Not white but learning
No sooner did I say that I wasn't going to post much more than I saw something that got my blood boiling.
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has a whole mini-site and project plan for Ethnic Minorities.
The left-wing isn't always wrong, and at the risk of sounding like a do-gooder, it is definitely going to be harder for a child to learn English if their parents don't speak it themselves. Consider, for example, your own childhood: Most parents will read with their children and maybe put labels on household items to help their child learn words and their spelling as quickly as possible. It is through teaching at home that our sub-standard schools don't fail all children.
So there is definitely something to be said for helping children who do not receive this help at home.
But the trouble is that parents shouldn't have to supplement their child's school's educating.
Worse — far worse — is that the racist government we have decides to target its failures only on those people who, as a stereotype, may not have English-speaking parents. "Well" must go the conversation "they are black."
How about, rather than targetting failing ethnically Turkish and Pakistani children who are being failed by our schools, the government targetted all children who are being failed? I know it sounds radical but the truth is skin colour has no bearing whatsoever on their parent's ability to speak English. Just because you have brown skin shouldn't mean you get extra help than your Polish or poor-English peers.
In fact there will be many parents who were educated in former-colonies who were taught English better than white parents...
So who's racist? The government that applies labels to people based upon their skin colour or me, who believes that culture may affect a child's success but that it should not be highlighted above and beyond general failure?
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has a whole mini-site and project plan for Ethnic Minorities.
The left-wing isn't always wrong, and at the risk of sounding like a do-gooder, it is definitely going to be harder for a child to learn English if their parents don't speak it themselves. Consider, for example, your own childhood: Most parents will read with their children and maybe put labels on household items to help their child learn words and their spelling as quickly as possible. It is through teaching at home that our sub-standard schools don't fail all children.
So there is definitely something to be said for helping children who do not receive this help at home.
But the trouble is that parents shouldn't have to supplement their child's school's educating.
Worse — far worse — is that the racist government we have decides to target its failures only on those people who, as a stereotype, may not have English-speaking parents. "Well" must go the conversation "they are black."
How about, rather than targetting failing ethnically Turkish and Pakistani children who are being failed by our schools, the government targetted all children who are being failed? I know it sounds radical but the truth is skin colour has no bearing whatsoever on their parent's ability to speak English. Just because you have brown skin shouldn't mean you get extra help than your Polish or poor-English peers.
In fact there will be many parents who were educated in former-colonies who were taught English better than white parents...
So who's racist? The government that applies labels to people based upon their skin colour or me, who believes that culture may affect a child's success but that it should not be highlighted above and beyond general failure?