John, I have never agreed with social promotions and that is exactly what harmed these mostly single mothers who wanted badly to improve their lives and those of their children. I was trying to encourage you to get outside of your box of thinking. You are definitely well-versed in conservative beliefs, but for each of these beliefs, there is another person with direct experience who would disagree with you. Until they took the test as adults (in 2010-11 or so), these 30 and 40 year old women had no idea their diplomas had such little value, or that their reading and math skills were that low. My boss also didn't understand that if someone is 4-5 grades behind in reading or math, they can't just "catch up" in a few weeks. They require adult school remediation - which doesn't take only a week or two. So, the motivated women did enter adult school and some of them did end up qualifying and getting better paying jobs as LPNs, LVNs, and even RNs.
When you say "meaningless identity based on skin color," Black American women like the ones I was working with in S. and Central LA don't have "meaningless identity based on skin color," their identity is their family, it is their background, it is who they are. Some had grandparents who were slaves. Others may not have known much about their family. But they know that they have names that might have been from the plantation owners who OWNED THEIR FOREBEARS - I honestly think you truly do not understand how deeply disrespectful to others your beliefs are. You ignored what I said about Bill Cody - it would be shocking for most students to realize such a Western hero and figure of the old West basically stood on the back of a train with a rifle for hours a day, shooting bison whose bodies were left to rot - they barely made use of any of the animals. This flies in the face of common sense, it not only wasted all those animals, hides, and horn, it was done to cause the death of Native Americans at a low cost and little trouble.
You are completely obsessed with your own opinions and apparently, unable to recognize how others feel, and what others think. About 11% of American residents are Black Americans and the majority of them are descended from slaves brought from Africa, against their will. This is who they are. There are about 5 million Native Americans - this is about 2% of the population. The truth of what was done to them is horrible.
No one can hold you down? You don't really learn, so that seems to me what would be holding you down. What can you tell me about Percy Julian? Or any of the others I named? When I see and hear new information, I seek to learn what I can about it. I'm just really not seeing that here. I see a stubborn person who wants to believe that others' attitudes and experiences are unimportant or insignificant. Everyone needs to do/say as you think.
That's not a good teacher, by the way.
