M. Night Shyamalan, the director of “The Sixth Sense” who was once touted as Hollywood’s emerging scare-flick guru, said in a private gathering of education activists that America does well in schooling whites — but not so well in educating blacks.
“In America, we’re actually educating our kids very well … but just the white kids,” Mr. Shyamalan said, The New York Post reported. “If you pull out schools in which 85 percent of students qualify for a free meal, which are predominantly African-American and Hispanic, the data show that the rest of the kids are being taught better in American than anywhere else in the world.”
He also added, The Post reported: “Countries like Finland teach their white kids well, and we teach our white kids better.”
Mr. Shyamalan made the remarks at a gathering in former CNN anchor Campbell Brown’s apartment. Ms. Brown founded the Parents’ Transparence Project, and among those in the crowd, The Post reported, were Katie Couric, Grace Hightower, Alexandra Pelosi, Gilt Groupe founder Kevin Ryan, Newark Schools head Cami Anderson and Success Academy Charter Schools founder Eva Moskowitz.
The report didn’t say if Mr. Shyamalan, who just released a book, “I Got Schooled,” spoke about the test scores of other minorities, like Asians, that are typically high.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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