Education has always been an important part of my life. I grew up in a Black community when education was revered, and our Black teachers were Fugitive Pedagogists as defined by Jarvis Givens. Early on, I connected increases in education with better life circumstances even within my Black community despite rampant racism across America. America’s historic educational hypocrisy clashed with my educational philosophy — that all children deserved an education as good as that which I received – and triggered some interesting experiences over my career. It was not coincidental that I have served as “president/chancellor” of higher education entities on five occasions, including a 59 campus, 800,000 student state community college system.
The poet Thomas Gray penned: Ignorance is bliss, meaning, tongue-in-cheek, that people are happier if they are ignorant of their fate.
“The more you improve the condition of these people (slaves), the more you cultivate their minds, the more miserable you make them, in their present state. You give them a higher relish for those privileges which they can never attain, and turn what we intend for a blessing [slavery] into a curse. No, if they must remain in their present situation, keep them in the lowest state of degradation and ignorance. The nearer you bring them to the condition of brutes, the better chance do you give them of possessing their apathy.” (Elias B. Caldwell, Clerk, SCOTUS, 1800-1825)
But Epictetus said: Ignorance is the greatest slavery known to humankind.
One of my most memorable experiences occurred when I was chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) and Governor Bill Clinton governor decided to improve education Pre-K through college. I was appointed to the Education and Standards Commission (ESC) for Pre-K – 12; and the Quality Higher Education Study Commission. The governor said initially that he wanted no overlap in membership between the commissions; I was the only member appointed to both.
The ESC divided the state into regions, and individual members were assigned to conduct hearings in their several assigned regions, I had 10, to determine what the people wanted from their schools. Our format was to begin the sessions by explaining the ESC mission and then opening the floor for questions and comments. In one of my regions, in the extreme southeast corner of the state, at the very start of the questions and comments session, the white owner of a huge farm (Plantation?) rose to declare that he was adamantly opposed to our intention to upgrade the schools and mandate new and higher academic requirements. He said that it was a waste of taxpayers’ money and students’ time – adding that education was wasted on most people.
He then specified the various levels of education the people who worked for him needed. “Them boys that works in the fields don’t need no more than two or three years of basic education.” He proceeded up through the levels of work and stated the amount of education the workers in each level needed, ending with his accountants, whom he said needed only AA degrees.
I proceeded to “educate” him, forcefully but respectfully (I was down there alone), starting with the question as to how he could tell what “jobs” an infant might aspire to do. I said also that I had an idea that the indicators used would be the most obvious ones — skin color and parents’ economic status. I added that I had been born into poverty; my skin color was obvious. In addition, I provided some comments about my educational acquisition through the PhD and the service my education allowed me to provide to America, both in the military and in public service after retirement. I conveyed as well how glad I was that nobody had predicted my educational capacity and destiny at the time of my birth.
Not surprisingly, he and I had a lively and lengthy exchange. When he finally relinquished the mike, he had undergone a change in perspective. He chastised several of his own neighbors for some of the questions they raised with such comments as: “You already heard the doctor say…;” and Weren’t you listening…?”
I was not so naive as to conclude that he had undergone a permanent spiritual metamorphosis; but the fact that he was willing to publicly indicate support for the purposes of the commission was wonderful to witness.
AFTERWORD
The reports of both commissions were approved by the Arkansas Legislature.
“Interesting” does not begin to encapsulate the complex developments that transpired after the reports were approved. The entity that stood at the bottom of the higher education hierarchy, UAPB, benefited quite significantly: we received the bulk of an academic development appropriation. And our improvements in short order were so significant that they were chronicled widely, including in the Congressional Record.
