Is the School System Setting Our Children Up for Failure?
Mar 07, 2017Editorial <http://minorityreporter.net/category/editorial/>,
Education <http://minorityreporter.net/category/education/>Comments Off on
Is the School System Setting Our Children Up for Failure?
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Op/Ed By Celeste Barkley,
Lead Organizer of The Children’s Agenda –
[image: Celeste_Headshot]
<http://minorityreporter.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Celeste_Headshot.jpg>Has
it ever set them up for anything else?
There’s a relatively new colloquial saying, “They don’t want me to be
great.”
If I’m explaining it correctly, it is, generally, applied in the most
trivial instances.
Say, for example, you were putting on your makeup, and your eyebrows just
didn’t want to cooperate.
One might say, “My eyebrows just don’t want me to be great!”
It is laughable to believe that someone’s eyebrows could form an alliance
to sabotage a person’s greatness.
<http://www.dmwilliamsfuneralhome.org/>
But, the hyperbolic nature of our speech isn’t the point.
Think about this idiom in reference to education.
Could “they” be conspiring to disrupt our children’s greatness? What is
really denying our children their greatness?
What is truly the source of all the dreams deferred, generation after
generation?
The Black mind is a reflective instrument, with a capacity that has been
long denied to Black folks.
Our babies are brilliant. Literally. We often become uncomfortable when we
hear discussion of Black and white children having inborn differences
because, reflexively, we assume that a case is being made for Black
inferiority. However, a very interesting study finds that there are clear
distinctions between Black babies and white babies, in terms of development.
In “The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child,” Dr. Amos Wilson
analyzes studies conducted by white social scientists that reveal
significant differences in how quickly Black babies develop, in comparison
to European babies. The study, which looked at infant development, revealed
that it takes African babies approximately 9 hours to hold their own heads
forward, without neck support. In comparison, it takes European babies
approximately 6 weeks to accomplish this.
By the time that African babies were 11 months old, they were able to climb
steps alone, while European babies typically didn’t accomplish this until
they were 15 months old.
<http://dunntower.com/>
The study focused specifically on African babies, but Wilson explains that
the same trends were also found to be true in Black children of other
nationalities. I can attest to this – my son followed me around the room
with his eyes before his first bath.
Our greatness is normal. Greatness is truly our birthright. Whether it is
because of our evolutionary head start, or our melanin, the chemical key to
life—no matter the reasons—greatness is the legacy bestowed upon us by the
Creator.
In this case, nobody has the power to stop us from being who we are, when
we remember who we are.
When we begin to understand the innate potential of our children, it is
imperative that we ask ourselves, at minimum: 1) How did we get here, and
2) What is our purpose?
The major function of the education of Black people—whether we’re talking
about on-the-job training during slavery, convict leasing and peonage
during reconstruction or, right now, in this very moment—is for Black
people to serve the direct and/or indirect interest of white people.
If you look at the history of our relationship to the dominant culture, you
will note that certain basic things have not changed. In this political
climate, many of us are afraid because we have believed the American lie
for so long. America has been showing us who she is all along, but a lot of
us don’t want to believe it.
Many of us have forgotten the fact that we are not here by choice. We have
forgotten the fact that this is how it has always been.
We have also forgotten our power and, when you feel powerless, you become
afraid. You feel as if your power is in the hands of someone else.
Powerless people are dominated and exploited. If you are detached from your
own power, and the source of your power, you will be afraid, and fear is an
infectious force.
<http://www.dmwilliamsfuneralhome.org/>
We have grown comfortable with our oppression.
However, simply talking about oppression won’t end it. If we are serious
about solving the inequities in education, we have to talk about how the
system fails us, and how we’re going to respond to that.
If our children are being destroyed in the public “fool” system, it is
because we allow it.
Join me on March 18th 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM at Adams Street R-Center to
determine how we are, collectively, going to take action
