Educ. School performance

George Will, columnist, wrote the following in his August 29, 2010 in Families: By the numbers.

In citing Paul E Barton, the author of America's Smallest School: The Family" Wills wrote:

"He has estimated that about 90 per cent of the difference in schools' proficiencies can be explained by five factors: the number of days students are absent from school, the number of hours students spend watching television, the number of pages read for homework, the quantity and quality of reading material in the students' homes - and, the most important, the presence of two parents in the home. Public policies can have little purchase on these five, and least of all on the fifth."

Note from the right jack: Educators, both black and white, have known this to be true for years, if not decades. However, it is obvious that this does not serve certain people in the African American community to correct these impediments to academic growth. That is, it appears that there are incentives to: [1] keep high, the birth rate of our children out of wedlock, [2] offer nothing to correct the 65% single parenthood rate, [3] keep the school drop out rate outrageously high, and [4] keep sending nearly one-half of our young males to prison.

"Acting white" is a stigma attached to young African Americans to dissuade them from doing well in school. Pity! Doing well in school is the job of students, regardless of color. So, what are the hidden motives of people who want to keep young African American children from doing well in school.