"From Doctor Of Education To Prisoner #3858757, Locked Up in the Prison Industrial Complex. That damned BUSH!!! He did it to us again. He got another Black man LOCKED UP, placed where he believe we belong!" This is what I might hear on the local "Fight The Power" Black talk radio station.
I know that some of you say "That is a sarcastic son of a gun" upon reading some of my work. The fact is that I am simply throwing back years of indoctrination attempts while listening to certain media operatives.
When I hear of "No Child Left Behind" the first person that I think of is radio host Bev Smith. I recall listening to her radio show in which she says that NCLB is a fraud that was based upon the "Houston Miracle" as ushered in by then Education Secretary Rod Paige.
She goes on to tell how the Houston school system achieved what appeared to be drastic improvements by using nothing short of fraud. Doctored test scores, pushing problem children to drop out of school so that their academic progress did not have to be counted, all sorts of other accounting and statistical lies - she said.
Just as with the "Predatory Lending" scandals - when these tales are told with their associated vagueness one is left to believe that there is some WHITE operative lurking about, seeking to undermine the interests of Black people. In throwing out these allegations Bev Smith and other members of the "9P's In The Pod" achieve their goal of undercutting the credibility of their ideological and political adversaries and lifting themselves up as CHAMPIONS FOR THE PEOPLE!!!!
WHO GAINS FROM THE MANIPULATION?
Think about the sceario. The educational reform places sanctions upon schools that fail to make "Accetpable Yearly Progress". By failing this measure the ADMINISTRATION risks being fired and external forces come in and cleave control over the schools policies. If I am an incumbent principle facing such a threat to my career - it is the principle of the FAILING SCHOOL that is most inclined to doctor the process.
The most likely casualty of this process are schools that house impovershed students or schools with a lot of "English As A Second Language" students. Thus, all along, the people that Bev Smith and other anti-NCLB/anti-Bush operatives were attacking were likely African-American educators in Houston and beyond.
I am saddened for the administrators at the 4 metro Atlanta schools that got busted. Surely they acted unethically and should face professional sanction. I'd hate to think that they'd serve long jail sentences for their offenses.
I'd be more inclined to lock up any principle that invited felon rapper "T.I." to speak at a school assembly. They have done far more damage to the consciousness of their student body.
1 comments:
Some way, some how we've got to get a handle on the culture of disregard for education that permeates too large a segment of the Black population (mainly native born) in the U.S. When studying and taking one's learning seriously gets you branded as "acting white" among your peer group, you know you've got a major problem.
And it shows up in the stats which, while they definitely reveal deficiencies in the amount of attention and resources devoted to predominantly minority schools, also belie a deficit of concerted interest in and dedication to preparation for one's future on the part of Black children, who face the double whammy of having parents who may have abdicated their role in the picture of that child's educational nurturing entirely to teachers and administrators, who, to be honest, may not really have their child's best interests in mind in the first place.
Long story short, parents need to get their heads in the game and develop a strategy that will fill in the gaps where the curriculum and resources of their child's school fall short. Maybe the kids should be ushered to the library from time to time during the summer months or enrolled in a book-reading club, for example. There are plenty of other ideas out there that can help cultivate an appreciation, if not love for, learning among our precious ones.
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