Speak Out!

Americans need to wake up and smell the roses. College is a BUSINESS, and it’s NOT in the BUSINESS of educating its students. College is in the BUSINESS of keeping its bottom line in the BLACK not RED! Education is one of few business models where people pay for the product (classes) in full before any services are provided (class starts). With that being said, I’m one who’s in favor of higher education, but I feel we are doing our people and children a disservice by not exposing the education system for what is really is about!

There are NO colleges anywhere in this country that will teach their paying students theire business model. Let's look at our public schools; how many times are children passed on to the next grade when they really should be held back? Far too often. Are you really shocked to hear that colleges are doing the same? Colleges are collecting payment in full for services before the student attends the first day of class, so please tell me what is a college's motivation to raise their level of service?

There are a large portion of public school teachers and college professors who are just trying to get their 10 year with the union to secure their paycheck. I’m going to speak openly and honestly, and I know there will be those who will not agree but let's talk about it. I feel that Bush’s no child left behind was a good ideal, but it was poorly executed.

I feel that giving teachers higher pay is NOT the answer. I feel that teachers whose children excel should be given pay increases and those who don’t should be removed from the school system! I feel that we should have our more seasoned teachers working in the inner cities and rural areas, and the green teachers in the well-funded districts. I feel the teacher union needs to be pushed to hold itself to higher and tougher standards in order to reach 10 year. I feel that our schools need to be reformed and teaching styles need to be adjusted to help students with different learning styles excel.

I understand that parents play a vital role in the education process, but if a teacher's pay and job are on the line, then I feel that the educator will become more motivated to get the parents involved in the process. I also feel that we simply don’t expect enough from our children. Now that I’ve taken my shots at the front line workers teachers and professors its time to look at the administration.

First, teachers could be paid more if administrators were paid less. How can and any administer in this country approve something for one school in a district and not the same in another in the same district? Example, my nephew is in the 3rd grade at a public school in Michigan. His school has kids from K - 6. Every classroom has computers for each student. There are 7 other K - 6 schools within the district, but NONE of them have computers in the classroom let alone for each student. What happened to what’s good for the goose is good for the gander?

Administrators need to be held accountable for every school's performance within its district. Also, they need to operate in a more transparent manner. I feel that there should be some standards that the administration must meet on a NATIONAL LEVEL, but at the same time each local community still needs the final say so on what happens. I feel that it's very important to have a NATIONAL GOAL so that some states are not perceived as being better educated that others.

What a lot of people forget is that the civil rights movement began with the spark as did the American Revolution. A spark ignited against unequal taxation and unequal representation. Black schools did a far better job of education of black youth than subsequently integrated schools have ever done. Black teachers were demanding the same quality tools for the education of black youth in black schools that were available to white youth in white schools. We payed the tax but nothing of it showed up in our separate, unequal school system. Our books were never new. They weren't new when black teachers got them. Integration was the bait and switch. Integration was a tactical defense to stem the growing intellectual prowess of African Americans. Integration was a lollipop, sucker is a better word because ultimately we got suckered. This couldn't be better illustrated than by my own personal experience:

In my senior year at integrated Largo High School, Fl., I was drafted by my white creative writing teacher to stand in for the 10th grade English Literature teacher, Mrs. LaFontaine, a woman dripping with southern charms and an accent made for fluffy brown-topped biscuits. She was on strike with most of the other teachers from the school. I was selected not because I was her best student [which I was] but because this class was composed of the absolute worst students in the entire school. They were the dumb kids, the mean kids, mostly black but sprinkled in with the worst of the white kids.

