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
,
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 actionC 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 Emeritus of the National Black
United Front (NBUF). Click here to contact Dr. Worrill.
