Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz – America’s 30% Permanent Under-Caste


Question 1

Has the U.S. Government continually and consistently reported for the last half-century that 30% of America’s population is illiterate as defined by the ability to read the warning label on a can of rat poison?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

What was Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka (U.S. Supreme Court - 1954)? Did it declare unconstitutional segregation laws in 17 Southern and Border States providing for dual school systems under the Supreme Court’s infamous “separate but equal” 1896 decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

BTW, was the unanimous 9-0 Brown vs. Board decision written by Chief Justice Earl Warren? Was Earl Warren (Governor of California 1943-1953) most famous prior to Brown vs. Board for having been the California Attorney General 1939-1943 who was leading the charge to intern U.S. Citizens of Japanese heritage for the duration of World War II?

Answer 3

Yes and Yes.

Question 4

Who famously said – “How many divisions does The Pope have”?

Answer 4

Joseph Stalin.

Question 5

Could Joseph Stalin have said the same thing about the U.S. Supreme Court? After all, isn’t it one thing for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a decision on school segregation in the U.S., and quite another thing to enforce that decision?

Answer 5

Yes and Yes.

Question 6

Was the U.S. lucky at that time to have as U.S. President the 1948-1953 President of Columbia University? In regard to enforcement of Brown vs. Board, did the luck relate more to President Eisenhower’s having been Supreme Allied Commander - Europe 1943-1945 and Chief of Staff of the Army 1945-1948?

Answer 6

Yes and Yes.

Question 7

Nonetheless, did Eisenhower DO NOTHING about enforcing Brown vs. Board UNTIL AFTER HIS RE-ELECTION in 1956???

Answer 7

Yes.

Question 8

Was the focal point of Southern defiance in 1957 Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus calling out 10,000 troops of the Arkansas National Guard on 9/4/1957 to prevent 9 African-American students from entering Little Rock’s Central High School?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

Was the nation then treated to 3 weeks of stand-off as President Eisenhower essentially kept saying “Don’t make me do it” and Gov. Faubus essentially kept replying “Over my dead body”?

Answer 9

Yes.

Question 10

On 9/24/1957, after three weeks of stand-off, did President Eisenhower finally nationalize the 10,000 Arkansas National Guard Troops and then, as their new Commanding Officer, order them to “stand down” while he ordered the 10,000-plus “Screaming Eagles” of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the 9 students into Central H.S., and then to establish an impregnable perimeter defense around the school???!!!

Answer 10

Yes.

Question 11

Did the 10,000 Arkansas National Guard Troops who had just been nationalized know that disobeying their new Commanding Officer would result in court martial?

Answer 11

Yes.

Question 12

And were the 10,000-plus “Screaming Eagles” of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division -- which had been created by Eisenhower in 1942 for its famous 1944 “Rendezvous With Destiny” parachuting into three different “drop zones” behind Nazi lines on “D-Day” followed by pivotal roles in other crucial battles with the Nazis, such as the Nazi counter-attack at “The Battle of the Bulge” which nearly succeeded -- an intimidating-enough sight to “keep the peace” in what could have been a very bloody and wide-ranging rebellion?

Answer 12

Yes.

Though there was a fair amount of speculation at the time that they might NOT be.

After all, at that time the U.S. armed forces were highly-disproportionately composed of Southerners in both the officer and enlisted ranks.

As in any rebellion throughout history, there is always the question of whether a military unit will hold together and obey its orders, or whether it will disintegrate into opposing fragments, or whether it will “go over” to the other side.

And because of its predominant Southern composition, there was great doubt whether The Screaming Eagles would hold together and obey President Eisenhower’s orders.

It would be reasonable to suppose that President Eisenhower had some “sleepless nights” over what his “Screaming Eagles” would do!!!

At least, like the careful planner he was throughout his life, Eisenhower chose the military unit that gave him “the best shot” of accomplishing the mission.

Question 13

But has “Apartheid Schooling in America” (quotation from the title of our focus book) ever missed a beat???

Answer 13

Unfortunately not!!!

Question 14

Has America for the last half century herded its 30% Permanent Under-Caste into Inner-City GHETTOS???

Answer 14

Yes and no.

Yes, for the last half century America’s 30% Permanent Under-Caste has found itself in Inner-City GHETTOS!!!

