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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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Session:         Page of 617

tough. So I'm told, and maybe it's apocryphal but it's a good story, that there are some Jewish schools -- public schools in Jewish areas -- who have made it known to those interested that their school is under the protection of the Mafia. (laughs) Now what happens when these black kids go into this white school? Do they really mix with the white kids in the playground? I think not. Do they eat with them in the cafeteria? I think not. I think, which is perfectly normal and reasonable and rational, they stay with their own friends -- white kids, black kids -- because they don't go home together. They don't have extracurricular activities together. They are separate and apart in that school. Maybe there'll be some individual situations where there is some social bringing together.

What has happened to the standards in that school? They go down, because you've got to teach at the least common denominator. And the sociologists, the liberal sociologists, made that their major shtick at one time: “We can't cater to the best. We have to cater to the average or the least.” And excellence became something that wasn't really strived for.

I am not an education specialist. And you can tell me that the track system was bad: those that were very bright were learning with very bright kids and were given extra lessons and had to do more, and those in the middle a certain curriculum, and those at the bottom less rigorous. The objection was: “No, that's no good. What you have to do is have some middle line, and everybody gets something, and the very lowest are pulled up and maybe the very top are pulled down, but that's better.”





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