Can Liberals Catch Acting White Syndrome?

There is debate over the existence of 'Acting White' syndrome, where black kids who work hard in school are accused of acting white resulting in an atmosphere where achievement is stigmatized. Some say there is no such thing. Writing for the Black Commentator, Dr. Edward Rhymes argues 'acting white' is nothing more than the same name calling we see when kids are called nerds or eggheads when they excel academically. What is common to both sides of the argument is the existence of peer pressure, leading to a dumbing down of our schools.

What would happen if the pressure was generated, not by students, but by the education establishment? What if the adults running the system began to stigmatize academic achievement by way of bad government policy? Florida may be on the path to answering this very question as they debate lowering the standards of the state's gifted student program. (See "Will Florida Redefine 'Gifted'?" at Gainesville.com.)

Originally educators targeted "low-income and minority students" whom they thought would benefit by lowering the required IQ. However they were forced to abandon this policy. The new proposal will allow a lower IQ score for all students, as long as they meet other requirements. As mentioned in the article and in a post by LaShawn Barber, lowering the IQ requirement will in fact add many more white students to the gifted program. So this feel good idea will not promote "diversity." So why make the change?

Well, it seems there are parents and teachers who are "frustrated" because they have problems getting access to the program. The limited number of students in the program gives the impression of it being elitist, as described by Anna Scott who wrote the article.

But is elite a bad word? Webster defines elite as "The choice or most carefully selected part of a group." My word processor gives "cream of the crop" as a synonym for elite. But it appears in Florida they use another synonym: privileged.

I suspect most gifted programs are a mix of students who earned the right to be in the program and those who are there by way of being "privileged." But is lowering the standard the answer? By giving in to those who use elite as a bad word in describing gifted programs, is the Florida Board of Education simply adding to stigmatization of academic achievement? What will be the end result of dumbing down gifted programs?

Perhaps Florida should look across the pond to England where, after years of neglecting gifted students (either because it was felt gifted students needed no additional attention or because of an attempt at social engineering aimed at eliminating class distinctions), the government is now headed in the other direction. In 1999 England established a group of experts who were charged with finding ways to challenge gifted students. (see report at news.bbc.com) The hope was to move from "an ethos of underachievement." They found that "lowering the bar" simply created students who were not prepared for college and the recognition that other countries would eventually surpass England academically.

So if England has already performed an experiment in lowering the bar and found it to be counter productive, should the United States repeat the mistake? If you answered yes, you may have already contracted acting white syndrome or nerd syndrome depending upon your race.

For more on England's change of heart see commentary by Elfi Pallis.