Cecil Rhodes High

Saw this on Drudge today (Chicago plans high school for black males). Is anyone else bothered by this trend? In high school, the hot fad was "girls only" math classes. Educators began to notice over time a growing gap between the number of males and females in math-related occupations. Female interest in mathematics courses apparently begins to drop off around age ten. Why? "In the classroom, females prefer to use a conversational style that fosters group consensus and builds ideas on top of each other; the interrelationship of thoughts and actions is paramount. Males, conversely, learn through argument and individual activity--behaviors fostered early. Most classroom discourse is organized to accommodate male learning patterns (Ong, 1981)." (Summary quoted from ERIC/CUE Digest, No. 78, Feb 1992.)

I have no problem with that. It makes enough sense to me. I think it somewhat ironic that many scholars in the field of psychology will advance the above theory but will then show little hesitation to publicly batter the President of Harvard University for advancing the radical hypothesis that men and women might think differently. But whatever. The idea of all-female math classes makes sense in principal.

Here's the risk though. Even if it is taken as true that males and females learn differently, in order for both to have the same prospects for personal achievement, they're going to have to mingle at some point. If young women are not learning alongside males at a young age when they might actually learn to deal with whatever adverse effects males bring with them, then how will women be affected later on in life when they are thrown into competition with them? Furthermore, is the impact of having a male around in sixth grade math so detrimental to young females that they will truly be benefitted by segregating them into their own math classes? And does this not just reinforce the already harmful notion that women can't compete?

Mayor Bloomberg in New York took the whole idea a step further when he helped start Harvey Milk High School, the first all-gay public high school (First public gay high school to open in New York). Here the motivation is similar. Openly gay students in New York high schools suffer from discrimination. In order to remedy the situation, Bloomberg gives them their own high school. That way, the bigots at the regular high school get fewer gay kids around and the gays and bisexuals get their own stomping grounds. No errant societal mores are remedied; rather, closed-minded individuals can continue on without having their faulty stereotypes challenged and gay students can go to school without having to learn how to deal with said individuals. These apparently are problems better dealt with after high school, when it's no longer the school district's problem. The school has been challenged from both the Right and the Left: the Right because they see it as preferential treatment and the Left because it's friggin segregation. Last I heard, the school was still operating though a lawsuit is pending.

This latest school in Chicago, though, brings the entire laughable comedy full circle. This is unabashed segregation and it is no more virtuous today than it would have been 70 years ago. This school will only reinforce (if not outright create, in some cases) the impression amongst students--black or otherwise--that African American males cannot compete in an open society. Do not mistake this for the standard talking points frontline argument against affirmative action. Affirmative action results in nothing more than a slight nudge for one candidate over another over, say, a university slot. This proposal is much different and the stakes are infinitely higher. It reminds me of reservation boarding schools. Go ask a Native American how well that idea turned out.

And here is what it comes down to. I don't presume that these effects are intended and imagine that the proponents of this high school would probably take issue with my predictions. But ultimately the risk is there. The only difference between this new segregation and the segregation of old is the motivation driving it. This is not Ku Klux Klan racism. This is Cecil B. Rhodes-style "White Man's Burden." And honestly, that doesn't make it any better.