Can either side claim the high moral ground in the Wake County school diversity fight?
As noted in today's article, the various Christian leaders allying with the state NAACP to restore the old diversity policy are arguing they're on the side of good. Terms like evil and Jim Crow were bandied about at Tuesday's press conference on the July 20 mass march.
“We're here today to fight against something that is extremely evil,” said the Rev. John Mendez on behalf of the General Baptist State Convention of N.C., whose 400,000 members represent the largest black denomination in the state. “We would not be here today if evil was not pervasive. But there is something evil because it is divisive.”
The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, invoked the Biblical book of Galatians about Christians being one in Christ to argue that Wake County is one community.
"If we allow resegregation it undermines all of the other things we need to do to secure our children’s future," Barber said at the press conference. "That’s dangerous! That's wrong! That’s Immoral! And, we believe, it's unconstitutional!"
Click here for the rest of Barber's remarks.
The Rev. Nancy Petty, senior pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, said supporters of the diversity policy are dealing with issues of justice and truth. She said democracy is based on the concepts of equality and freedom.
"It's time for us as people of faith to take a stand and say that all people are equal," Petty said. "All people are created in the image of God and we all have a voice and a place at the table."
The Rev. Michael Hunn, speaking for the 50,000 member Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, compared the Biblical story of the Good Samaritan who helped a person in need with the diversity policy encouraging people to see the whole county as their neighborhood.
“We do our children a great disservice if we teach them that in America your neighbor is the person who has what you have, who looks like you look, lives where you live and drives what you drive,” said Hunn, a parent of a student at a magnet school. “We do our children a great disservice if we isolate them from the beautiful and God given diversity which Wake County provides.”
Click here to view the rest of Hunn's statement.
But Steve Noble, chairman of Called2Action, the conservative Christian group that backed the four new members in the election, said it's the role of parents and not the school system to teach children who are their neighbors.
Noble said the critics of the board majority are engaging in politics and grandstanding. He said they're relying on government to solve their problems.
Noble questioned how the other side can call members of the board majority racists and say they're engaging in actions that are evil. He said that's un-Christian behavior by people who say they're followers of Jesus.
"The people that Jesus got mad it were the religious big mouths of the day," Noble said. "He was compassionate with other people."
Speaking of charges of racism, the Rev. Curtis Gatewood, second vice president of the state NAACP, gave the closing remarks and benediction at the press conference. Gatewood was nearly arrested for not giving up the podium during the March 2 meeting in which he said Margiotta was a "white racist" who was going to hell.
During the press conference, Gatewood held up a sign showing a picture of white and black water fountains from Jim Crow days.
"We're saying no to Jim Crow," Gatewood said Tuesday. "We can't go back. We've been there and done that."
Comments
Religion
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 23:52 — SDR256I thought that judgement as to who is evil and who is good was supposed to be held for God, according to God's word - - ? However, its very convenient to raise up the specter of religion so that others will not argue. Many will be afraid to say what they see in front of them, what they experience in their every day life because the power of the church has been invoked. Very predictable, and despicably and cowardly disengaging tact.
It would be so much more inspiring, and leading and groundbreaking for the church - any church and all churches! - to bring this community together. To find a way to bring dialog to this media frenzy. This is desperate for families - all families - and it brings despair to my heart to hear the churches jumping on the bandwagon.
The high moral ground.
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 16:35 — HenryMillerThroughout history, opposing sides in every conflict have always claimed the "high moral ground" as their own. It's a meaningless phrase, meant more to denigrate the opposition as somehow amoral than it is to express anything substantive. In the case of the former Wake County "diversity" policy, the supporters of that policy, apparently unable to make any valid, sensible, arguments in favour of it, seem to have been reduced to that tactic of specious moral condemnation.
Remember that the ill-conceived diversity policy was democratically and on the basis of "the concepts of equality and freedom" overturned by a majority of Wake County voters. But now the NAACP and the other organisations mentioned are apparently attempting to assert that their self-asserted superior "morality" ought to make their votes somehow more equal than those of the other Wake County voters and, by that assertion, to deny the freedom of the majority of the those voters to determine the policies of their own schools.
