We
must stop the �Miseducation� of our youth. We must help
our youth to redefine the reality of the institutions that
affect us. The political behavior of a certain sector of
Africans in America
leadership in the educational arena should cause us to ask
the question, �What is the real meaning of education?�
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.
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 is occurring on a very minimal basis
with African children in America.
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
Mis-Education of the Negro, �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.
BlackCommentator.com
Columnist, Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman
of the National Black United Front (NBUF). Click here
to contact Dr. Worrill.
|
Aug
26, 2010 - Issue 390
is
published every Thursday
