One of the most heartrending tasks I have ever had to perform has been to talk truthfully about practices that were having deleterious consequences for poor Black children; and to do so without discouraging individuals from trying to improve their endeavors; without seeming to condone ineffective programs; without appearing to reprove people who had been successful; and without appearing to “praise” misanthropes who had no intention of ceasing harmful activities. In many communities, huge percentages of Black youth live in shocking, toxic conditions that, nevertheless, are filled with well-intentioned leaders and organizations.
When presented with the facts about disparities between intentions and outcomes, too often community members will attack the message and the messenger, no matter how adroitly revelation of factual reality may have been presented. However, for the most part, the people who have reacted most hostilely to truths about bad conditions and our failed attempts to effect improvements have not been the poor people, but rather those of us who have excelled in achievements and escaped the traps, most often through educational attainment.
Winston Churchill said: “Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you must do what is required.”
A large percentage of African American adults suffer psychologically from the general effects of racism. If such sufferers have also failed to achieve a level of success in keeping with their dreams, they may have such a high need for solace that it impedes their work for children. I understand this.
Nevertheless, we must separate empathy for adult community members from our duty to save poor Black children, and encourage adults to feel personal enrichment from saving Black children from the ravages of racism. Our educational reforms have not worked; we need transformation. Authentic transformers WILL avoid deliberate condemnation of other workers in the vineyards; but they WILL NOT lose sight of the primary target audience, poor Black families and children, the true victims of racist America.
It is the transformer who is anxious for the transformation, and not his community from which he/she should expect nothing better than opposition, abhorrence and mortal persecution. From Mahatma Gandhi
Genuine education transforms cultures, individuals and societies. The components that are indispensable for transforming a culture for the better are a commitment to absolute truth; clarity of purpose; specificity of conditions targeted for improvement; competent leadership; and open honesty about results. The most virtuous sounding intentions that do not encompass all these elements will assist in perpetuating harm to societies’ most vulnerable victims — fattening frogs for snakes!
The immoral subterfuge that took place in desegregated schools after the sixties is illustrative of reform failure: bogus at-risk programs; weak-course proliferation; watered down curricula; grade inflation; social promotion; and overuse of Ritalin, markedly for Black boys. Material poverty became a synonym for genetically-based cognitive inferiority which fostered an exacerbation of crimes against poor children. So-called self-esteem initiatives took precedence over high-quality/high-quantity education and behavioral standards. Spouting notions such as “Let’s not place on them demands and standards they can’t meet,” was showing compassion. Much of the foregoing was looped under the rubric of “Compensatory Education” for slavery and the racist aftermath. However, all kinds of leaders, from evil-doers to the most virtuous, could wrap themselves in the same exonerating, bulletproof cloak – we meant well.
The historic mission of education must correspond with and inform the plans and programs of the people and organizations involved with improving the life-chances of those who are in our lowest socioeconomic/educational levels.
The Ideal and Moral purpose of education is to help students acquire for themselves the knowledge, skills, values, and courage they will need as adults to be fully functional in their society at any level they choose to participate, indeed, to survive, thrive and achieve and maintain personal freedom, unfettered by at-birth circumstances. No other purpose should ever be placed higher.
There are no shortcuts in the educational development process, no APPs, and no substitutes for high quality/high quantity education. The only means of getting knowledge and the skill for effectively using knowledge into the “heads” of human beings is by the individual doing 100% of the mental work. My teachers at Gilmer Elementary School used to say: Boy, I can’t cut open your head and put knowledge in there!”
The only compensation, or reparation, if you must, for “undereducation” is more high-quantity/high-quality education. We must invest more resources for reparation in high quality/high quantity early childhood academic and character development programs that include parent education and support. This can be done without reducing funding for other enhancement targets. Benevolence for young descendants of slaves cannot be used to reduce the primacy of cognitive competency. If we do, we will be fattening frogs for snakes, sending young Black people into a nation that will continue to exploit and abuse them.