So far as I know, there's nothing preventing parents who are strongly in favour of "diversity" from asking the school system to allow their kids to go to any school that pleases them. But what they, the proponents of enforced "diversity," seem to want is a policy that compels kids to go to schools they've no interest in attending, nor their parents any interest in having them attend. This is "freedom?" And it's "equality" to impose that "diversity" on some kids but not others?
“We do our children a great disservice if we teach them that in America your neighbor is the person who has what you have, who looks like you look, lives where you live and drives what you drive,” said Hunn, a parent of a student at a magnet school. “We do our children a great disservice if we isolate them from the beautiful and God given diversity which Wake County provides.”
You, Mr Hunn, are utterly at liberty to teach your kids anything you like. You are not at liberty to impose those teachings on my kids, or have them imposed on your behalf by the school system. As far as I'm concerned, "diversity" is simply racism with a face-lift and far from meriting consideration as the once-principal goal of the Wake County school system, ought to be consigned to the "dustbin of [scholastic] history."
Jim Crow??
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 11:21 — PACK_MIKE77March on WCPSS. After moving students closer to their support group, their home. The next thing WCPSS should do is to remove the questions from ALL documents that ask for ethnicity. Someone tell me what the purpose of knowing the ethnicity of an individual student is?
Feds
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 11:29 — Bob_SconceUnder No Child Left Behind, districts have to record and report results by subgroup, which includes racial minorities. They can't do that if they don't know what race their students are.
I wonder if there will ever
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 08:19 — willynillyI wonder if there will ever be any middle ground here. It is not unlike the abortion debate.
*If you support abortion you are pro-death and if not you are pro life.
Well, nothing is ever that clear. Going out and killing doctors did not change anything, did it? An election was held with people voting, which is one of the basic rights of people in this country. However, something new is afoot..... we can cry and whine (right exYANK?) and become vocal and violent and hide behind the phrase, "by any means necessary." Then.....we sit back and wonder why our students get violent in the classroom....in the hallways, in the bathrooms. It's because they learn well!!!!
Why not allow this process to move forward (which it is anyway) and then see which numbers roll up on the dice. The old board did this and apparently there is some dissatisfaction with the numbers that came up.....ergo, the new board. I am really wondering ..... if the numbers go up (grad rates, test scores, etc) what they will say. LOL I laready know. I am going against the grain with the way I teach my students (I teach them to read and write) and 77% of my students passed the science EOG this past year. Then...........it becomes, "Oh, but it's not about the test." Uh huh, OK!
Good for you! You are
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 08:58 — HJ2ss2Good for you! You are bright enough to figure out what works then implement it.
Do you find that in Wake County you are limited by the expectation of how to teach? Did you experience any circumstances where it didn't matter if your method was successful; the expectation was that you would use their method, even though it did not work?
You're a teacher
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 08:44 — Dove314Explain what action they've taken that will raise the graduation rates for 2010-2011? I've watched student achievement and there just isn't much there yet, especially for 2010-2011. Even Rick Martinez, a supporter, noted that achievement isn't the focus. What you're doing directly impacts student achievement in each year. What the BoE is doing doesn't have any clear goals or impacts for graduation rates or achievement for years, if then.
So...
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 09:36 — Bob_SconceEvery student who isn't graduating this year is the result of 12 years of the former policies. You can't turn a battleship on a dime.
You are making a huge
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 13:46 — shank56You are making a huge assumption that all kids in high school who do not graduate spent all 12 years in WCPSS?? Don't think so.
I would like to see the data surrounding those students who do drop out- at what point did they enter the system and/or how many times they moved in and out of the system.
No...
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 13:58 — Bob_SconceNot at all -- I must not have been clear. Some of the children who didn't graduate this year actually dropped out 2 years ago, but first started falling behind 10 years ago. Some have been failed since Kindergarten. Only a small portion actually made it to their senior year and then failed to graduate.
I recognize that many students moved here from someplace else, so maybe the word 'every' is misplaced, but I think you understand what I mean.
