Time to Put the Confederate Flag Flap to Sleep

"I think it wiser moreover not to keep open the sores of war…"

Robert E. Lee

Historians claim Lee ‘sought to distance himself
from divisive symbols of the Civil War.’

Oh bother.

It’s hard to understand why this is even a concern anymore. The so-called Confederate flag flap is bluster and other B-starting words.  In most discussions, the two sides end up sitting on their own principles. Like some kind of beer commercial, we hear:  ‘it’s heritage—it’s hate.’ And the common end to the argument turns on both sides screaming “know your history” as if nothing else need be said.

And so, the truth is the flag being touted these days as the Confederate flag isn’t really the Confederate flag. It is the Confederate battle flag as used by some Confederate military commanders, like Lee himself, to help control troop movements afield.

Historically, there were three versions of the Confederate flag, none of which looked like the battle flag that is the heart and soul of this controversy. That emblem was part of the real Confederate flag in its second iteration, where it stood in the upper left corner—the same place the United States reserves for its field of stars. Even the third version of the flag only showed the battle flag in the upper corner.

That portion of the flag was pulled out and used by some confederate units because it was easily identified and prominent in the field for the troops who used it as a rallying device. It is not now, nor was it ever, the Confederate flag.

So what does the flag really stand for?

Most proponents would say, “States rights” or some other platitude evoking a certain sort of loyalty oath. But the reality is not that simple. Yale University’s Avalon project provides access to specific historical documents of the time that tout slavery as the prominent cause of the rebellion. Take for instance these statements different states cited in their very own Declarations of Secession:

South Carolina cites "... an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations ..."

Mississippi states in the opening of its declaration:  “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world.”

Georgia cites slavery in its second sentence:  “For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding Confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery.”

So I suppose we can unmask the oft-cited statement that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery. These states apparently thought slavery so critical a point that it got a front row seat in their own rationale for secession.

What has happened to the battle flag is a travesty. It has become a symbol of rebelliousness and hate. It is not what it was intended to be, but has been bent by many who do not know its history nor are they concerned with history in general or in particular. It has been hijacked by many hate groups:  neo-Nazis, Skin Heads, white supremacists, and racists in general.

So why not let this great symbol rest in peace?

Get away from the arguments and heart-felt feelings, if possible, and look into your hearts and you will know that it’s true. I applaud the Confederate States that stood up for what they thought was right; after all isn’t that the American way? But don’t tell me the war wasn’t about slavery and expect me to believe it. The very states that led the Civil War identify the slavery issue as the primary cause of their secession.

So when it comes to the Confederate battle flag flap, I say “Know your history.”

High School Graduation Rate: a Statistical Shell Game

There are three kinds of lies:

lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Author unknown

Among the other meaningless statistics that seem to abound in school systems and other institutions where we attempt to apply statistical results to support some idea about improvement, is the state’s graduation rate. Large systems seem to like stuff like that because it tends to show gradual but solid improvement over the past several years, but the truth is the statistic means very little in terms of keeping kids in school. It is merely a feel good stat that allows everyone to believe they are doing a good job. They say, ‘Look, three more students graduated this year’ by percentage that may be true. But it’s not the statistic that has real meaning in terms of people.

No one would argue that keeping kids in school long enough to acquire a diploma is a good thing. I mean, if they were not in school where exactly would they be? At work? For some that may be true, and for me, although I can prove I graduated, the pull toward work was ever present and directly related to the fact that I wanted to be able to afford my car, my own clothes, and in general my own sordid way of life. I am certain the same kinds of temptations exist for students today.

But the graduation rate based on students who enter the ninth grade and manage to graduate in four years doesn’t have any real meaning. What does, in the case of Hopewell, a 2.4 percent rise in graduation rate really mean except that for this year a couple extra kids got a diploma?

One of the problems with these statistics is that they track students entering a school system in their freshman year. They do not track whether that student left the school and went to another school but still remains on the first school’s enrollment figures. They do not take into account the student who “transfers” into a new school and then doesn’t show up for any classes, effectively dropping out without even crossing the threshold. There are way too many variables for this statistic to have any real meaning. And besides, students are supposed to graduate.

Without picking on any school system, or any system that relies on statistics as a measure of success, this doesn’t really tell the story. The real story deals with those students who didn’t graduate. Those figures aren’t nearly so nice and they fall under the title dropouts.

Dropouts are those students who for one reason or another simply stop attending school. There are numerous reasons why a student may drop out, and certainly there are special cases where the student has little or no option. But most of them are rare.

So what provides a better view of what’s happening in our schools is really the dropout rate. The chart shows graduation rates and dropout numbers for the past three years.

	2015		2014		2013
School System	Grad Rate	Dropouts	Grad Rate	Dropouts	Grad Rate	Dropouts
Commonwealth	90.5	4876	89.9	5810	89.1	6501
Chesterfield	90.9	283	91.4	287	90.2	308
Colonial Heights	89.7	12	94.8	8*	91.1	8*
Dinwiddie	77.4	19	81.1	35	81.7	32
Hopewell	81.9	39	79.5	42	78.8	30
Petersburg	70.9	24	82.6	36	77.5	55
Prince George	85.1	44	87.7	42	83.2	56

Statistics taken from Virginia Department of Education.

* VDOE did not calculate the data in the form; the data was extracted from the statistical percentage.

The data was pulled from the Virginia Department of Education’s Graduation Completion spreadsheet. It is readily available on the Internet. It has a great amount of information, much of which is statistical. It also has some interesting information about other aspects of school that is not the “feel good” statistics like graduation rates.

And so we come to what the figures mean. If we look at the 2015 data set, we can see that 421 students dropped out of area high schools that year.  Chesterfield had a whopping 283 dropouts. But statistically that only amounts to 6 percent of the 4,713 enrolled in the 2015 class, or cohort, as the state calls them. And within the state, 4,876 dropped out of 93,000 students, or 5.6 percent of the enrollment. From this example, it’s easy to see how statistics can bend reality. Oh, we say, 6 percent isn’t so bad. But when we look at what that percentage represents, 283 people… well maybe that’s not so good.

So how did the rest of the Tri-City Area fare? Let’s take 2015 as our example year:

• Chesterfield 243 dropouts, or 6 percent of 4,713 students
• Colonial Heights 12 dropouts or 5.6 percent of 214 students
• Dinwiddie 19 dropouts, or 11.5 percent of 165 students
• Hopewell 39 dropouts, or 13.3 percent of 293 students
• Petersburg 24 dropouts, or 8.3 percent of 289 students
• Prince George 44 dropouts, or 9.2 percent of 478 students

So I guess it’s nice to look at ‘atta boy statistics and pat ourselves on the back for how good we are doing. But the more important piece of data is in where the school systems are failing. We can’t simply look at a percentage and think, ‘well that’s OK.’ The number of students who dropped out of school is more critical than looking at those who managed to earn their diploma on time as they are supposed to.