er, following the strike, tests showed thatrntheir performance had actually deteriorated.rnSoon thereafter, the practice of socialrnpromotion and race-based hiring tookrnhold in the city’s schools. As school performancernplummeted, ever more dollopsrnof racial self-esteem were demanded. Illiteratesrngraduated from high school, andrncontinued on to the City University ofrnNew York, which in 1970 switched fromrna selective to an “open” admissions policy,rnsoon thereafter introducing socialrnpromotion to higher education. Accordingrnto the UFT, 80-90 percent of therncity’s teachers are CUNY graduates.rnWhat had been the nation’s finest systemrnof urban public education had comernto resemble that of a Third World nation.rnDuring the late 1980’s and early 90’s, Irnwas a case worker for abused and neglectedrnblack children. In 1989, while returningrnone of my kids to her foster home inrnBrooklyn’s battle-scarred East New Yorkrnsection, Latoya saw her third-gradernteacher in the same subway car. A beautiful,rnclever eight-year-old, Latoyarnsought in vain to introduce us. Thernteacher scowled silently at me. A fewrnmonths later, I found an old spelling beernin Latoya’s school bag. The teacher hadrngiven her an “A,” marking only one wordrnout of 20 wrong. In fact, Latoya had misspelledrnseven words, earning only a “D.”rnIn 1995,1 recounted the story to a PuertornRican CUNY professor who had spentrn20 years in the Board of Education’s testingrnand evaluation branch. Had thernteacher let students grade their neighbors’rnpapers, without checking them?rnHad she inflated their grades to bolsterrntheir self-esteem? Was the teacher herselfrnilliterate? The professor responded,rn”Anything’s possible.”rnOne legacy of Ocean Hill-Brownsvillernis that today pupils are routinely awardedrn”certificates of merit” for no reason. Arnsecretary from Brooklyn named Theresarntells of the time her daughter Tinarnbrought home a certificate: “I’d ask herrnwhat the award was for and she couldn’trntell me, so I’d just rip it up. I said, ‘Don’trnbe bringing these things home, if yourncan’t tell me what they’re for.’ One dayrnshe came home from school and said,rn’Mommy, they gave me an award inrnschool today, but I tore it up, because Irndidn’t know what it was for.'” Theresarnhad sent Tina to a non-Afrocentric, blackrnprivate school for the first grade, but withrncash running short switched to publicrnschool the following year. She madernTHE REQNERY LECTURESrnJNamed in honor of Rockford Institute board member and longtime supporter Henry Regnery, this series capturesrnfor posterity the voices and words of important cultural and political figures.rnNew Offerings:rnEach tape costs $12,50, shipping and handling charges included.rnOUAiNTITYrn• “Fighting and Winning the Culture War: Reports from Three Fronts”rnfeaturing Allan Carlson on Family, Harold O.J. Brown on Religion, Thomas Heming on Culturern• “What Ever Happened to Civilization?” by John HowardrnStill Available:rn• “The Rockford Institute’s Twentieth Anniversary Dinner” featuring Chilton Williamson, Jr.,rnon “ft Takes an Institute,” Harold O.J. Brown on “Western Civilization Between Chaos andrnTransformation,” and Allan Carlson’s “Reflections at Twenty Years”rn• “To Hell with Culture: What Is It That We Must Conserve?” by John Lukacsrn• “Should Conservatives Leave the Republican Party?”—a debate betweenrnHoward Phillips and David KeenernNo. OF TAPES X$ 12.50 PER TAPE = $rnNamernAddressrnSend ad with check or money order, payable to “The Rockford Institute,” to The Regnery Lectures,rnThe Rockford Institute, 934 N. Main St., Rockford, IL 61103-7061rn40/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn