, the basketball, where the Hell have you been?) but what about the other 99% of folks? Let's just assume that an education delivered by competent teachers and professors would ensure that everyone at least had the opportunity. The problem here is that there are very few competent educators left. The ones that are left are hampered by the material that has been produced from which to teach.

One such tome, that I had the misfortune to read (thanks, Bean), was Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States 1492-Present. This book was/is utter and complete crap. He basically just took a legitimate history book and wrote the word "NOT" into every declarative sentence and "forgot" to footnote anything. And yet, Bean's professor thought that this would serve her well in understanding the history of this country. Here I write "NOT."

While reading Thomas Sowell's brilliant book, Black Rednecks and White Liberals, one thing became abundantly clear to me. Mr. Sowell has answers to the problems that plague our inner-city schools and the Black community schools specifically. Not that the people in power will ever listen to him because he doesn't adhere to the almost religious dogmas spewed by those same talking heads. That is a shame for those that are affected by those dogmas, the Black kids.

Let's really look at the history of the inner-city, segregated schools and decide whether or not our "progressive" folks have any clue what their wonderful ideas have done to the people that they were supposedly trying to help. For this task, I will use what is known as "SPECIFICITY" as opposed to "GENERALITIES" which is what is used to come up with idiot ideas.

That brings us to the study of one particular school in Washington DC. At the end of the nineteenth century, there were four public high schools in DC. One was for the Black kids and it was named M-Street School. Among this school's first prinicpals was Mary Jane Patterson, the first known Black woman to graduate from college in the United States. Oberlin College graduate, 1862. Yes, that was the year before Abraham Lincoln released his smash-hit single, The Emancipation Proclamation.

Since schools were segregated until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, M-Street School enjoyed a string of great Black teachers and administrators. This school had more PHD's per capita than any other school in this country. Did this guarantee a quality education? Of course not, but it did ensure that the educators were qualified to teach. And teach, they did.

M-Street School became Dunbar High School in 1916. So let's call it Dunbar from this point forward. From 1870 until 1950, most of its graduates went on to higher education. This was even surprising for white high schools at that time. The first grad to go to Harvard was admitted in 1903, well before the Civil Rights ideas were even thought about in the majority of our country.

Between 1918 and 1923, graduates from Dunbar went on to receive 25 degrees from Ivy League Schools. At one time, Dunbar students did not even have to take entrance exams to enter college and they graduated college at a 74% rate. Take that Cracker.

But, racism would rear its ugly head and take down our hero, Dunbar High School. It was determined back in the 1950's that seperate but equal education was NOT equal. And with the decision of Brown v. Board of Education, Dunbar was castrated.

Damn, that history. You simply cannot remove the facts, no matter how badly the "educators" want you to. Check the latest Wikipedia page HERE. Notice that this was the FIRST high school for Black children and also notice that there is nothing about this school other than the athletic achievements of late. And the one other telling "FACT" is that 46% of the students were eligible for the "FREE LUNCH PROGRAM." The reason for the scare quotes is obvious. The fact that we have a free lunch program is in itself demeaning to anyone that is on it or it should be.

Stigmas that were commonplace just fifty years ago are lauded as progress these days. Is that a good thing? You decide.

Stay tuned for Part II of Mean Ol' Meany's Treatise on Inner-City Education.

UPDATE: Jewzilla chimes in on the Dr. King celebration.