The best line from President Obama's speech was this
That responsibility begins not in our classrooms, but in our homes and communities. It’s family that first instills the love of learning in a child. Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair; that success is not a function of fame or PR, but of hard work and discipline.
Hmm...the Michael Jordan Generation?
Gripe all you want about our education system (and there is PLENTY to grip about) but it starts with ridding our culture of COP (checked out parents). As I have been saying for quite a long time, the first agency of socialization is the family. If the family falls into the mass media fly trap definition of success, it's hard to break out. Of course, it does help that President Obama is a role model.
On election day of 2008, I went over to my children's school to help out with the mock vote. I get done an hour and a half before my kids get done so I volunteered to assist kids with the touch screens for the all school vote. Some black kids were talking about LeBron as they came in and sat down to vote. They all voted for Obama and then one of the turned to me and said, "If Barack Obama wins, that means I could be president too now, I guess." They spent the rest of the time talking about how cool it would be if he won.
It helps when they see someone who looks like them succeeding at something other than sports.
26 comments:
I'm curious M - what message do you think it sends that the President's children attend an exclusive private school? Is that message more or less relevant than what the man has to say?
The message that I think it sends is that the Secret Service thought it was the more secure place to go. Protection becomes more difficult in public schools and Sidwell (where the girls attend) has protocols in place that public schools do not.
Did a black kid really say that, or are you lying again?
I thought you were saying that kids today just wanted to be LeBron and get the sneaker deal?
Here this kid supposedly talks about a lifetime of work and study to become the leader of the free world and all you can do is bring up the racial issue of it?
Wow, talk about missing your own point.
Lots of leftists look at skin color first.
Anon, yes. Do you spend any time with black people at all?
Ah, 'the leftist skin color' canard. Classic. Perhaps if each of you spent a little more time trying to see life from their perspective as opposed to wasting it on competing victimizations and counter attack, you might learn something.
Guard Duck, when you spend a significant amount of time around children, one thing you notice very quickly is that they are very visual. It's what they see, not what you tell them, that often wins the day. If they see the only road to success as the MJG, then that's what they gear their life around. This has now changed with the election of the first black president. Play the little games you play all you want but the effects of this will not be fully realized for years and they will be positive.
If they see people showering accolades on the winner of the engineering fair as opposed to the basketball player, this will also be a positive change.
Yes - he said it, or yes - you are lying?
What does my time with black people have to do with your proven problem with telling the truth?
Speaking of schools and the performance of the MJG therein...
Segregation reinstated with this choice quote:
He took the idea to parents, teachers, students, and community members, who all "thought it was a great concept, though they were concerned."
"There was some trust involved in those conversations," he said. "I thought our passion and genuine concern came through."
You see, all you need is passion and concern! No need for reason, logic or evidence. Why do you waste your breath on all that critical thinking nonsense, eh?
I do have to wonder what the left's reaction would've been if this had come from a private, Christian school. Oh, heck, I don't have to wonder at all - I know exactly what it would be.
And this look at the matter. With the money quote:
The idea seems to be that segregation is bad when it results from the choices made by private people, but helpful when it's clothed in liberal good intentions and forced on students deemed to be collectively underperforming. Or when it only last six minutes a day.
"Yes - he said it, or yes - you are lying?"
Yes, he said it. Good Lord, is Joe Wilson posting here now? He's not the only kid or teenager that I have heard say things like this in the last two years since Obama took office. It makes me pretty happy that young, black men can see that a road to success does not have to be paved with athletics.
The question you should be asking yourself, juris, is at a much higher level. Why are black students consistently underperforming? Why is there an achievement gap that simply will not go away? How can we make it go away? If you refuse to look at the the causes of the problem (and there are many), the achievement gap will continue to exist.
Why are black students consistently underperforming?
Black males in particular. Wouldn't have anything to do with the breakdown of the black family in this country since the advent of the Great Society would it? Just like Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted?
Sorry I don't feel the same guilt you do; I've been occupied sufficiently raising my own to worry overmuch about other people's kids.
Guess that's one of the reasons I don't have an issue with abortion - it does indeed keep a 'surplus population' in check, just as progressive advocates promised.
Joe Wilson? Because you are a liar and you are getting called on it? I don't even remember what his problem was with Obama, but I do know you are a liar.
How do you know that he is a liar? Where you there when it happened? It seems to me that you are falling into the genetic fallacy trap of which Mark is accused constantly. Just because you don't like what Mark writes doesn't mean he is a liar.
I think these ideas of yours regarding Michael Jordan are pretty insightful. I've never really looked at our culture like this. It has sadly developed that way and I'm wondering what we can do to shift things in a better direction.
Yes TC, I was. Respond to that.
