It'll come as no surprise to Valued Reader that not every column on this page conforms with the views expressed in the editorials. See the opinions of Paul Krugman, which we regularly carry over there on the right. Or the occasional appearance of an Al Hunt column or a New York Times editorial. What a boring page it would be if every contributor to it agreed. Or if an editor chose to run only columns that mirrored his own opinions.
Notice today's offering by Andre M. Perry, who is described as a dean of Urban Education, whatever that is. (Cities with college degrees?) He's affiliated with Davenport University, wherever that is. All around the Great Lakes, apparently. And online, too. This piece was first published in the Washington Post. And it caught our eye. Like a coat-hanger in a dark closet.
We're not sure what the esteemed dean is trying to say, except, maybe, what he says--and it's right there on this page. As best we can make out, he thinks reforming teacher tenure laws--even "bad tenure laws," as he himself admits--amounts to an attack on black professionals. And those of us who would prefer better teachers in the classroom are just throwing those professionals out of work. Because the dean seems to assume that there are more bad black teachers than white. And that's only one of his dubious assumptions.
In a way, the dean's prose is perfect. A perfect specimen of how poor thought produces poor language, and then vice-versa. It's a vicious circle. Recommended reading: Politics and the English Language by George Orwell, who diagnosed this malady years ago.
By now it's not surprising to find that this essay was written by a college dean. Today's college campuses are full of this kind of politically correct, linguistically atrocious "scholarship." Just as the dean's language is spotted with barbarisms. Spot your own favorite. Ours is the substitution of "systemic" for systematic, an all too common example of inflated and less than exact language.
Warning to those who would like to improve public education in this country: This is what you're dealing with.
Editorial on 08/30/2014