Seattle High Schoolers Attend "White Privilege Conference"

When I talk to liberal friends about education (which is always a dangerous subject), I usually get comments that public education should be a great equalizer, that it should teach morals and community values along with reading, writing, math and science. To which I usually add that some schools are doing a very good job with the latter because they are too busy indoctrinating our children with the former. Then almost invariably, I find a story like this within a few days-and this one didn't take a lot of searching (via Memeorandum):

White people, you're privileged, and guilty, guilty, guilty of oppressing disadvantaged minorities. Denial only makes things worse.

This is the message currently emanating from the Seattle School District. Never mind that this dubious construct undercuts needed emphasis on minority student achievement.

District officials this month are sending students from four high schools to an annual "White Privilege Conference" in Colorado. The conference is billed as an "opportunity to examine and explore difficult issues related to white privilege, white supremacy and oppression" — "a challenging, empowering and educational experience."

The conference has little to do with mastering reading, writing, math and science; or with graduating from high school and keeping one's head above water in college. Those are the lessons high-school students should be learning, not that they will be given social promotions in the name of equity and inclusion.

The focus of Seattle Public Schools bureaucracy is clearly political indoctrination, not academics.

The article goes on to note that Seattle area test scores have been released and once again white and Asians are outscoring blacks, Latinos and Native American students. The author of this op-ed, Matt Rosenberg points out that some socio-economic data also correltates and thus the school board feels that it must politically spin the results as the result of white oppression--conveniently forgetting that Asians are a minority too.

This paragraph in particular caught my eye:

What's the thinking behind this theory of white privilege? For the 2006 conference, a paper by Tobin Miller Shearer (who is white) argued that white people could not enter the kingdom of God unless they confronted the way racism and white privilege shaped their lives and spirituality. He maintained that white people tend to be far too individualistic and need to acknowledge their membership in a group that is unavoidably racist.

This is a classic case of liberal inductive reasoning. Because some white people might or are racist and I am white, I must therefore be racist. But that ignores the actualy reality of the situation. While some white people might more more individualistic (and I am one of those), I don't view that as a negative. As an individual, I take responsibility for my actions, my family and my work. I believe my success to this point is predicated upon my parents belief that if you work hard and live up to your responsibilities, you will have a happy and successful life.

But as Rosenberg points out, at least implicity, such an attitude is not prevelant, at least among the school leadership of Seattle. Because the school system is failing a certain segment of students, who have historically been failed by the public schools, the cause must be white people keeping them down. Rosenberg writes:

So, there you have it. Somehow, in 2007 in the United States, "society," racial bias and stereotyping are still controlling forces, oppressing minorities.

I have a different view. What we have here is an institutional evasion of personal responsibility. Why is it such a great bugaboo to think that actions have consequences?

snip

In the real world, success in school and as adults results from individual responsibility, hard work, family cohesion and a home culture that exalts student learning, planning and respect for authority.

By promoting the "white privilege" canard and by designing a student indoctrination plan, the Seattle School District is putting retrograde, leftist politics ahead of academics, while the perpetrators of "white privilege" are minimizing the capabilities of minorities.

If you give people an excuse to grasp onto, they will take it instead of responsibility. The Seattle school authorities manufactured an excuse for their poor performance and cling to it rather than taking responsibility for their failures.