In the world that we all live in, each society is effectively in a competition with all other societies. This is evident in the education standards they set for themselves.
The education standard each society sets defines how successful they will become for the human and economic well-being of their members. In effect then, the world sets the standard for the level of education each society must meet in order to effectively compete. Those societies that choose to set their education standards lower than that which is required to compete effectively are educating their members to be the servants to those who choose to meet or exceed the education standards the world sets.
When we look at the world, there are things that are universal for all peoples, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. There isn’t white mathematics, Asian mathematics, Latino mathematics … there is only universal mathematics. The principles in mathematics are the same for everyone.
Failure to educate a certain group in a society in mathematics due to historically poor performance does not serve the rest of the society. Not all members of a society will function at the same level in any discipline like in mathematics. However, they very well may function at a high level in another discipline. To find where members of a society function at their high level is the basic purpose of education.
The lowering of standards in any discipline in order to accommodate members of society that do not have the cultural foundation to work to succeed harms all of the other members of that society and lowers the well-being of future generations.
Societies progress and create a higher level of living standards when they work to educate the best and brightest to meet the standards the world sets regardless of who they are in a society and sets the economic well-being for future generations.
In the final analysis a society will educate to meet the world standard so their members compete well … or they will educate to be the servants of those who do.
I assume Mr Nocito objects to the new charter school which has an Afro-centric curriculum. I challenge him to observe a day in that school. He will see the standards are the same but subtle changes which empower the students will be visible. Currently most schools have a Euro-centric curriculum. Look at the names and images used, the books read, perspective from which the stories are told. Do all students see themselves in what is taught? Who are the hero’s? I think a visit would open his eyes.