My first day challenge was survival only. Being a very shy kid, sitting at the front of the class at the podium made me a target for every possible kind of missile, every threat, every disruption. The lesson plan was entirely out of the question. The assistant principal came to lend, not moral support but a stretcher in case they had killed me in the time sense he'd made his last round. I had to get this mob to read an test on Charles Dickens "Oliver Twist". I had read Oliver Twist several times by the time I got to junior high school, on my own without a lesson requirement so I had an idea this rowdy group would have much in common with him, and would identify with much of his story. Orphan, living in a brutal world. So I decided to tackle this class. But the fact was they would never read this on their own without a subterfuge, a trick. I had five younger brothers and sisters at the time who very often required judicious use of sleight of hand to get them to do chores and read and do their homework, so I used the 'play' format to break the book down. I explained to the class that since none of us wanted to be bored to death reading chapter after 'boring' chapter of this stupid book, we would each take a character from the book and play that character 'all you have to read is your character'. Now, of course, there won't be enough characters, so those of us who aren't characters had the role of judging the performance. The narrator was selected, each character, and the rest of us would judge. But to judge, we had to pay attention to what was happening-which meant "read the story".

Overnight a change occurred in that classroom. The missiles disappeared. Focus groups formed spontaneous among characters, the narrator stayed off to himself, the jury was out preparing to judge the upcoming performances for authenticity, presentation and conviction. All this with only brief instructions from me. Lucius the giant, who terrorized my life on the basketball court every day and helped me improve my sprint and my cross country jaunt became the class policemen.

By the day we staged Oliver Twist, a number of the teachers who'd remained behind, including Mrs. LaFontaine, who'd gotten wind of something interesting happening in her absence, were present. The students, these rotten, no good, dangerous criminals to be were stunning. The had organized so efficiently, prepared so thoroughly that they were able to offer piercing and coherent critiques on the performances of the actors, who were also just drop dead on it, the were afterwards able to describe the similarities of their own lives, the similarities of what was happening in their communities, with what happened to Oliver Twist. The teacher, the vice principal and all who saw these kids were shocked. The kids got A's on the test. The teachers adopted this method, secretly of course, to help struggling students, and I got an A for my creative writing class and a commendation for the class.

The moral of the story: Because I was educated first in an all black school, with all black teachers, I was a better ten grade English Literature Teacher-in my senior year of high school, than all the white teachers in my integrated school, who had both degrees and certificates. Black teachers today generally have lost the fire, the enthusiasm and the commitment to their students. The student is the product of your work. He, she represents the end product of your effort. We should reverse integration. Maybe the reversal of Brown vs. The board of education was a good this.

African America has more than everything it needs to take back the minds of its youth. What it lacks is a cohesive, commonly accepted platform for this. Still, it has to begin and it has...Freedom begins and ends in the mind.
http://virtualnationofafricanamerica.blogspot.com/

Dear Brother Tavis- Sad to say the USA is behind compared to other countries that have less to work with. There are two things that can be worked on: increase the pay of teachers/professors to $75,000.00 to to $175,000.00+ a year with bonus and incentives to teach. Maybe with the better pay, we can find more "ole school" teachers who teach and challenge their students in the academia; there would be so many problems. Also, where are the teachers/professors that can spot the hidden talent in the shy, unassuming, physically frail, off-casted student that has the hidden great talent that every one overlooks? And Brother Tavis, where are the few good teachers/professors/administrators that will go all out to help the student[s] that need finical aid/grants and a job?

If they are out there, I should wish that they would be my professors. I have 4 professors, and 3 GED teachers, only two professors and the 3 GED teachers believed in me and assisted me. Also there is another professor who isn't my professor who is assisting me in every way that she can.

What we need is more qualified educators who are interested in producing a productive class who will take any honest job that to have college graduates that are still on the 8th grade level. I sure hope that the new presidential canditates will make education and health care their number one priority. Ursula S.

Universities and colleges are more interested in the money made through research. It is not economically feasible for any school to educate the youth of this nation. The American tax dollars are spent on human research, with or without the consent of the humans targeted for particular research, which ultimately ruins the health of the individuals, be it physical, emotional, financially or socially. Educators have turned on the very communities which have been used to pay their salaries. This is a direct attack on the infrastructure of this nation. Mind control is power. Zombies and robots do not ask why. SNAP OUT OF IT AMERICA.

This sudden dilemma did not happen by chance. We have managed to excuse true quality for speed and an ISO number. Colleges may need to be retooled in order to educate today's workforce and future workers. It has become a business onto itself. Getting back to the basics means that businesses will have to be retooled in its standards and practices as well.