We need Affirmative Learning NOT Affirmative Action

The United States Supreme Court just made a decision about Michigan’s state constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2006 to let stand its ban on Affirmative Action policies once practiced in university admissions.

This morning I heard snatches of angry protests railing against the Supreme Court’s decision from local supporters of Affirmative Action who are upset that such discriminatory policies are gone for good.

Some in the Black and the Spanish community support Affirmative Action.

I support Affirmative Learning. They need to learn to do the same.

If parents want their children to have a chance at success in college, they need to learn right now that education begins in the home. If your children are spending their time playing video games, watching television, or cruising the Internet for most of their out-of-school waking hours, forget it. If you are constantly carting them off to sporting activities, forget it.

Your child needs to learn how to read. Your child needs to learn how to write. Your child needs to learn how to think.

I remember vividly a parent who became very angry with me because I told her that her daughter was not cooperating with my attempts to help her academically. The parent was most incensed when I told her that her daughter did not know how to read well enough. She angrily said her daughter surely knew how to read. Then I dropped the bombshell. I said according to my testing, she reads at about the fourth grade level. The parent asked on what basis did I know that? I said that is how high she scored on my standardized reading comprehension pretest.

The daughter was in the eleventh grade, as I recall. That means she was reading at seven years below grade level. She was a student in the Health and Welfare Curriculum at Cass Technical High School, and she had been referred to me by the department head for that curriculum for academic assistance.

Now other students had been brought to me for assistance. They cooperated. They succeeded. They were amazed at their own progress, and were most appreciative that my help brought them immediate results in substantial grade improvement on their report card even though the teacher they had was extremely rigorous in his grading system. That teacher was much feared when I was a student at Cass myself.

Dr. Ben Carson, who spoke at a Presidential Prayer Breakfast not too long ago, knows the answer. His mother knew the answer. She encouraged him to read books from the public library every week. That is the direction to go. You learn to read better by reading more. As I recall, Dr. Carson said she even required him to write reports on the books he read. You learn to write by writing, too.

The most efficient way to do that is to have students read several books on a non-fiction subject. Have the student read the easiest one first–even if it comes from the children’s collection in the library. Then read a second book on the same subject, from the young adult section. Finally, read a book from the adult section of the library. What the child or student learns from the easiest level will enable them to understand the middle level of difficulty. And that will enable the student to understand a book written at the adult level on the subject. There are lots of non-fiction subjects to choose from. I have set up such “reading ladders” using a series of books on rocks. Another series on the weather. Another series on other topics of science. When a child or student thinks a subject is boring, I tell them it is boring because you are boring. When you learn more about a subject it becomes more interesting. The more you know about subject the more interesting it becomes for you.

Now what I have just written in the above paragraph is the simple key you need to solve the academic problem of any child or student. Now, just go put all this into practice.

Would you want the services of a neurosurgeon who entered college unqualified? Who got in because of Affirmative Action? Who was passed along because professors feared to fail too many minority students? Or would you rather be treated by someone like Dr. Carson who fully earned his credentials?

I believe the Supreme Court’s decision ought to send a message. If students want to enter prestigious universities, then they had better start young to develop their academic skills.

The greatest influence on the future academic success of any child is the education they receive in the home. From what I read, surveys reveal that 85% of the homes in the United States of America have a Bible at hand. The Bible, especially if read in the King James Version, is the best textbook to start with. After all, it comes from the Creator of the universe Himself. Children really need to learn what He has to say.