Legitimate Profiling?

My mom is a special education teacher. When I got the letter I featured in yesterday's post, I decided to call her and see if her school does the same thing. I figured it must, since this is supposed to be federal standards. My mom surprised me. She seemed bothered by the fact that I was upset about the letter. She said it wasn't a big deal and that it's something that the schools have been doing since she was a child. I suppose that makes it okay? In an attempt to explain why the letter was necessary she said, "They want to know if one particular racial group is struggling in a certain area." Well then...

I decided I probably didn't effectively explain why I was bothered by an enormous government bureaucracy gathering racial and ethnic information on kids. Apparently there is a school of thought that seems to think they should find out which races are doing better at math. After all, if Hispanics are struggling with mathematics, it must be related to their ethnic background, as opposed to other factors. Ask what color they are, not what curriculum they are studying. Ask what color they are, not what their family situation is like. Ask what color they are, not who their teacher is.

In fact, if one ethic or racial group is better at one subject than another, we should embrace these differences. We can use them to make the world more scientific and efficient. Perhaps Indians make better doctors. I would like to know when I am searching for a pediatrician. Maybe African Americans are better drivers. I think that ought to be factored into my insurance rates. It's undoubtedly true that certain races are more susceptible to certain diseases. The high risk groups should be paying more for heath care. Maybe we ought to shuffle people into careers such as engineering, teaching, and farming based on the color of their skin. After all, if people whose ancestors are from Japan are better teachers, we wouldn't have to ask questions about curriculum. We'd just have to get data on the race of the teachers!

OR...Maybe we ought to STOP gathering RACIAL data on children and start focusing on the academic programs that are effective instead.

Just a thought.