HOWEVER, the question could be raised regarding the extent to which this was the result of governmental policies – as distinguished from being the result of individual parents trying to do their best by their own children by buying homes in the best school districts that they can afford.

AFTER ALL, Thurgood Marshall -- the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1967-1991 after serving, inter alia, as the long-time Chief Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in which capacity he and the NAACP represented the Oliver Brown and 12 other Black families in Brown vs. Board of Education -- was once asked why he had sent his two sons (Thurgood Marshall Jr. and John W. Marshall) to Exeter Academy (one of the top 3-4 boarding schools in America) rather than public school, and Thurgood Marshall famously replied that every parent does the best s/he can by her/his own children!!!

[Which is the only solace Yours Truly has for having let his own son and daughter attend Milton Academy, another of the top 3-4 boarding schools in America.]

Question 15

Since K-12 education in America is financed primarily with property taxes and America’s Inner Cities have virtually no property-tax base for raising taxes, is it any wonder that America’s Inner-City schools ARE ABYSMAL even when contrasted with the “separate but UNEQUAL” segregated schools of the Old South before Brown vs. Board???

Answer 15

Please pardon a brief review of why Yours Truly is qualified to answer this question.

*****
Re the “separate but UNEQUAL segregated schools of the Old South,” Yours Truly spent the summer of 1966 before his third year of law school as a member of the first U.S. governmental task force assembled to dismantle the de jure dual school systems of the 11 States of the Old Confederacy plus 6 Slave States that Lincoln persuaded to remain in The Union by claiming throughout the Civil War that it was being fought “to preserve the union” (rather than eliminate slavery).

[BTW, Lincoln’s famous “Emancipation Proclamation” did NOT free the slaves of the 6 Slave States that remained in The Union (they had to await the 12/6/1865 ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution 7 months after the end of the Civil War and 8 months after Lincoln’s assassination).]

[Indeed, The Emancipation Proclamation was only an ultimatum issued 9/22/1862 by Lincoln under his authority as Commander in Chief that the slaves in any Confederate State that did not surrender by 1/1/1863 would become free BUT THAT of course did not free the slaves of the Old Confederacy BECAUSE their freedom had to await the military defeat and surrender of the Old Confederacy AND MANY WOULD ARGUE that most African-Americans have yet to achieve real freedom.]

But during the summer of 1966, Yours Truly witnessed many supposedly “separate but equal” schools in The Old Confederacy, AND NOT ONE OF THEM FAILS TO STILL CAUSE HIM NIGHTMARES 54 YEARS LATER!!!

*****
Re the inner-city schools described by our author Jonathan Kozol during the 15 years before the 2005 publication of his “The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America” Yours Truly had extensive experience with those same schools during that period.

During the 1990’s, the “I Have A Dream”® Foundation oversaw 178 IHAD programs in 51 American cities, most of which were sponsored by CEO’s of major corporations. Each program replicated Eugene Lang’s example when he returned to his alma mater, Harlem Public School 121, in 1981 and promised the entire graduating sixth-grade class their college tuition if they would stay in school and then provided each student a tutor and mentor for the 6 years until high school graduation (the 178 follow-on projects adopted third graders so it was 9 years of tutoring/mentoring plus the guarantee).

The early IHAD programs typically replicated Eugene Lang’s 60% - 65% high school graduation – college matriculation rates. And the later IHAD programs typically achieved 90%-plus high school graduation – college matriculation rates.

This despite the class just ahead and the class just behind each “Dreamer class” typically having SINGLE-DIGIT high school graduation rates.

Yours Truly served as the Volunteer Treasurer of IHAD-National and his own IHAD program served 200 children in public-housing projects.

As Volunteer Treasurer, Yours Truly had occasion to tour many of the 178 local IHAD programs in 51 American inner cities.

AND NOT ONE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ATTENDED BY THE DREAMERS FAILS TO STILL CAUSE HIM NIGHTMARES 2 DECADES LATER!!!

*****
So were the 1990-2005 inner-city schools described by Jonathan Kozol “ABYSMAL even when contrasted with the ‘separate but UNEQUAL’ segregated schools of the Old South before Brown vs. Board???”

Yours Truly would answer “absolutely”!!!

Not just in terms of what they should have been under the ideals of “Brown vs. Board.”

