because this country places little to NO value on education. besides the fact that the educational system in our country is lopsided, biased, in the ways that we just enumerated.
it will require a major paradigm shift on the part of the PTB before any of these glaring issues can ever be rectified. but, of course we know that the conservatives who are trying to preserve only certain aspects of the American way of life (which need no detailing here) would prefer that the masses be left as ignorant as they possibly can and so they will continue to tailor the system in a manner such that only a select few, who were born into a life where they were afforded certain privileges to begin with will be able to move consistently upward in terms of education.
only those who will serve to further the ultimate agenda will stand a chance, and it will seem to the lay person that there must be a disparity or some inequality in intellect along race or class lines.
education depends on schools, parents and especially the students. Confucius had a quote about not teaching the disinterested because it is a waste of time. stupid and disinterested students of all races bring problems on themselves by not trying. many parents fail their children by not encouraging them to strive for achievement. and some teachers give up and become disillusioned after years of disappointing results. but most students learn, most parents encourage their children and most teachers succeed at imparting knowledge.
your paranoid view of overlords holding people down is BS. individuals succeed or fail mostly on their own efforts. quit looking for someone to blame and start demanding individuak responsibility.
I can definitely agree that a large part of the responsibility lies with the individual. However, for you to dismiss the idea that there are those who are working to ensure that only certain people can sink their teeth into the coveted american pie as BS suggests that you are not objectively observing your surroundings.
from the tone of our debate, i get the impression that you are a white man, and if this is true, i can say with no small measure of confidence, that you will never understand the implications of what it means to be a person of color in the world, not to mention in the West.
from the time of conception, the odds are stacked against the black man/woman. not only in educational opportunities, but largely because of a mindset, which while no longer fashionable, still exists to a very large degree in our country.
add to this the generations of abuse and second class citizenship we have been subjected to, and the picture should start to become more clear as to why minority students are not as motivated as they could/should be in school.
my generation of black children will be the last of those which will be reared by parents who lived during the jim crow era, but you must understand, that while times change quickly, mentalities do not, and the messages and impressions that were drilled into blacks for centuries will not be shaken in a few decades.
furthermore, these messages and impressions have not been done away with. If you're unclear on what i mean, turn on your television and get a load of the black people/models you see on TV and note the african americans" that you see. an uninformed person would get the impression that all black people here are light-skinned, of the mulatto or bi-racial variety. long flowing hair, slim noses, thin lips, an impossible waist line and sundry other CAUCASIAN characteristics are touted as the standard of beauty across the board for americans.
while there are many of us who intellectually know that all colors are beautiful, subconsciously the message that is imparted is that the more African you look, the less you belong and it results in a large group of people being ashamed of who they are, and attempting to identify with a standard which can only serve to the detriment of their self-image and esteem.
your confucian quip resonates with the Hermetic axiom "the lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding." i couldn't agree with that more, but that idea only works when there is a level playingfield (please forgive the cliche) to begin with. when you are made to feel that certain things are expected from you (being black automatically gives you a connotation of illicitness, rebelliousness, coolness, etc) and other positive and beneficial things have been kept out of your reach for so long, human frailty will most often drive one to do what is easiest, and to stop striving for excellence
this is not to
excuse those who do not take the initiative to better themselves, but they are factors that must be considered.
