European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 6, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday september 6, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary James j. Kilpatric improving education is a grass roots project the High school student in Japan goes from 8 to 5, and puts in half a Day on saturdays. The sat scores for 1991 came out last week and what do you know the verbal scores of High school seniors hit an All time Low. Scores on the mathematics part of the exam declined for the first time since 1980. The response from the educational establishment was predictable same song umpteenth verse. The Scholastic aptitude test is not intended to measure achievement As such neither is it regarded As a test of Basic intelligence. The sat is supposed to measure a High school seniors ability to read write and reason at the College level. This past Spring 1,032,685 students took the test an increase of 7,162 Over 1990. The findings were dismal. How dismal fifteen years ago Young men averaged a score of 433 on the verbal part of the sat. Young women averaged 430. In 1991 the men slumped to 426, the women to 418. On the other half of the test involving mathematical skills the score for men was exactly where it was in 1976, at 497. Between 1976 and 1991 Young women improved in math from 446 to 453, but 1991 was two Points Down from 1990. Tie maximum possible score on each part of the exam is 800. Looking at these miserable results some educators were honest enough to Lay the blame squarely where it belongs a upon the teachers principals and administrators of the Public school system and also upon the permissive parents of a generation gone morally and intellectually soft. The downward trend said one comfortable fellow is not really a downward trend. When More students Are taking the test including More students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds a drop in scores should be expected. Properly Analysed the test results Are a a great  another educator this one an associate professor of psychology at Columbia teachers College was not alarmed. The composite scores on both the verbal and the math exams for 1991 were two Points below the composites for 1990. A that two Point drop is not a drop in my eyes a said the professor. A a it a such an infinitesimal amount As not to be Worth commenting  the larger Point is that there is no trend whatever toward improvement. Teachers parents and society As a whole Are failing in the most important task before the nation. We Are failing to rear a generation intellectually equipped to compete in the coming Century. The schools Are doing a fair to Good Job with the Bright and gifted youngsters. On tests of specific achievement students Are doing better. But when we look at the lower economic slopes the picture is Bleak. How come one study after another has come to the same conclusions on the same evidence and offered the same recommendations. Our Public school students have an average school year of 180 Days. In Japan and most european nations the school year is 200 Days or More. Our school Days Are roughly 8 30 to 3 30. At every Grade level american students have less Homework than their foreign counterparts. Our schools generally speaking Are weak in foreign languages and higher mathematics. Relatively few american students take physics and calculus. Thousands of our teachers Are themselves poorly educated. In some states a new teacher May pass a competent test by getting 47 right answers out of 104 questions. In a Book scheduled for fall publication Charles Colson and Jack Eckerd find an explanation of a Why America does no to work in the moral laxity of american society today. Public schools for the most part shy away from instruction in moral values. Sex education becomes value Neutral. As the statistics on teen aged pregnancies indicate old fashioned discipline has yielded to a pathetic permissiveness. We Are a marvellously tolerant people. We tolerate the wrong things. If president Bush could get his head out of Clouds of euphoria perhaps he could provide the Down to Earth leadership toward Reform. But Public education is primarily a state and local responsibility and if the picture is to improve it must improve locally. Where to Start look in the nearest Mirror. C Universal press Syndicate . Rosentha Blacks can draw lesson from Crown Heights the anti semitic outrages of Crown Heights in Brooklyn Are aimed at the jews of Only one neighbourhood in one City a for the moment. But american jews who do not understand that the same kind of political thugs will do their Best now to Lead the same kind of Street thugs to fire jewish property and break jewish Bones in other cities Are Blind to reality deaf to history a and suicidal. They Are matched in self destructiveness by those influential prominent Black americans a politicians clergy businessmen a who Are disgusted by Crown Heights but stand aloof. They either do not understand or Are not willing to say out loud that Crown Heights can do More damage to american Blacks than to american jews. Have they already forgotten that the weapons the Black pogrom its of Crown Heights use against jews Are precisely the weapons White pogrom its in the South used against Blacks first the cooking up or blowing up of a grievance against a minority. Then the stoking of mob madness Wath the essential evil a the idea that a civic grievance True or imagined can be the justification of violence. Then dehumanization and demonization by vile racial epithet a handle parades and screams Tor Lynch Laws inevitably followed immediately by beatings arson killing can Black americans not really see that the legitimization by silence of these weapons when used by Black bigots against jews can and will be used by White bigots to justify using them against Blacks and meanwhile the world watches and sees in a Black neighbourhood of Quot a America the one thing that so Many people everywhere hate and fear most a terrorism and out in the streets. But nobody has very much to be proud of. The press treats it All As if it were some kind of cultural clash Between a poverty Ridden people fed up with life and a More powerful prosperous and unfortunately Peculiar Bunch of stuck up neighbors a very sad of course but certainly understandable. No a it is an anti semitic pogrom and the words should not be left unsaid. By meeting with the Sharp tons and mad does of new York the mayor is almost As responsible As the press for elevating them. Some jewish organizations acted As if Crown Heights did not quite concern them. Their usually ferocious faxes were either silent or blurred out diplomatically balanced condolences to All concerned. Actions can be taken to prevent other anti semitic of Ives a the same actions that were taken to Stop anti Black outrages. Most important is to get it across that using grievances real or imagined As an excuse for violence will not be tolerated a not by Black society or White not by the press not by City Hall not now not Ever. Violence should be met immediately by effective police action and then by All available Legal punishment of the rioters and their manipulators. Talks yes meetings among Blacks jews and other Whites certainly a but they should be Only among those who Ieve in the compact of society against civic violence meeting with the political thugs is useless and Only strengthens them to Lead the next riot. Political and social ostracism can be an effective weapon against them and their apologists. It would show their followers that they Are balloons full of Poison Gas but not political Power. Now the political thugs Are out in Crown Heights distributing leaflets calling on Black a a heroes to keep fighting the hasidim and the police in the streets urging them on to blood and shame. These Are the real enemies of the american Blacks not those strange people in the strange clothes. C the no y Job t it r i h