BUT ALSO IN ABSOLUTE TERMS SUCH AS FACILITES, THEIR PHYSICAL CONDITION, CROWDING, LABS/GYMNS/ETC. (OR ABSENECE THEREOF)!!! NOT TO MENTION FACULTY (as confirmed by Jonathan Kozol, entry-level teachers typically transfer to other schools as fast as they can).

Question 16

Have the schools of America’s Inner-City GHETTOS typically-featured SINGLE-DIGIT high school graduation rates???

Answer 16

Yes, as already mentioned in Answer 15. Though it is easy and quite common to mask this fact by grouping statistically the worst-performing inner-city schools with some or all of the other high schools in the same school district.

Question 17

Are the RARE graduates of America’s Inner-City schools typically woefully below grade level in reading, arithmetic, etc.???

Answer 17

Yes.

Question 18

Did the U.S. Supreme Court effectively “put the cork in the bottle and throw it away” with its decision in Parents vs. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)???

Answer 18

TRAGICALLY!!!

Question 19

Did Parents vs. Seattle School District No. 1 bar the use of voluntary busing to overcome America’s “Apartheid” housing patterns to achieve school integration???

Answer 19

UNFORTUNATELY!!!

Question 20

Are the children born in America’s Inner-City GHETTOS ineligible for “The American Dream”???

Answer 20

What do you think???

There is a lot of talk about “ladders of opportunity” and Horatio Alger stories.

But if you really think that any of them has a realistic (vs. merely theoretical) opportunity for achieving “The American Dream,” it is respectfully suggested that you have a HEART OF STONE!!!

[Pat]

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---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: Your Q&A-14 Comments About Letting Your Son and Daughter Attend Boarding School
From: Pat
Date: Sun, March 29, 2020 11:36 am MDT
To: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Attachment:
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Dear John,

I just finished reading the Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz and have two questions about the referenced subject.

Why did you say you “let” your son and daughter attend boarding school, rather than you “sent” them to boarding school?

Why did you claim that America has “3-4 top boarding schools” and that both Exeter and Milton Academy are in that top tier?

I hope you are keeping well.

Regards,

Pat


---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: Re: Your Q&A-14 Comments About Letting Your Son and Daughter Attend Boarding School
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Sun, March 29, 2020 3:14 pm MDT
To: Pat
Attachment:
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Dear Pat,

Thank you very much for your e-mail.

Taking your questions in reverse order, parents commonly rate the nation’s boarding schools by the percentage of their graduating classes that go to Harvard/Yale/Princeton each year.

And 30% of the graduates of the top 3-4 when Thurgood Marshall Jr. and John W. Marshall began their careers at Exeter and when my son Michael and daughter Hilary began their careers at Milton Academy, went to Harvard/Yale/Princeton.

BTW, that percentage for Exeter and the other top-tier boarding schools was typically split 10-10-10. But Milton Academy (the alma mater of both Bobby Kennedy and Ted Kennedy) was a recognized “Harvard feeder” whose 30% was typically split 20-5-5 in favor of Harvard.

Incidentally, it was very easy for a top-tier boarding school to slip and never recover. A good example would be John Kennedy’s alma mater, Choate. In 1984, fourteen Choate students chipped in to send two of their number to Venezuela during Spring break in order to obtain cocaine for the 14. Choate expelled all 14. Needless to say, members of the elite do not take kindly to the prospect that the lives of their offspring can be ruined at such an early age. And Choate has ever since had extreme difficulty attracting the best students, which has been reflected in the percentage of their graduating classes going to Harvard/Yale/Princeton.


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Reur first question, “let” rather than “sent” was not only accurate but extremely painful!!!

Both Michael and Hilary had always been attending independent schools in the NYC suburb in CT where we had purchased a home to raise a family.


*****
As a preliminary matter, you might be wondering why they had “always been attending independent schools.”

You may recall that my ex-wife of 33 years had a Masters from Harvard Ed School and taught for 2-3 years in Scarsdale NY before writing curriculum materials for 7-8 years for The Center For Global Perspectives, a small organization in Greenwich Village funded primarily by The Rockefeller Foundation.

For the next 23 years, she worked from home as the co-author of the nation’s best-selling high-school world-history textbook (McGraw-Hill with National Geographic Illustrations) which went through 6 editions during those 23 years. Since my ex-wife did NOT want to give up a career to raise a family, working from home enabled her to do both.

[You may also recall that during those 23 years, my REAL job (vs. my “day job” as an attorney) was to read EVERY YEAR 12-15 thick historical tomes and biographies in order to present to her overlooked nuggets for possible inclusion in the next edition.]

