Dumbing down equitably

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – One of the matters that has occupied this column over the years is that of the state of our public schools, and education in general. Lately, we have seen a nearly unprecedented public interest in what is happening in our schools and to our children. That wasn’t so a few years back when I began this column.

Fortunately, however, public attention has been focused more and more on education recently. This is due to a number of factors, most notably those things that the public never saw or appreciated until now. Part of this is due to the pandemic, which forced the closure of many schools.

Now, combine that with parents watching their kids’ lessons on home computers and reacting — to their horror — that schools were not only teaching something called critical race theory, but also about the joys of alternative lifestyles and how one could be transformed from a boy to a girl, or to nothing at all. Combine that with the obstinate refusal of the teachers’ unions to cut parents any quarter and you have a brand new Pandora’s Box opening right before your eyes.

We’ve talked a lot in this column about the pitfalls of critical race theory, how it came about, why it exists, and why it should be thrown on the ash-can of history. We’ll probably be talking about it in other columns. But for today I’d like to concentrate on something I brought up back in 2018, a 1961 short story by Kurt Vonnegut called Harrison Bergeron.

Now, in case you have forgotten, and why should you have remembered, it is set in a future America in which the government has declared that every person is fully equal in all respects: equal in intelligence, in beauty, and in skills. In order to facilitate this policy the government provides artificial handicaps for those who are too smart, pretty, or skilled in order to equalize all persons.

Overseen by Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, handicaps are provided for those needing them. Those who are too smart have ear plugs that pounded radio sounds into their heads so they can’t optimize their intelligence; graceful ballerinas are provided foot weights so they can perform no better than average, and the beautiful have masks so as to appear no more beautiful than the ugly or disfigured.

Thus the best, the brightest, and the most intelligent are handicapped to attain the goal of total equality. In the story Harrison Bergeron sheds his handicaps and dances with a ballerina who has also shed hers. That, of course, violates the law and Handicapper General Glampers is forced to kill them both.

This story comes to mind whenever I hear about some local school district that is seriously discussing ending its advanced placement and gifted and talented programs. Of course the reason given for such action is that advanced placement and gifted programs benefit white students to the disadvantage of minority students.

Since the ratio of the differing racial and ethnic groups is not even, the system is not equitable and must be modified or scrapped. Note, however, when you read about these movements, Asian students are usually grouped with white students, but in some instances are separated from them in such a way as to make even the white students look discriminated against.

One such educator, a high school principal who arbitrarily started cutting advanced placement courses in her school, defended her decision by claiming that she acted for reasons of racial equity. She also claimed she wanted to eliminate the stigma from non-honors courses, and to eliminate racial disparity in honors programs.

All this is being done in the name of equity. The titans of education have found it easier to dumb-down or eliminate the special programs to make sure that everyone’s educational experience is equal to everyone else’s, regardless of intellect, skill, or ability.

That’s exactly what Diana Moon Glampers would do: Exchange academic excellence for the nebulous concept of equity.

In Seattle, a former school superintendent is urging the abolition of the school’s gifted program since an analysis of the program found that only .9 percent of black children had been identified as gifted while 12.6 percent of the white children have been so identified. As a result the school district has done away with eligibility testing for its gifted program and will use such touchstones as grades, testimonials from teachers as well as community and family members to decide who gains admission to the gifted program. Regardless, the local NAACP chapter is pressing for the abolition of the program as “racist.”

Nationwide, according to a recent Associated Press study, there were approximately 8.1 percent of white children who were reported as gifted while only 4.5 percent of black students were so classified. According to some experts, this represents a racial disparity that disfavors racial minorities. One professor has suggested that the estimate of gifted minority students is actually half of what it really is.

In Boston, the school authorities, after suspending their exclusive “exam” schools for a year, voted to expand eligibility by guaranteeing places for high-achieving students from poor and disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Obviously there is some truth to the arguments that minority students are getting the short shrift in these situations. That is not new; minority students have been getting the short end of the stick in many areas because they are black, Latino, or from an indigenous group. But the solution, as offered by too many “professional educators,” is to scrap or dilute the existing programs.

That’s called dumbing-down, the same policy that bedeviled Harrison Bergeron. Instead of rewarding excellence no one was allowed to excel.

Unfortunately, in most of these school cases, only a few are truly looking out for all the children. Far too often officials are content to “burn the house down,” as it were, rather than do the heavy lifting of correcting the problems critics claim burden minority students.

The problem right now is that far too many of those tasked with providing education, are unwilling to take on the heavy lifting that would be necessary to correct this disparity.

Too many of these folks are tied to other issues, political and otherwise. Officials, unions, and others are happy to call this racism, yet will do nothing to solve the problem. Charter schools? No. Private tuition grants? No. School choice? No.

Unless there is a willing partner within the educational environment little will be done except to point fingers. Harrison Bergeron rebelled, but it cost him his life. Perhaps parents, working together, can succeed.

Let’s hope.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning at 9:30 CT on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)