Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Clarence Page recounts the amusing tale of a talk-show host who was desperate to find someone who disagreed with Abigail Thernstrom and the theory that black parents do not do enough to convey the importance of education to their children:
As much as I love to argue, especially in front of vast national television audiences, I had to bow out when a popular cable TV talk show recently asked me to debate author Abigail Thernstrom on the delicate topic of the academic achievement gap between black and white students.
Thernstrom, a liberal supporter of the civil rights movement for most of her life, has become a leading neo-conservative voice on the U. S. Civil Rights Commission since her appointment by President Bush. Her latest book, co-authored with her husband Stephan Thernstrom, "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning," argues that black and Hispanic students do not perform as well as white and Asian students because their parents do not push the value of education on their children as much.
The program's booker was looking for someone to argue against that position. "I can't do that," I told the booker. "I agree with her position, although I'm sure my 14-year-old son would have another view."
There was a brief moment of silence on the other end of the line. I felt my shot at the national limelight evaporate and they would not be interested in booking my son. That's show biz.
Mr. Page then goes on to scold such media folk for trying to stir up controversy and argument around this topic, when calm, level-headed discussion is much more necessary:
One of the most disturbing disappointments in the years since the 1960s civil rights revolution is that the black-white academic performance gap (as much as four years by the time they graduate high school) persists, even among children of the new black middle class...
...if we could solve the racial academic achievement gap, our need for affirmative action would evaporate with it.
Yet, whites are not the top performing group. As the Thernstroms point out, the gap between white and Asian-American student performance is actually wider than the gap between blacks and whites, with Hispanics performing about as poorly as blacks.
Emphasis mine - I've always opposed AA because I believe it masks the real problem, and I believe that researchers such as the Thernstroms are doing a good job of showing us where the real issue lies.
One important idea that the Thernstroms are publicizing is the innovative "trouble threshold" theory; it is, in essence, that the students who do well are the ones with parents who do not let grades go very low before introducing punishment (I remember getting skinned and fried for anything less than a B). The Thernstroms cite a 1996 study which surveyed students about parental reactions to grades. White kids said they had to stay above a B- to avoid trouble, whereas black kids could earn a C or C- before the parental wrath would descend.
Asian students? Anything less than an A- and they'd be grounded, and that was the same for both immigrant and native-born students. What's more, Asian parents were more likely to believe that "academic performance depended entirely on how hard [the student] worked," and much less likely to believe in innate abilities, good luck, and other such matters that weren't under the control of the student - or the parent.
This isn't the only difference the Thernstroms uncovered - for starters, young white kids were often reared in homes that had, on average, twice the number of books as young black kids - but it's hard to deny the data that show the impact of parental attitude on academic performance.
Wonder if that talk show host is still looking for someone to debate Abigail Thernstrom? That person better come prepared with some serious data, and a suit of armor to boot.
Posted by kswygert at October 28, 2003 11:47 AM