Hmph. I think someone is a liar here and it might be you. If you are the same anonymous from above, it certainly doesn't sound like you were there when you asked, "Did a black kid really say that, or are you lying again?"
There's actually a way to find out. Mark was there so he knows who was in the room with him. And I believe he does track his Blog stats so he knows what part of the country the post came from.
Well, Anonymous, there was only one other adult in the room besides me and I'm certain it wasn't you. I've never told him/her about my blog so I'd say you are playing some more of those weasel games.
I've certainly heard the same thing many times since that election. Of course, there are still plenty of kids that just don't give a shit but there are less black kids now because they can see with their own eyes the proof. So, why is this a bad thing? I would think you would be happy that they might apply themselves more and think less about racial divides.
I'm guessing that you aren't a qualified investor, Mark. In fact, I'm guessing that you wish you were a qualified investor, but you have never had the talent/ambition to actually become rich.
So: You caught me TC. I wasn't really there.
But you are lying aren't you Mark? C'mon, just admit it to yourself. There you go... now you should wonder why you have to lie to support your position. Is your opinion wrong?
It doesn't matter if he were a qualified investor or not. The qualified investors caused problems for the non qualified ones. You are doing a lazy and quite poor job of connecting the dots on this one which leads me to another suspicion. From my brief time on The Smallest Minority (which is now finished forever) your comments smell an awful lot like Unix Jedi, Anonymous.
Ah, young master Jeff, then you are wrong. It does matter if he was a qualified investor. If he is not, then he lied about losing money personally. When a person has to resort to a lie in order to 'win' the debate (vice discussion), perhaps that person should either re-think their premise, or find a better way to get the point across.
The qualified investors caused problems for the non qualified ones.
Are you really going for the butterfly effect here? That is weak, even for you.
M lied about losing money on exclusive hedge fund dealings. It really is that simple.
Unix, you say, huh Jeff? Yeah, it sure does have that overly obsessive feel to it as well the classic accusation of what he is actually doing himself (When a person has to resort to a lie in order to 'win' the debate (vice discussion), perhaps that person should either re-think their premise, or find a better way to get the point across.)
It's no lie that I lost 40K in the fall of 2008. This was a direct result of the shenanigans with CDOs and credit default swaps. My grandmother faired worse. In reality, I got off light. I'm not living in a tent in Florida or one of the millions who lost their homes because the "qualified" investors wanted to get their jollies. Your either-or statement above betrays a total ignorance of the facts and event as they happened. Your continued personal attacks on me are further proof of this. So, please, continue to call me a liar and avoid the truth which pretty much tears your fantasy world to shreds.
It's no lie that I lost 40K in the fall of 2008.
I won't contest that - I lost money too. Only the childish want mommy to make it all better.
This was a direct result of the shenanigans with CDOs and credit default swaps.
No, not unless you were invested in them directly (and on the losing end at that). Or unless you were invested directly in Lehman or Merrill Lynch. If the former, then you had to be a qualified investor and if the latter - then say so.
And you still aren't admitting that there was a housing bubble (and what created it). CDSs only existed because of the secondary market in mortgages (normal and subprime). The CDS fiasco was an outcome of the housing bubble bursting, rippling through the mortgage backed securities. Not vice versa. You don't get hedge instruments creating the underlying securities - they are built on top of what already exists. In the case of CDS - they were a con game, for a number of reasons - but they didn't create the housing market problems.
But, juris, as Manzi said in the article you sent me, everything is so interconnected now that it's hard not create the cascade effect that we saw in 2008. I really wish you'd see "Inside Job" because all of this is explained so well.
Only the childish want mommy to make it all better? That's your comment after a large group of criminals who fucked us all over, got away with millions and faced no criminal charges? Wow.
Sure there was a connection - a housing market bubble burst, and rippled through all the economy, and quite obviously the financial sector; where players were trading instruments they didn't fully understand (or the risks therein). That is definitely not good - but you have to start at the beginning. You are putting the blame on the financial sector which went south due to the collapse of the real estate bubble. My point that I keep trying to get across is what drove the real estate bubble (and that being a bubble, it couldn't go on indefinitely).
As for those who fucked us over - not a few of them ended up with jobs in the Obama Administration, where they can fuck us over twice as hard. You seem to be quite content with that.
Any time you invest in capital, you had better realize there is a risk you will lose money. If you aren't up for that, put your money in a savings account.
No one fucked you over M - you just lost money. That happens. It isn't fun, but it is childish to blame someone for it as though you had no knowledge of what you were doing. You act as though some rich person took that $40K out of your account - that isn't what happened, and you ought to understand that.
Yo, M, you were talking about underachievement of black students and I mentioned Moynihan. Here's a little something to chew on.
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