In his NY Daily News op-column today, Stanley Crouch offers suggestions on how to reverse the continued decline of SAT test results in the past five years. He takes mass media to task in portraying the attractiveness of intellectual capacity among our youth.
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Important shifts in our culture are given national recognition through our electronic mass media. Let's begin to see intelligent young people, or those who study and work hard at doing well in school, depicted as more than merely nerds.
From the silly comedies of Jack Black to the hip-hop imbecilities of Lil Wayne, little room in our culture has been made for protagonists with brains. Now is the time when we need to see them out here.
Mr. Crouch points to a historical precedent in similar efforts, J. Edgar Hoover calling upon Hollywood to reverse the trend of glamorizing crime in the 30’s. The author confirms that the call was heeded, leading at least to an expanded characterization in gangster movies with name stars also getting positive roles of defending society against criminal types.
The op-ed columnist suggests that media should also communicate the importance of study and high-quality performance, given that “Americans allow TV to become the favored baby-sitter and one of the biggest family influences on the children of the house.” Mr. Crouch believes that is why the SAT performance of Asian American students does not follow the overall trend of decline.
The performance of Asian American students in the SAT tests in fact runs in contrast with other minority groups. Says one AP article published in the New York Times, “Whatever Asian-Americans are doing, educators want to bottle it.” The article expounds on the performance of Asian American students in the SAT tests and how taking prep subjects may be one of key factors that result in such a notable feat.2
The exception is Asian-Americans, whose average combined score surged 13 points to a combined 1623, while scores for whites fell 2 points to 1581. For black students, average scores dropped 4 points to 1276. Average scores for two of the three categories the College Board uses for identifying Hispanics also declined, and overall ranged from 1345 to 1364.
White kids are more likely to have access to advanced college-prep subjects than blacks and Hispanics, and the success of Asian-Americans on the SAT is also probably due in part to their push to enroll in such courses.
Such a push towards prep subject enrollments may not be where all the answers lie, nor can mass media be pushed into that redefinition of appealing character portrayal that Mr. Crouch idealizes. For one thing, a push is a push; forced implementation or coercion is never appealing. Yet, many Asian American students today experience such pressure to conform to traditional value that their families continue to weigh down on them.
Apart from study and hard work, there are other factors that matter and contribute to one’s personal growth and development. Perhaps, mass media can be talked into promoting the notion that a good life-study balance is sexy as well.
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Stanley Crouch, “Until smart equals sexy, U.S. kids will lag on SAT scores”, The Daily News2
The Associated Press, “SAT Scores Dip for High School Class of 2009”, New York Times
Jila Baniyaghoob, 38, freelance reporter and editor-in-chief of the website Kanoon Zanan Irani (Focus on Iranian Women), Iran. Baniyaghoob works in one of the most restrictive environments for both journalists and women in the world. Still, she has fearlessly reported on government and social oppression, particularly as they affect women. She has been fired from several jobs because she refuses to censor the subject matter of her reporting and several of her media outlets have been closed by the government. She has travelled throughout the Middle East, writing accounts of the lives of women and refugees during times of conflict. The topics of her reporting make her a target of the Iranian government. She has been beaten, arrested and imprisoned numerous times.2