Children suffer from injustice by unequal schools
By JONATHAN WALL
Monday, April 20, 2009
Recently, I was a judge at Georgia Mathfest, an event where more than 5,000 kids engaged in mathematical activities, games and all around fun.
One of the main events was math-bate, a combination of math and debate in which teams were given scenarios and had to analyze and solve them mathematically. They also had to think critically about the various situations and apply reasoning and logic. Once they solved a scenario, they gave a presentation in front of me and a fellow Morehouse brother. While we scored them based on the correctness of their math, most of the points derived from their ability to explain their reasoning and the general fluidity of their presentation.
What we witnessed in our many hours judging events was disheartening.
Inequalities in education and the underlying factors are something that I’ve always been passionate about understanding. Going to predominantly white schools for grades k-8, and a predominantly black school for grades 9-12 helped me see more clearly the dividing line of educational quality. At Mathfest, I saw the overwhelming disparities that now plague America’s public schools.
Of the 20 teams on each grade level, about 15 were completely Caucasian/Asian/Non African-American, two or three were all African-American. Only two or three were a mix. There were tremendous gaps in the speaking and reasoning ability of the African-American groups. The Caucasian/Asian groups would stand in front of us with confidence and pride, using immense vocabularies consistent of words far beyond what I thought the average kid their age understood.
The African-American groups were significantly less prepared, getting a majority of the problems wrong and having one or two students do the talking while the others just stood there. Not because they didn’t want to speak, but because they didn’t know the information. Some even struggled to read the instructions. The intended fun of the event was not felt by these students. The math-debate was just another exercise in which they saw their Caucasian peers outperform and win.
Being a judge, I had an obligation to fairness, impartiality and neutrality. I would search for reasons to give the African-American groups a few extra points, so the scores would look respectable, but my searches came back empty. I didn’t quite realize to the full extent what I was witnessing until the event was over and the winners had been crowned.
I can’t even begin to describe the feelings and thoughts that raced through my heart and mind as I walked group after group to the podium to be awarded their first place plaques. Of the 40 individual winners, only three were black. And two were on the same team.
It troubles me that America’s public schools (and private, but that’s another situation) are still unequal and lack not only diversity, but equality in the distribution of resources. Some try to blame it on the intellectual capacity of the kids, but that is not the case. There is no reason for there to be such a wide gap in the academic skill-set of students in the same grade in the same state.
Disproportionate education is injustice. Everything starts with a foundation, the roots if you will. Elementary/middle schools are the roots from which we sprout up during high-school, college and life. When a root isn’t getting the proper nutrients that it needs to grow, it shrivels. It may be harsh, but if we don’t make a change, this is what will continue to happen to generation after generation of our youth. There has got to be a better way. And we are all in charge of finding it.
• Jonathan Wall, 18, is a Morehouse College student who wants to be a civil rights attorney.
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