Y kant Tyrone read?

Why is it that black kids have such a hard time in school? It's hardly a secret that black kids don't do nearly as well in school as their white counterparts. The question is, why?

This past season of the Wire doesn't deal with the achievement gap between black and white kids per se, but it does take place in and around the kind of shitty black school where there obviously isn't a whole lot of achievement going on.

Five dollar tricks in the bathroom? Yep. Reading? Not so much.

The teachers are forced to teach from a state exam the kids have to pass lest the teachers end up losing their cushy government entitlement jobs, but I wonder if it's the test itself that's the issue.

If these kids weren't already so dumb to begin with, the teachers wouldn't have to spend so much time teaching them how to cheat. I mean, it's not like these tests are rocket science. Am I right or am I right?

So I guess the question is: how the fuck did these kids get so dumb in the first place? White supremacist-types would suggest that black kids are just naturally that dumb, but I know this isn't (entirely) true because I'm black and I'm a genius.

If a young Bol could do it, then why can't the likes of Namond and Lil' Mike and Dukie and the rest of these d-bags get it together? Is it a problem with the schools themselves, or the kids who attend the schools - and their crackhead parents?

Many would suggest that it has to do with schools in the ghetto being underfunded, but I'm not so sure if that's true. In fact, spending per pupil is way more in shitty black school districts than it is in decent white school districts.

And teachers don't make that much money, but they make way more than they'd make in a job commensurate with their actual ability. Indeed the few capable among them often leave the profession for higher paying jobs in the private sector.

My guess is that the achievement gap between black and white students is due primarily to cultural issues. With few exceptions, kids who grow up surrounded by a culture of failure are naturally going to grow up to be failures themselves.

Take for example the little crybaby Namond, who I'll be using as an example yet again. Living at home with his materialistic lush of a mother he seemed destined to become yet another statistic and/or prison rape victim.

However, when he was forced to spend a weekend with Bunny Colvin and his wife (whom, it should be noted, knew a woman's place in the home, i.e. next to the stove), Namond began to show signs of progress right away.

Coincidence? Probaby not.

Take home point: Kids like Namond and his peers can't cut it education-wise because their ignorant-ass parents could care less whether or not they do well in school, not because they're naturally dumb or because the school needs new computers or whatever.