This story hit me so hard that I still haven't processed it all. I've only done this once before, but I'm going to skip writing tomorrow and leave this partially-coherent post at the top of the blog.
Note: I've seen plenty of kids like this up close. This is a near-perfect example of why I keep ranting that race doesn't matter. Only one of the kids that I've known in this sitch were black, but they all had the exact same mechanisms of failure as the one in this story.
From the text of the story:
A Baltimore high school student failed all but three classes over four years and almost graduated near the top half of his class with a 0.13 GPA, according to a local report.
The dude is from Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts in Baltimore. He had a 0.13 GPA and was at the middle of his class. That means half of his class had a GPA below 0.13. The school is 97% black and is located in West Baltimore, which is a very black part of a very black town. Democrats have held the mayoral seat for more than 60 years. All of the city council are Democrats. Plenty of the people in the city's power structure are black. The school district, last I checked, is the 4th most expensive one in the country.
Oh, and only 1%, meaning 0-1%, of the students at this school tested proficient in English.
The woman is unmarried. She works three jobs because she doesn't have a husband to support her family. Before you pass judgment on her, ask yourself what any of our cultural leaders, like the one that interviewed Joe Biden during the campaign, would say about sex outside of marriage. What has this woman been told by our Elites all her life? What has she done wrong according to them?
Back to the boy's mechanism of failure. There was no father. There was no expectation of performance. No one looked at the kid's report cards. No one checked his homework. No one looked at the tests he brought home. Many days, he didn't even bother to show up for school. He was raised without discipline. Neither he nor his mother grasp the concept of personal responsibility. Instead, they ask why the government failed them.
He had a 0.13 GPA and was at the middle of his class. That means half of his class had a GPA below 0.13. The school is 97% black. The school is well-funded and the city is run by people devoted to the suppression of white nationalist extremism.
You could edit the story and make it about an inner-city school in Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Jackson, Memphis or Cleveland and it would read the same. You could edit the story and make it about a school in a white, rural town where the opioid epidemic is out of control and it would read the same. You could edit the story and make it about a school in one of our barrios and it would read the same.
I will forgo my usual snark and leave it here.
Addendum: In the video, when the kid's hand reached for the video game controller, I wanted to cry and throw up at the same time. He was medicating his pain of failure with cheap, temporary entertainment. That shot was staged, but how many times had it happened for real in the last 10 years of his life?
From the text of the story:
ReplyDeleteA Baltimore high school student failed all but three classes over four years and almost graduated near the top half of his class with a 0.13 GPA, according to a local report.
The dude is from Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts in Baltimore. He had a 0.13 GPA and was at the middle of his class.
That seems too ridiculous to believe, so I did a quick check. ADSIVA has a graduation rate of over 55%. I also checked the state of Maryland graduation requirements, and the requirements are 21 credits. So, the notion that this kid is in the middle of his class in terms of GPA seems to be flatly false (I notice there was nothing about 58 other kids going back to the 9th grade). I noticed the news report did not include what the class rank was based upon, for all I know it was SAT scores.
When something seems like an incredible confirmation of our beliefs, that when we have to take a step back and look harder.
Neither he nor his mother grasp the concept of personal responsibility. Instead, they ask why the government failed them.
We didn't hear from the kid, but I'm not sure how "... but you have to be strong. You gotta keep fighting. You know, life is about fighting. Things happen, but you gotta keep fighting" sounds like something you'd be telling your kid.
Instead, they ask why the government failed them.
I agree the mother and the kid failed, but I think there is enough responsibility to say the government did, as well.
I almost take it as a ray of hope, that a school district, 3 years late, are starting to expect actual achievement from Students.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering about this school, it has a name like it is a charter school. I went looking. The top search result was a College Readiness for schools. 1/10 in all categories.
The question is will it hold, will they actually hold kids back?
MN, I doubt it. It's a poorly-kept secret that the public school system simply processes the kids through the grades like widgets on a conveyer belt. Looking at it from the teacher's point of view, what else can they do? The kids aren't studying at home because their families are in ruins. Holding kids back only works when there's one or two. If the whole class is failing, like it is here and many other places, it becomes like the old I Love Lucy bit at the candy factory.
ReplyDeleteAs for giving him a chance, think about how far behind he is. Get rid of Mrs. MN and then put yourself in the position of a parent whose 18-year-old has, let's say, a 3rd-grade education. You have two other kids and work three jobs.
It can't be done. Cannot.
Dig this old post about graduation rates. The stats there are from California. The problem is independent of race, location and politics. It's all about the family.