I'm not even going to address the racial component of this ridiculous story...

The Rochester City school district is one of the worst in the state. In fact, nearly 50% of the 34,000 students in the district never finish high school. Job prospects for high school dropouts usually include the following: (1) the guy with the grungy towel who dries off your car after you get a car wash; (2) the guy in line at the grocery store at 8:02 in the morning with a couple of 40's in his basket; or (3) Kevin Federline. It would probably do many city residents, and the region generally, a lot of good if more kids were graduating.

Thankfully, the members of the school board are hard at work finding ways to improve the district and to better prepare the kids in city schools to be productive members of society.

A member of school board has introduced a proposal that would create a district-wide African-American studies department. Allegedly, the proposal has received support from the Superintendent, the Rochester Teachers Association, and other board members.

Here's how it works:

"Plans call for students in all grades to be taught a more African-centered subject matter. The idea is to give black children more knowledge of their racial history and racial accomplishments to motivate them.

'It might make them think better of themselves to know that they come from scientists, doctors, lawyers - profession they can achieve too, [the school board member] said.'

More motivated students could increase attendance, lower dropout rates and close achievement gaps."

Personally, I find this argument compelling. When I was a kid, I eschewed book-learnin' and was headed for a life of alcohol abuse and soccer hooliganism. I turned everything around when I learned that James Joyce was Irish, just like me.

Or maybe not.

This line of reasoning is an offshoot of the old argument that kids can't learn unless they have high "self-esteem." Unfortunately for bleeding heart morons everywhere, the numbers don't bear this out. A recent study by the Brookings Institute broke down eighth grade math performance by nationality and "confidence" levels. The study concluded that "National indices of student happiness are inversely related to achievement in mathematics. That is, countries with more confident students who enjoy the subject matter - and with teachers who strive to make mathematics relevant to students' daily lives - do not do as well as countries that rank lower of indices of confidence, enjoyment, and relevance." Not surprisingly, chubby little American kids ranked high in confidence and low in performance.

Fixing inner-city schools is a major problem with no easy solution. However, nothing will ever be accomplished if the best that the school board can do is offer tired ideas such as this.