Exactly.....these
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 10:28 — willynillyExactly.....these initiatives take time. As I have mentioned here before, the only REAL research would involve starting something with K and watching what happens 13 years later with that group. However, we keep trying new things year after year. An example would be an initiative called ABC I (eye) in which no student is given anything lower than a C to help grades. Hmmmmm, would that raise the grade averages? Yes! Would that help the EOG scores? No.....explaining why some admin people say, "It's not about the test." This past year is a perfect example. EOG results came in and our 7th grade was abysmal in the pass rates. The 7th grade was 10% below 6th and 8th. The 7th grade had adopted the ABCI philosophy. Then, during the awards ceremony, scores of 7th graders walked across the stage for A and A/B honor roll. LOL What a joke.
This board, to answer a question, has not been in for a year yet? As Bob mentioned, you cannot turn this on a dime. Even in Sec. Clinton's book, It Takes A Village, it is clear that a close knit community CAN make a difference. Maybe we should see if this works before passing judgement.
To answer the other question, YES, edu-world is taking the position that ALL teachers should teach "the same way." Even in the face of "differentiation" for students it is now being assumed that ALL teachers CAN teach the same way because it works. When the test results came back this year it became clear that teachers CAN teach in their own unique way and get results. These feel good initiatives are being proven to do nothing more than fill the need of clueless administrators like Del who are more worried about protecting the feelings of disrespectful students and teachers than actually educating children. That is why when a teacher helps their students to success on the EOG the powers that be tell that teacher....it's not about the test.
Time
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 10:35 — Dove314In a perfect world, we would all love to have infinite timelines to make necessary changes but the reality is that past BoE's and now this BoE keep saying the changes are coming to help them and in the meanwhile, more 9th graders can't read (by your own testimony), foolishness continues to get in the way, and the clock keeps on tickin' along with very little happening, and the graduation rate keeps sucking.
This is the real world with real world pressures. The luxury of "time" just isn't realistic. There is one election cycle upon which this BoE is being judged before the whole thing can flip to yet differing majority and focus. So what are they going to have in place to show me they are impacting achievement before that election in 2011 when they will have been in office for almost 2 years given we've seen almost nothing moved forward that will impact things like graduation rate in that time frame?
Reading, writing and math
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 10:50 — willynillyReading, writing and math are the key. You are right, if a child cannot read they need to be taught to read. However, my philosophy (adopted in graduate school) is that I am a reading and writing teacher and I use science to teach those subjects. However, on numerous occasions, my principals have told me that I need to differentiate my instruction for those students who cannot read. I have always taught middle school.
On surveys many high schoolers have made it clear that they dropped out NOT because they were uninterested. They said they were unable to do the work. However, edu-world wants to just work around these facts. Even teachers get their hackles up when I have done workshops touting the advantages of teaching our children to read. They scream, "Where is the inquiry learning?" The other buzz word....inquiry. The kid cannot read and we want him/her to be able to perform intricate tasks to come to a conclusion.....however, they cannot read the text that describes to them what to do.
Agree
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 10:42 — Bob_SconceThey need to make forward progress and can't sit on their hands for 4 years. But, as long as a majority of the voters believe that the progress will lead to results, they don't necessarily have to have those results in hand. I dislike the fact that improvements cannot achieve instant results, but that's just the way it is.
IIRC, the graduation rate for 2010-2011 is already heavily impacted by students who dropped out even before last year's school board election. Unfortunately, precious little can be done about that. The only way to improve next year's graduation rate is to focus on rising seniors who may still drop out.
As I see it, Mr. Barber and
Wed, 07/07/2010 - 07:14 — HJ2ss2As I see it, Mr. Barber and others mentioned in this article have been quite vocal but where were they when the children were bused to school miles away from their homes with no support system to help them? Did they not care that these students often felt out of place, or that parents had no transportation to attend meetings regarding their children's progress or lack of? Have they done anything, besides pray, for the students living in homes with parents who are alcohol or drug abusers?
If they directed half as much energy directly working with the students as they do demonstrating and gathering others for their "cause", they could actually make a difference. I say this from experience. I worked with the ED students and had difficulty finding anyone in the community who could provide services for them away from school.