HAT TIP TO HOUSTON: Putting the N-Word to Rest in Style

Eddie Griffin sez: Wow! All the brothers were dressed in black suits. It reminded me of the Panthers. Read ThereAlready blog:

[Excerpt]
You'll all be happy to know that the N-Word is now officially dead and buried. There apparently were at least 2 ceremonies over the past couple of days in Houston and Detroit where the oh so troublesome word was put out of our misery. In Houston;

...the so-called interment celebration will be at Houston Memorial Gardens in Pearland. A casket, draped with a banner, will contain a hanging noose, a burned cross, a replica of a Ku Klux Klan robe and an ax. It will be buried in an unmarked grave site.

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Solving the Classroom Crisis – Part I
By Eddie Griffin

This is the beginning of a long series in response to those who have asked about What Options We Should Seek in a new road to educating our children

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

In solving the problem with our children in the educational environment of public school, we must consider that everything is relative. If there is good, there is always better. If there is bad, there is always worse.

We live in an imperfect world with imperfect people, and any solutions to our problems are only partial solutions. But the average person thinks in terms of absolutes.

A New Perspective

There is no shortage of good advisement on how to solve the problem with educating our children in the public school system. But all the ideas and plans presented in the last decade have not stemmed the decline- decline in daily attendance per student, decline in learning, decline in graduation rates, decline in academic achievement, and finally decline public confidence.

Maybe it’s time to step outside the box and create a new paradigm on education- what it means and how institutions deliver it, who its clients are, and what is the bottom line result when it is successfully achieved. Finally, what is the face of success? What does it look like?

We cannot solve the problem within the problem- thinking inside the box. Looking at the problem from a classroom perspective does not give us an institutional level overview of the problem.

We see more finances, more educational resources, better facilities, better pay, and more qualified teachers as primes toward a solution. We also see parental involvement, better home training, better parenting, and more pre-preparation as principal contributors to student success. And, based upon our own institutional goals of education, we have some basic expectations of the student. All of this is well and good, but only from an inside-the-box perspective.

Our expectations may not necessarily coincide with the children’s expectations. We assume every child knows right from wrong and expect them to act accordingly. But the alienated at-risk children may have been reared in a home where wrong was right. Therefore, the assumption at Square One is erroneous and self-delusional to the mind’s eye of the observer.

Because we began from a wrong premise, we tend to rationalize the rest, before arriving at a failed resolution. Knowing that we cannot ignore poverty as a debilitating factor in education, we seek to find a model (an example) of someone who overcame poverty. We take the exception and make it the norm. And, we turn a blind eye to cultural factors engendered by racial identity, which propagates white idealism such as this: “Any black male child has as much an opportunity to succeed as a white male child.”

We wish that it were so.

Being locked in on our ideals, we draft pie-in-the-sky solution plans and measure incremental changes. What good is a 10%-20% improvement, when you are looking for a 100% solution?

What we need in education is a qualitative change and a quantum leap. We are in an opportune vortex where this might be possible. The including series will examine the problem in education with a solution-oriented focus… and yes, a plan of action will emerge.