I appreciate you making this point, especially in the your classroom. People often make quality judgements of others based on academic achievements, which usually translates to upward social mobility for black folks. For instance, if you have a college degree and a good job then you're obviously special. This is not the case. The "system" was not created for subjugated groups to go beyond a certain point in terms of income, social class, and education, at least not in significant numbers, but to uphold and enforce a stratified structure. American education teaches us to "support" or reform a society aimed at preserving white privilege , not to criticize or change it, which is probably why your classmates arrived at their particular conclusions.

Also, I've visited the British West Indies two summers in a row, Jamaica and Trinidad, for service learning and study abroad, and the Eleven Plus exam still exists.

Okay. That seems to clear it up. 11 is still too young to determine aptitude.

Glad you like the blog.

@TPW
I am not sure which age the testing starts. I arbitrarily threw out 4, and we ran with it yesterday. You and I both know that treating children holistically is the antithesis of being racist.
The was in which the vocational/academic track manifests varies country by country.

In the US it is 3rd grade.

I had no idea that discussing racism between West Indian and Black folks would be so thick.
But then again, the price immigrant folks pay for becoming American is leaving ones ethnicity behind and remaining firmly committed to hating NIGGERS, so, there you go.

a. SOME West-Indians do feel like American blacks are lazy. I have been privy to this thinking, as I am with a Jamaican man. We often got into it (and get into it) because he says that Americans are lazy and wait for handouts. He says this because in Jamaica, there is no such thing as welfare & he's had to struggle for whatever he's gotten. I counter with the fact that our histories are not the same. Yes, we are black. Yes, we both suffer & have suffered forms of oppression, but Jamaica (and other W.I. countries) are overwhelmingly black. So their role models span a large range of existences fro Shottas to Politicians. And I as counter that just because SOME American Blacks may, in fact, be lazy, that does not mean we all are.

b. OMG @ testing 4 year olds!! while i think vocational training/schools are NECESSARY and missed in public schools, i think it's ridiculous to track kids at 4 and determine their life. I mother a 4 year old. He is amazingly bright, but he his speech is slightly behind his peers, he doesn't write well (his name), but he can tell you about everything & he's already using the computer better than my mother. Would he pass a standardized test? i dunno. but it's ridiculous to even ASK him to at this stage. Standardize testing, to me, is a joke. It's just a means to distribute money. It has nothing to do with making sure students are well-rounded learners, and everything to do with money. Period. Just because my SAT score may have been dope doesn't mean I could write a graduate level (or even undergraduate level) essay. It doesn't mean I can think critically about the world I'm in, and it doesn't predict what I'll be in the future. We need to move away from these arbitrary tests, and more towards looking at students holistically

…and I really enjoy your blog

Are you Jamaican? I may be wrong. If so perhaps you can help.

The text was written late 90's.

Are the learning and development requirements the same as being tracked at an early age, ie elementary school?

~Renina