Jada Williams

[r3020]

snip-

Do you know the name Jada Williams?

You probably know the name Sandra Fluke.  She received a phone call from the incumbent president after the mean old white man on the radio called her a name.  You probably know the name Trayvon Martin.  The incumbent president answered a planted question from a White House reporter to indicate that Trayvon, slain by an individual representing the heretofore unknown demographic of white Hispanic, looked like he could be the president's son.

Jada Williams is a 13-year-old student from Rochester, New York.  Earlier this school year, she was given a copy of the book The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, written by the great patriot Frederick Douglass.  Her assignment was to read the book and write an essay about her impressions.  Her essay was to be entered in a contest.  Jada Williams happens to be black.  Many of her teachers are white. 

The essay that Ms. Williams wrote was never entered in the essay contest.  Instead, she was harassed out of her school by the very people whose assistance she requested.

The teacher who gave Ms. Williams the original assignment was so enraged at her essay that copies were distributed to fellow teachers and the principal.  Soon after, Ms. Williams' parents began receiving several phone calls from faculty claiming that their daughter was "angry."  Suddenly Ms. Williams, a model student prior to the essay, began receiving low grades in her classes.  In several meetings, these same teachers refused to show Ms. Williams' parents the papers and tests that garnered lower grades.  During at least one such meeting, according to Mrs. Williams, a teacher union representative was present.

Her parents decided to enroll her another school in the district.  They were told that that school was full and to try another school.  The recommended school was full of actual unmanageable children, one of whom asked Ms. Williams if she were there because she fought too much in her old school.

It is impossible to believe that some member of the White House staff did not hear of this story.  Why did the incumbent president decline to comment?  Could he not identify with Ms. Williams?  Perhaps not, since the education he received from high school forward cost somebody hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Could it be that he could not personalize it enough?  Perhaps not, since his daughters attend the best schools money can buy.

Or perhaps the incumbent president did not wish to gamble with the endorsement of the overlords of the overseers in Ms. Williams's school, the National Education Association (NEA).  Certainly the NEA and other teacher unions have had their share of disagreements with the incumbent president.  Yet their ranks are foursquare behind his re-election ideologically and financially.

Is it really the case that this president, a purported author of African descent, would have nothing to say about a young black girl who was intimidated and bullied out of a school by a group of white overseers who were upset at her impertinent behavior?  Are the NEA and manifold union backers of the incumbent president a protected class who cannot suffer any consequences for ejecting a student who had become "unmanageable"?

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/black_teen_run_off_the_liberal_plantation.html#ixzz1ti5UIGff

[Samnospam]

The girl gets it, but its not about race its about class, and to an extent ethnicity. The public school education is designed to produce workers for industry. The need for comprehension is limited. Read her essay.

[r3020]

Yes, her anger was not aimed at whites, it was aimed at the educational system.......and at blacks for not demanding better. She left the plantation and was booted by the people who want to exploit her.

[bruce MN]

Good take Sam. Class much more than race.  But still race   I'd imagine if one was immersed in it institutionally it would be hard to make a total seperation.   It is an exceptional effort by this young woman, no question:

http://www.fdfny.org/blog/2012/03/20/jada-williams-essay-and-video/

I'm going to pass it along to a couple of close family members who are on staff at urban schools in the Twin Cities.  Will let you know what  Ihear if I do get a response.

In an area here with a high minority population in the public schools and conversations with white middle class educators are often unsettling to me.   Thing of it is, it seems that considerably more of them are careerists before professionals.  Post racial oriented, presuming that there is no need for consideration of some of the things that have gone before; that the matter is settled and don't these kids know that?  And their employment puts them in the upper quarter or so of the local socio-economic strata which tends for them to co-mingle with the parents of the "best" white kids in the schools.

None of this is easy.  And it needs to be tackled as it would have been in the past by people who don't exist, or just stay in the shadows so you don't think there are any of them around any more.  They being genuine conservatives.......Democrat and Republican ones.

The the local level political parties (both of them) used to be actively supported and participated in by school teachers.  They stay away  in droves now.  Not sure if it that they are now simply apolitical, or if they have been made hypersenstive to critcism with the greater politcs having become so polarized.

[bruce MN]

Yes...that reaction or response by the school staff was deplorable if it is indeed being reproted on accurately.

I wonder if there is anything out there in terms of response from her schoolmates, or the parents of thosse schoolmates.  Surely if this got some attention as it did from teh Douglass society and she was notably absent after having been expelled or whatever it was that they did the rest of the students would have known about the essay.

[schnurrbart]

The person writing this little essay surely is another hater who will grasp at anything that might possibly slam the president (you don't read and reprint any other kind). Surely someone in the White House has heard of this? Could be they haven't but I'm sure they will have after your post.

[Samnospam]

One of the ways discussed to improve our educational system is extending the school year.    So what can't seemingly be accomplished in 9 months can also not be accomplished in 12.  A child who already has very little time to be a child will have no time to be a child.  That time of independant learning, called childhood, of every public school kid sacrificed on the alter of global competitiveness.     Rather than giving the child an understanding of the world around them we attempt to train them to function as employees and consumers.   We need our children to spend less time at school, more time out in the world.

[schnurrbart]

You are so far wrong it would be amusing if you weren't so cocksure of yourself.  We try to train our young people to be able to analyse and think on their own.  We try to instill a sense of worth and a sense of compassion for their fellow inhabitants of this earth.  If a person can figure out solutions to problems and think for themselves, there is little that they can't do.  On the topic of changing the school year.  Many educators believe that the simplest way to help our children would be to break the school year into thirds with 3 months in school, one month off and repeat 2 more times.  The biggest problem with the younger kids is that the first month or two back in school in the fall is spent reviewing the previous spring because they have forgotten it over the 3 month summer vacation.

[r3020]

That thinking for herself didn't work out so well for Jada Williams.

[Samnospam]

If you wish to teach people to think for themselves you do not force them into a corporal hierarchtical prison like environment where they need the permission to do anything. If you had read jada's essay you would see hints of that. Your spew is idiotic nonsense, regurgitated without thinking. When the robber barons set about taking over the education of America their goal was to produce a compliant, unthinking, working class that could carry out menial tasks without challenging the ruling class. You are an incredible example of their success.