I Think They Call It Narcissism

This is positively insane. This little boy is not making the grade so his dad concludes that it's because the school doesn't like boys.

At Milton High School, girls outnumber boys by almost 2 to 1 on the honor roll. In Advanced Placement classes, almost 60 percent of the students are female.

It's not that girls are smarter than boys, said Doug Anglin, a 17-year-old senior at athe high school.

Girls are outperforming boys because the school system favors them, said Anglin, who has filed a federal civil rights complaint contending that his school discriminates against boys.

Among Anglin's allegations: Girls face fewer restrictions from teachers, like being able to wander the hallways without passes, and girls are rewarded for abiding by the rules, while boys' more rebellious ways are punished.

Grading on homework, which sometimes includes points for decorating a notebook, also favor girls, according to Anglin's complaint, filed last month with the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

'The system is designed to the disadvantage of males,' Anglin said. ''From the elementary level, they establish a philosophy that if you sit down, follow orders, and listen to what they say, you'll do well and get good grades. Men naturally rebel against this.'

This father ought to be ashamed of himself! Why doesn't he just tell his son to buckle down and do his work? How will roaming the halls without a pass increase his grade point average? Since when is sitting down, following the rules and listening to the teacher not required at all schools? I know those were the rules for everyone when I was in school. This child will never get anywhere if he is taught to use excuses like this!

This reminds me of what is going on out here (and apparently in other parts of the country too). But this time the victims aren't just white boys, they are whites period. Just as whites ran from communities when they got too black or brown, fearing property values and educational standards would go to hell, they are running from Asians because they are outperforming their children

But locally, they're also known for something else: white flight. Over the past 10 years, the proportion of white students at Lynbrook has fallen by nearly half, to 25% of the student body. At Monta Vista, white students make up less than one-third of the population, down from 45% -- this in a town that's half white. Some white Cupertino parents are instead sending their children to private schools or moving them to other, whiter public schools. More commonly, young white families in Silicon Valley say they are avoiding Cupertino altogether.

Whites aren't quitting the schools because the schools are failing academically. Quite the contrary: Many white parents say they're leaving because the schools are too academically driven and too narrowly invested in subjects such as math and science at the expense of liberal arts and extracurriculars like sports and other personal interests.

The two schools, put another way that parents rarely articulate so bluntly, are too Asian.

Cathy Gatley, co-president of Monta Vista High School's parent-teacher association, recently dissuaded a family with a young child from moving to Cupertino because there are so few young white kids left in the public schools. "This may not sound good," she confides, "but their child may be the only Caucasian kid in the class." All of Ms. Gatley's four children have attended or are currently attending Monta Vista. One son, Andrew, 17 years old, took the high-school exit exam last summer and left the school to avoid the academic pressure. He is currently working in a pet-supply store. Ms. Gatley, who is white, says she probably wouldn't have moved to Cupertino if she had anticipated how much it would change.

Now, if I thought I could be brief in responding to this after all I've been subjected to as a black woman, by white people who are suffering from either superiority or inferiority complexes, I'd say more. But I'm just going to stop now. Thank you (backing away from the podium).

(Wait a minute! Is that woman saying that her son is relegated to a pet store because he couldn't handle the pressure of going to school with Asians)?