ICTAL'S response to El Vocero article.
Negative reactions to story prompt a response.
The reactions to a recent article in a local newspaper El Vocero have been so negative, that ICTAL feels compelled to explain what the article's findings mean--but perhaps more importantly, what they do not mean.[1] If maps lie, so do statistics. More often than not, however, they 'lie' because of the images people project onto the information presented.
One of the most important points of the May 6 article was that 40% of public high school students had not passed basic competency exams. What does this mean, and how should we interpret this finding? We may begin by asking another question, "What are statistics after all?"
Modern societies are composed of a large number of different groups, and statistics help provide a cohesive view of actors that do not usually interact with each other on a regular basis. The development and use of statistics in the United States helps provide underlying patterns and weaknesses that would not be otherwise obvious without them. Only by becoming aware of these weaknesses, and pinpointing their exact nature, can a nation's leadership begin to satisfactorily address problematic issues. For example, that the vast majority of high school drop-outs reside in the southeastern sector of the continental US allows the federal government, if it wishes to do so, to place more resources in that geographic sector to help raise these to national parity. The science of statistics is the science of society.
When statistical figures are provided of a society, one should not presume this to be a monolithic body--one of the most common 'logical flaws' found in leftist scholarship. To repeat, societies are composed of a large number of different groups that do not necessarily share the same values or agenda. To refer to the "imperial US" over a hundred year period is to make the same error as assuming that the PPD is the same party today as it was fifty years ago.[2] Although both are organizational entities the have retained the same name; the leaders, values, and circumstances which affect these have been drastically different over time. Countless other examples could be given. The same point applies to our Puertorican high school student body.
One should not take the figures to mean that, like a boy who just took an exam and received a 60 (a failing grade), that the entire academic body 'failed'. Within this amalgam, there reside peaks of excellence as well as peaks of incompetence. While the figure is alarming and shows cause for concern, this does not mean that the entire body performs below par. As a news analyst recently pointed out, there are schools in the system which send their students to the Ivy Leagues, and there are other schools who send them to the poor house. One cannot make easy conclusion based on the average.
The average is just that--an average that does not necessarily reveal the quality of any one particular student belonging to that student body. Many Puerto Rican secondary school students have gone onto succeed tremendously in the academic world. A piece posted in the same page (ICTAL) noted that a large number of engineering students at UPR Mayaguez were prized by the American Society of Civil Engineering. Historically, we may also observe that Isaac Newton worked in a period of British Education particularly noted for its decadent state. In other words, we should not allow a 'statistical tyranny of the majority' to influence our views of the individuals which compose this body. To do otherwise is to fall into the same type of racist thinking which was so predominant in the Southern United States prior to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's.
It appears that another unverbalized fear is that Puerto Ricans might be compared to the population of African-Americans in the United States, typically characterized by urban violence, drug use, and low economic standing. Although many Puerto Ricans did migrate to the US, and have become a part of New York City's urban culture, Puerto Rico per se and the US African-American community could not be more different. The values, ethnic composition, and cultural norms which guide the two are vastly different as these have proceeded from very different circumstances and historical origins. In fact, their modern interaction in an era of easy-transport poses a current threat to the island. While many leftists critique the Anglo-Saxon 'cultural imperialism', little mention is made of the more worrisome importation of this violent black-ghetto culture that is increasingly spreading itself in the island.[3]
There were also certain problems with the information contained in the article or, more precisely missing from it. We do not know if the exams were conducted in English or Spanish. For practical purposes, let us assume that the exams were administered in English, which they typically are. While this simple fact might appear to be a small problem, it is a tremendous issue which has not yet been resolved. To learn in a language that is not one's native tongue imposes on that group tremendous social costs which not every social group of that body politic can bear. The fluent acquisition of a foreign tongue requires time, proficient teachers, and practice--these in turn require money which not every social group holds in abundant supply. This is a point that is all-to-often underestimated by many English-speaking North Americans.
Imagine if you, as a North American, were forced to not only take French language classes, but also that all regular classes were to be taught in the French language. You would spend half the time trying to figure out what the word said, and the other half trying to make sense of what it just said. Add on top of that teachers that are not always exactly sure what is meant, nor dominate the language with the same level of proficiency which a native-French speaker dominates the French language. Let's not forget that, since your home-language is English, and your friends all speak English, you would not have much opportunity outside of school to practice French. Academically, you would be in quite a quandary.
There can be no doubt that grades across the entire United States would plummet drastically under such circumstances, independent of the quality of the school district. This is the phenomenon that has been occurring in Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico using English-language high school textbooks. It is the complicated-kind-of-problem that cannot be resolved overnight with a five-year presidential mandate.
But that issue, as they say here in Puerto Rico, "son otros veinte pesos".[4]
Notes.
1. The public reaction is somewhat akin to that received by a National Geographic article about Puerto Rico. The local government was so upset by it, that it pulled all of its advertising campaigns it had with the magazine. The main point of contention is that it purportedly represented the island's problems as the norm in the island. It is clear that the 'emic' and the 'etic' do not appear to be in agreement here.
2. PPD refers to "Partido Popular Democratico" or the Commonwealth Party.
3. Curiously, there has been some modification of this culture upon its importation. The Spanish-language lyrics of the recently popular 'Tego Calderon', a Puerto Rican rapper, lack that biting and violent attitude which so characterizes African-American rap music.
4. Could be translated as, "is another story". Literally it means "they are another twenty dollars."
A full page ad in The San Juan Star newspaper (May 8, 2003) showed that this year's single graduating class at St. John's School (private school) had a tremendous large number of Ivy League school entries including: Columbia (3), Harvard (2), Princeton (2), Georgetown (2), U Penn (2), Johns Hopkins (1), Stanford (1) and so forth. Total number students listed were 84, hence making the Ivy League percentage entry higher than the norm of most U.S. high schools.