|
The current issue is always free
to all readers
If
you need the access available to a
and cannot afford the $50 subscription price, request a complimentary subscrpition here. |
|
|
The
current public school crisis in America demands that the African
Community in America aggressively play an assertive role in
the movement, to make changes in one of the most important
institutions in this country— the Public School System. However,
in participating in this movement, it is imperative that we
re-examine the definition of education and its relationship
to power and specifically, Black Power.
Education is the process of
instilling the values of a society, group, nation, race, or
ethnic group. It is the method by which people are taught the
relationship to their families, communities, nation, race,
and the world. Further, education defines the function of society
and strives to help one become an active participant in the
growth and development of a given society, nation, race, and
ethnic group. It is in this context that we understand that
education is an important process in helping a people acquire
power for the perpetuation of their interests.
In this case, the education
we should pursue is the kind of education that will enable
African people in America to organize to achieve Black Power.
It should be obvious by now
that most African children in America who attend the public
schools of America are not receiving an education. At best,
it can be called training. That is, learning the basic skills
of reading, writing, and arithmetic. In many instances, this
kind of training occurs on a very minimal basis with African
in America children.
It is important that we
consult one of our great educators, Carter G. Woodson, in
helping sum up this awesome problem of education that keeps
Africans in America in a constant state of mental captivity.
Brother Woodson stated in his great book, published in 1933, The
Miseducation of the Negro, that, “The same educational
process which inspires and stimulates the oppressor with
the thought that he is everything and has accomplished everything
worthwhile, depresses and crushes at the same time the spark
of genius in the Negro by making him feel that his race does
not amount to much and never will measure up to the standards
of others.” Woodson made it clear that Africans in America,
educated in this manner, is a hopeless liability to the race.
This is still at the heart of our educational problem today.
Therefore, our task becomes
one of the continued struggles to re-conceptualize the mission
of education for our people. This re-conceptualization must
be based on the premise that Woodson set forth when he said, “The
race will free itself from exploiters just as soon as it
decides to do so. No one else can accomplish this task for
the race. It must plan and do for itself.” We will never
acquire real power if this does not happen.
Essentially, our mission
should be that of establishing our own educational agenda
that is based on creating a new educational ethos. The present
ethos instills in African children in America the idea that
if you go to school and get an education you will get a job.
We should know by now that there is not necessarily a correlation
between going to school and getting a job. It definitely
has nothing to do with the upliftment of our race.
The task of re-conceptualizing
a new educational ethos is to understand that the mission
of our education should be to make a whole people again,
as the Reparations Movement is demanding. Making us whole
again is a process that defines education in the context
of our own political, economic, cultural, and spiritual needs.
This new educational ethos
must rest on the idea that the group interests of our race
are more important than those of any individual. Dr. Anderson
Thompson calls this the “African Principle.” In other words,
the only way we will become liberated and independent is
through group thinking and group action, not as individuals.
We must work to achieve the greatest good for the greatest
number.
Succinctly stated, our purpose
for becoming educated should be one of helping to build a
movement to liberate us from the oppression of white supremacy
and racism so that we can build a new social, political,
cultural, economic, and spiritual order for ourselves, as
we struggle to link up with African people around the world.
This kind of education must
facilitate the re-stimulation of the extended African in
American family foundation as we struggle to become an economically
self-sufficient people who produce, process, distribute,
wholesale and retail like everyone else in the world.
Finally, this new educational
ethos must instill in us the spirit of producing, the spirit
of building, and the spirit of controlling what we create.
Anything short of this will merely mimic the education of
our oppressors and we will continue to be their subjects,
to do and be whatever they choose.
BC columnist Conrad W. Worrill, PhD,
is the National Chairman of the National Black United Front
(NBUF). Click
here to contact Dr. Worrill.
|
|
Home |
|
|
|
Your comments are always welcome.
If you send us an e-Mail message
we may publish all or part of it, unless you tell us it
is not for publication. You may also request that we withhold
your name.
Thank you very much for your readership.
|
|
|