So my ex-wife, as the education expert, enrolled both Michael and Hilary for 2 years of Pre-K in a “Bank Street” (aka British Infant) School. Bank Street – British Infant Schools are virtually identical in philosophy to Montessori Schools which attempt to take advantage of a child’s normal curiosity – except Montessori does NOT believe in “make believe” (you will NEVER see a toy animal, etc., in a true Montessori School).

And at the end of second grade, Michael still couldn’t read a word to save his soul!!!

My ex-wife had him tested and the expert advice was that Michael was “so brain damaged that he would never be able to understand a complex sentence no matter how long he lived”!!!

My ex-wife insisted on following the expert advice to have Michael institutionalized!!!

This led to a monumental fight because my ex-wife would NOT recognize my observations as worth even my articulating much less her considering!!!

My argument???

I could tell that Michael was highly intelligent and his only “problem” was that he had NEVER been interested in learning to read. And the Bank Street – British Infant School had NEVER provided any discipline to force him to learn to read.

[BTW, Michael would never encounter later in life a standardized test (SAT’s, LSAT’s, Grad Rec’s, etc.) on which he did NOT score perfect 800’s – not just the top 1% of 1%.]

I forced my ex-wife with the threat of a legal battle to give Michael a year in a conventional school before institutionalizing him.

More salve necessary for my conscience re public schools???

Yes!!!

Because the public elementary school for our district – which was legally obligated to take him – would NOT take him for third grade but insisted on putting him in first grade where children begin to learn to read (if they haven’t already in Pre-K or Kindergarten).

Which, of course, would be a disaster from a social viewpoint and would probably cripple him psychologically forever.

So I found another independent school, this one conventional in providing discipline, that was willing to take him for third grade.

Within a few weeks, Michael had learned to read at grade level. And had spontaneously acquired the nickname from his peers – “The Brain.”


*****
Another Disaster A Mere 4 Years Later

When Michael reached 7th grade, he faced the choice for the first time whether to play tackle football. And because we knew the decision would affect his social status, we wanted it to be his decision. But we always made sure that at the breakfast table there were usually casually left newspaper articles about knee injuries from playing football.

Michael’s favorite sport was skiing and he made the “right” decision to preserve his knees for skiing.

However, he was miserable because every year the football coach tried to pressure every male student to play football by requiring the members of the football team to ostracize every male who didn’t play.

[Nothing could be done about him because complaining had always proved counter-productive.]

Michael was miserable!!!

Three months later, hockey season rolled around and Michael noticed that hockey players wear the equivalent of football helmets and football shoulder pads!!! Macho, macho!!!

So he went out for hockey even though he had never before had ice skates (or any kind of skates) laced to his feet.

Michael is so athletic that in no time flat he was the star of his hockey team. And the summer after 7th grade he went to summer hockey camp at Exeter, instead of his usual ski-race camp at Mount Hood OR.

And the following year, he was being recruited as a hockey player by all of the nation’s top boarding schools.

We thought he would go to Exeter because he had really liked their summer hockey camps (he had attended both sessions that summer).

But Michael decided he would rather go to Milton because it is at the opposite end of the Harvard MTA subway line and he liked the freedom to roam around Boston and Harvard Square on weekends, rather than being confined to an isolated New Hampshire campus.

So yes, it broke my heart to see Michael go!!!

And the choice of “let” rather than “sent” is more apt and painful than you could have imagined!!!

Hilary???

She was 3 years younger than Michael. [We had always kept them together in the same school, so she had transferred to the conventional school for Kindergarten when Michael transferred for third grade.]

We assumed that we would still have her company for many more years after Michael suddenly departed.

Wrong!!!

Hilary always worshipped Michael and rhapsodized over his tales of independence at Milton.

So Hilary informed us that she wanted to leave for Milton for her 4 years of high school.

So is “let” also an apt description vis-à-vis Hilary???

Absolutely not!!!

We didn’t have a choice!!!

She informed us that a refusal to let her go would be GENDER DISCRIMINATION!!!

She should have become an attorney rather than a software engineer!!!

Conclusion???

I’m sure that you didn’t realize how painful your questions would be!!!

Though I don’t mind people knowing what happened, so long as I don’t have to be reminded!!!

Your friend,

John K.