Ephemeral green

 

An intermittent creek in my neighborhood was mostly dry when I visited on December 10th of the recently departed year. Along a section of the creek that still had a little water left in it I did a few portraits of the remaining algae. Patches not far from each other could look rather different, as you see here. In the second view, the spaghetti-like tendril of a vine had somehow gotten embedded in the algae.

 

 

 

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“America’s Systemic Racism Problem Is Mostly In Woke, Anti-Asian Education Bureaucracies.” That’s the headline in Helen Raleigh’s January 6th article in the Federalist. In case you haven’t heard about this latest scandal in Virginia’s schools, here’s the beginning of the article:

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin began 2023 by asking the state’s Attorney General Jason Miyares to investigate the allegation that officials at Thomas Jefferson High School (TJ) intentionally withheld notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s students and families (most of them are Asians) in the name of “equity” and “inclusion.”

Asra Q. Nomani, a human rights activist and a proud mom of a TJ graduate, broke the latest scandal at the school right before Christmas. According to Nomani, the scandal was initially uncovered by another TJ mom, Shawna Yashar, whose son took the PSAT test. He was recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation “as a Commended Student in the top 3 percent nationwide — one of about 50,000 students earning that distinction.” It was the kind of honor that would have helped his applications for colleges and scholarships last fall had the TJ officials not withheld his award announcement. When the TJ officials eventually notified him of his award, the deadline for his college applications had already passed, which rendered the award useless. 

Nomani learned that her son, a graduate of TJ’s class of 2021, was never told by school officials that he was a “Commended Student” in 2020. Even more infuriating is that these two young men’s experiences were not the result of some honest one-time mistake.

Nomani discovered that “the principal, Ann Bonitatibus, and the director of student services, Brandon Kosatka, have been withholding this information from families and the public for years, affecting the lives of at least 1,200 students over the principal’s tenure of five years.” These officials’ actions (or inactions) disproportionally hurt Asian students because the majority of the school’s student body is Asian. By intentionally withholding awards and eventually delivering them late and in a low-key way, these officials robbed the students and their families of chances to celebrate hard-earned achievements. 

In addition, these officials caused undue harm to these students’ college applications and scholarships. For some first-generation immigrants with no other financial resources to fall back on, the damage caused by these school officials’ actions could have a lifetime effect, with some students having to settle for less prestigious colleges or be forced to take out more student loans. 

After Nomani broke the story, TJ’s director of student services, Brandon Kosatka, justified her* action by insisting, “We want to recognize students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements.” Does she understand that celebrating someone’s achievement and acknowledging someone’s effort is an important part of recognizing students as individuals?

 

You’re welcome to read the full article.

UPDATE: A January 16th editorial in The Wall Street Journal revealed that even more Virginia schools failed to notify students about their Merit Scholarship awards.

 

* I assume the her refers to the principal, Ann Bonitatibus.

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman