There is a problem, I have noticed, with education in the "hood". I know you probably read that sentence thinking, “Well, DUH! Tell me something I don’t know.” Well, I think, that for many, there are a few things that I will write, that you did not know. The main reason I am writing this is because I believe that the main hindrance for the lack of education in schools is the lack of funds going to schools. I have noticed that a lot of people have this belief that “We all received the same type of schooling, education, resources etc… it’s what we did with it that makes us so different.” Sadly, that is definitely NOT the case. The poorer schools (since taxes from the area dictate the funding) receive the more cost efficient education; cheaper teachers and staff, older books, less college prep, and a strong emphasis on vocational education.
Now, I don’t think that the vocational education is bad because those schools provide the skills needed for children who either do not perform as well in school or who are likely to go straight to work after high school (some even need those resources while in high school). When I think of vocational schools, I not only think of the other side of necessary education, but I also think about the industries in different areas. Vocational schools provide for the training needed to work in the majority of those industries. In fact, I have noticed that high schools in general provide for the careers that are populous in those areas. The sad thing about that is that we never really learn to dream BIGGER, that is unless you are fortunate enough to have other family of friends who know about something else.
If we are telling these kids that they MUST go to school & that an education is NECESSARY then we need to give these kids a reason to feel like the schools are worth their time. We need to make sure that the education that we are providing for them is going to give them the right opportunities. The programs in the schools need to be working towards their benefit as well. They should not feel like the system doesn't work to help them be better. They should not be able to see kids who are in the same city, but yet are receiving better and more relevant resources. How is that a motivator when they know that there is really nothing they can do to receive those benefits? To them the only thing that is making the big difference is money (and they would be right). When the only reason they aren't getting taught the same, or learning about different programs out there for them is because the people WITH money are withholding these resources & using their money only to benefit themselves... Why would they believe otherwise. When the people who came from the same schools as they did and grew up in the same areas as they did... Are still in their area, doing the same things & still struggling. How are they to believe that money isn't the only thing holding them back. You wonder why they sell drugs with the belief that it's going to get them ahead in life. You wonder why they define success as having money & being able to spend it without struggling or impatiently waiting for their next pay check??
Little do they realize that the main difference between them and the "rich kids" is the distribution of information. Although money is the reason the information is not being distributed evenly among them and their peers, it is the information that gets them the money in the first place. It is the information that determines how you view life. It is the information that determines how life and society views you. And that lack of information, that lack of knowledge or what we all know as ignorance is what has caused the most harm to many of the people. It is ignorance that has kept so many of my fellow African Americans in an internalized state of slavery. They don't know how to get the knowledge because the people with it still refuse to give them a chance. They hold that patriarchal view that if we give it to them, they still wouldn't know what to do with it. And it is THAT kind of thinking that is the MOST ignorant.
How often has a Black man/ or woman with a college degree proved detrimental to society? Now how often has a Black Man or Woman without a college degree, or worse, without a high school diploma, proven harmful, to others as well as themselves?? But yet if you give us the opportunity, the knowledge, the power, to be something else, we wouldn't know what to do with it?! If you ask me that sounds more like fear. Fear that there will just be more competition, for jobs. I don't know WHY people have gotten in the mindset that making someone else better, makes YOU bad, or worse. But that idea has radiated itself in so many forms throughout our society from the ideas of beauty (if this fuller figured girl is pretty, then because I am small, I am ugly?), to the classism (if the poor are given the opportunity, then I/the wealthy will be less powerful). People can't think in terms of the fact that when a bigger variety is "allowed" in... It creates more OPPORTUNITY, not more COMPETITION. UGH!
No comments:
Post a Comment