Backwards results
Every Thursday I go and assist a third-grade teacher in the public schools, rather as an introduction the career I am pursuing. The class I assist with is wonderful, but there is one student in particular who stands out. It did not surprise me in the least when I heard today that he had once been in a school for gifted students, but it did surprise me exceedingly to hear that he had been dropped from that school. This student is polite, friendly, cheerful, fun, and very intelligent and articulate; a joy to work with in the classroom. It would seem to most people that he should have no obstacles in his education. However, this student who seemingly has it all is lacking something that is, unfortunately important: this boy is white. Yes, the only reason he was dropped from the gifted school was because of "cultural diversity".
Now, as before, I have to ask myself: can the people who make these decisions be thinking through their actions? Do they not realize that they are creating an aristocracy, where (sometimes despite abilities) certain groups of people are given special privileges? Can they not see that this satisfies neither equality nor justice? What happened to color blindness? What is America coming to?
Last week I filled out several forms for entrance into community college. Though the fine print stated all the reasons that could not be used to evaluate my application (gender, race, country of origin), the form itself asked what race I was. After the story I heard today, I wish I had marked "Other".
3 comments:
How sad that a truly gifted student should get such a reality lesson at his age. Here is a child who is in danger of being left behind as his talents atrophy all due to "cultural diversity". If it is true that he was let go due to his skin color, then it is another sign that we have little chance of truly becoming a color-blind society. It sickens me that skin color is still used to differentiate people in our country. Because this little white boy's culture was not diverse enough, he does not get the opportunity to have his intellect challenged. Unless he, and his parents, are able to let it go, he may become bitter toward so-called "people of color" due to his unfortunate experience with "cultural diversity". We have to deal with that garbage at work and it infuriates me! I am all for a meritocracy, at least at work. If you are competent, you get the job. If you do well, you get promoted or recognized. Your race, religion, sex or culture should have absolutely NOTHING to do with it! In my opinion, when a company claims to want "cultural diversity", what they really want is to either look good to others ("see, we have a culturally diverse workforce") or avoid a discrimination lawsuit. All at the expense of the quality of their product and the morale of their workforce. I work for a world-class company, but they will probably not be one for long if their desire for "cultural diversity" outweighs their desire for the best people available to make the best product available!
heh - I removed my earlier post b/c it looked funny to me.
Anyway - I always mark "other," because the only race I choose to recognize is "human," and those dratted forms always confuse the issue.
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