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Thursday, October 29, 2015

Wrong Question.



The Buffalo News ran a man article and an editorial asking "Why no City Honors II?"

When you start with the wrong question, you can only arrive at the wrong answer.

In a capitalist society, education s not an individual right or a social responsibility – it is a commodity to be given to the elite 1%, as determined by class, race, and gender. And in a minority white, majority African-American, Asian, and Latino/a community, it's the power elite that get the best while everyone else gets the rest.

If one follows Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, self-actualization is limited to a small group at the top while the lower levels are more densely populated, with the bottom being the most dense level of all,  no pun intended. Like the capitalist distribution of wealth, the majority are on the bottom struggling for basic necessities while a small elite group is at the top achieving the dream of a lifetime at everyone else's expense.

In a capitalist education system, not everyone needs a City Honors education. Only the best. The rest? Give them enough to get through. Make them employable and disposable by the 1% at the top.

If one looks at education and society through the lens of Maslow, one can see the poor of the city barely getting by, struggling to get any sense of stability in their lives. These are the students that go from school to school to school in a year, living wherever they can find a home for a while. And the only food some of them will get are the free and reduced breakfasts and lunches at school.  And their education is just as piecemeal and unstable.

 That's the capitalist way. Many people struggling at the bottom for the basics while the top coasts along just fine, getting everything they want, when they want it. Or else.

The Buffalo education leaders argue that a second City Honors is impractical and unnecessary as there are other “high quality schools” that students can apply to and receive an excellent education. None of those other “high quality schools” are ranked in the Top 100 Schools in America. And some of them are not all they are cracked up to be either.

But let's let's face the facts – the cost of City Honors. The AP course and International Baccalaureate programs require top notch equipment and teachers. That costs money and rather than spend money building up a quality educational system for all, the power brokers set up a system in Buffalo where the 1% get the best and everyone else gets the rest, which happens to be slim pickings. And I am not talking about the blues guitarist either.

The question is not “Why not a second City Honors?” The real question is “Why hasn't capitalism provided an Olmstead Elementary and City Honors education for all students in every school district across the country?” Which it claims it can do, if given the chance.

Pick up you pencils and pens. You have one hour to come up with a logical answer.

Start now.


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