Fairfax — To the Editor:
The point is that inborn talent is not the real issue for TJHS-level success. Nor is there any educational program magic pill that will solve this. The key is student long-term personal commitment to scholastic achievement and hard work—(the old "20 percent inspiration, 80 percent perspiration" adage).
Since everyone likes statistics so much, the elephant in the room has always been the performance of Asian minority students vis-a-vis the entire FCPS student population—e.g., for 2011/12, Asian: 19 percent of FCPS vs 64 percent at TJHS; White: 43 percent of FCPS vs 26 percent at TJHS; Hispanic: 22 percent of FCPS vs 2.7 percent at TJHS; Black: 10 percent of FCPS vs 1.4 percent at TJHS. Maybe those Asian students should get with the program and stop working so hard and being so successful. It makes the other ethnicities look bad.
FCPS has already watered down the scholastic admission criteria for TJHS in response to the clamor for increased Hispanic and Black enrollment, and that only resulted in more criticism because of the inevitable drop-off in TJHS student performance levels.
This is a culture contest pure and simple. One culture puts study and commitment to educational goals at the top of life's responsibilities and diversions. The others, not nearly so much. Change the cultures if you can.
William Smith
Fairfax