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Sep 11, 2007 
A Californian State report on State wide results in California schools showed that the origins of the “racial” educational gap is more cultural than financial (“Tests show racial achievement gap. State results shed new light on wealth vs. poverty debate” Article by Laurel Rosenhall – Sacramento Bee Staff Writer). Basically, it demonstrated that across the State, poor white and Asian students were even faring better than their affluent and Hispanic peers. Now that the myth of poverty is out of the pictures when we talk about education, it is time to systematically include the higher achievement rate of poor and wealthy Asians in all types of studies (school performances, jobs, salaries, parent involvement, success….) to get the white man guilt out of the picture and show that education, like anything else, is a matter of culture indeed, but also of parental involvement and personal will to succeed. A kid that has been permanently treated as a victim of a system cannot succeed in that system! Low income white or Asians are attending the same schools as low income Americans of African and Hispanic ancestry. The people who succeed in a poor environment are facing the same challenges and deficiencies as their failing kin. Some say the tests are biased because oriented to the white American culture. Would the kids fare better if African history and Mexican geography was addressed? And what about the failure in math? It looks like despite their being the wealthiest African and Hispanic communities in the world, presented with the most opportunities, they end up toping the lists for failure at school, chances of contracting HIV or getting diabetes, ending up in gangs, in jail. It is more than racism, lack of money, lack of opportunities. Is Bill Cosby right when he criticizes minorities “who put higher priorities on sport, fashion, and “acting hard” than on education, self-respect, and self-improvement”.
Eric Chevreuil
