We can fight wokeness by pushing excellence. Auguste Meyrat writes:
Last week, it came to light that the Virginia Department of Education is considering restructuring math in a way that could reduce opportunities for some students to take advanced math in the name of equity. White and Asian students take advanced math classes more than black and Latino students, and some see this as proof that it’s racist. Instead of seeking ways to raise the enrollment of underrepresented groups in advanced classes, some state leaders appear to believe it may be better to drop all groups down to the same level.
Unfortunately, the Virginia Department of Education isn’t an outlier. Under the guise of social justice, other districts have also taken aim at advanced programs, notably New York City, Seattle, and San Francisco. As Rachel Blustain explains in NBC news, these programs were accused of “creating a caste system by assigning students to remedial, average or advanced classes before they’d had a chance to develop their academic potential.” Yet advanced and Gifted and Talented programs are unequal by design, and they might deny learning opportunities for students enrolled in the lower-level classes.
It’s worth asking how, exactly, removing advanced classes fixes this problem. Rather, it seems to double down on removing learning opportunities by forcing students of all abilities to work at the same slow pace.
[Auguste Meyrat, "Holding Some Students Back In The Name Of Equity Only Increases Injustice,” The Federalist, April 30]
