Thernstrom Named to Civil Rights Commission
Abigail Thernstrom, a white Senior Fellow at the intensely conservative Manhattan Institute, has just been named Vice Chair of the US Civil Rights Commission. She has become popular in the last decade for keeping alive the trope of Black and Latino culture as the cause for poor educational achievement and calling for the end of affirmative action.
By the way, if you click on the article below on her webpage at the Manhattan Institute, they list it as published in the Philadelphia Inquirer then when you click on the link the article is under a Los Angeles Times masthead. Neither paper has a record of this article by her. I’ve let the LA Times and Philadelphia Inquirer know and asked for clarification from the institute. I’ve included an excerpt from the institute page as a window into how she thinks…
from “Close the Gap by Teaching Social Skills,” Abigail Thernstrom
“(I)n searching for superb inner-city education, I made a discovery: Almost all excellent schools teaching highly disadvantaged kids look very much alike - and quite different from most regular public schools… In addition to an academically superb program, they demand that their students learn how to speak standard English. They also insist that kids show up on time, properly dressed; that they sit up straight at their desks, chairs pulled in, workbooks organized; that they never waste a minute in which they could be learning and always finish their homework; that they look at people to whom they are talking, listen to teachers with respect, treat classmates with equal civility, and shake hands with visitors to the school.”