I got a call the other day from a friend, in my home city of Philadelphia. He told me that at my high school, West Philadelphia public, there was a fire that was set by several students, and two teachers were attacked. He went on to say that the Philadelphia city police stomed the school and arrested 4 students that were linked and accused, of the beating of the teachers. He added that the news media set up mobile telecast in front of the school for live feeds. This disturbed me deeply and saddened me to a high level. Just to think, the school that graduated such people as Ray "Chink" Scott (NBA basketball), Evelyn "Champagne" King (Disco star) , Kenny Gamble (Grammey Award-Winner), Tyrell Biggs (Olympic Gold Medalist), and the 1977 National High USA Scholastic basketball team ,to name few. I began to remenisce about the "old days" when I attended West and a tear befell from my eye. Man, those were the days! During that period 30 years ago, We were Philly! We were on every news paper (front and back) and was touted as "Philly's Finest" of all the sports teams, even amongts the pro teams. I was blessed enough to be named the number one player in America (along with Al King from New York) and went on to matriculate and star at Duke University. It was the values, care, discipline and support I recieved from teachers, special assistants, school police and parents, that gave me the perseverance to endure and be a strong representative of my neighborhood and community. I went to Duke, carrying them with me and knew that I had to succeed because of their efforts (and love)
I visited my old high school West Philly a year ago and I was astound at the metal detectors, bars on the class rooms (every class room) and the attitudes of the students. Cussing seem to be the official language and there was never a lost for hearing the word bitch and nigga, from every angle of the hallways. "Who is raisng these kids?" I had to wonder. It seem that school was (to them) only a past time to "hook-up" and just pass the day from doing nothing else but connecting and playing around for many of the students. "Where is the school pride?" I again wondered. For I saw many of the students just walk down the hallway and drop litter and laugh about it without remorse or care. Even when a teacher spoke to them to pick up the litter, their response was "Pick it up yourself bitch!" . I remember when that happened when I was in school and a teacher said that, you immediately stopped and apologized that you did that, then picked it up, and was threatened that your mom (or dad) were going to be notified.
With the schools test and aptitude scores being the lowest in the city, I had to wonder, is the quality of education going down and the quality of teaching at a minimum? Teachers are so scared for their safety and more concern on that issue, than getting the best out of the students due to the lack of concern from the parents. Ahhh..that is the answer! The reason and the main source of this problem. "Who's to blame!" starts right at that point. Surly, the educational system and the board have responsibilities and fault. The many decisions that were made and the changing cirriculum mandated, have some cause for one to speculate. Ok...taking prayer out of school may not be as big a deal as we would like it to be....but it has merit. It wasn't even a mandatory or schedule criteria. Then, gym was removed from the curriculum (some) and now we question the obesity of our youth. But again, the parents have made no such revoluntion toward stopping this behavior or manner of their childs actions. How many parents attend PTA meetings? How many go to visit the teacher when a student get's a D or E in their performance? I can say that the answer would be at a very poor rate or number.
Was Dr. William Cosby right on some of his assurtions of parenthood today, in the black community? I believe so. Have the parents of this generation, fallen short of its responsibilities of raisng, nurturing and caring for it's offspring? I believe so. Have the students taken another attitude on the responsibilities of education? I believe so. With many of them bascially raising themselves and mimicing today's hip-hop, professional and entertainment artists, it's a wonder that we haven't renamed our cities Sodom and Gommorah. There is no direction, there is no love or conern for "thy neighbor" there is no goal setting agenda's cause there is no parental guidance.
A parent will not go to see a teacher (most of them) when there is a matter of the childs behavior or low grade performance, but they will take off work immediately, if the child comes home and says the teacher acted (in their words) improper or another kid made a threatening jesture or act without knowing the whole facts on the matter.
What can be done? Many of the parents had seveal of these children when they were children basically. The statement " the chicken's are coming home to roost" is prime now in the structure of today's way of life. The parents of today (inner-city) still want to "get their groove on" and still please themselves with enjoying todays luxuries and care of their joy....when in essence, their lives must be centered on the nurturing of their children, by any means neccessary.
There are still many parents tha thave dedicated themselves and acted accordingly to the responsibilites of raising their children, in the proper and valued way. Many still care and give all that they can, in seeing that their child has all the nurturing that is demanded, for their child to succeed. Then there are those that don't have a clue and don't even realize the damage that they have created and done in not being responsibile and dedicated parents. Ok...go and get $150 dollar Air Jordan's before you think about getting a $15 dollar tutoral booklet. Ok...get your child the Timbers and stomach out blouses that the kids wear, to show that your child is cool. Ok...spend your hard earn minimum wage dollars to get your child a tatoo and a cell phone before getting them, a nice dress shirt, pants and note books. Let them call you out your name and raise their voice each and every time you speak to them about doing something and let's just see where we will be with that behavior. We already know...fires being set at schools, litter being thrown with out remorse or care, teachers being threatened and abused...and soon...we can make it offical...the names of Sodom and Gommorah will be resurrected. And we all know what happened to those places...when God finally got truly ...fed up.
These are tomorrow's leaders, creators and movers-and-shakers. They are the future key holders of our community and society. These kids are suppose to be the foundation of our legacy. They are suppose to carry the torch that was past on to many of us, from those that gave of themselves (and their life) for us to have the rights that we now have. If you were to give the torch to many of these kidfs now, they will either roll it up in a blunt, smoke it and enjoy the essence of the burning smell and aroma of the sweat, blood and tears that gave us these privileges. Many would wear these rights as a aparel item in the form of a G-string outfit or place the theme on their hats. But even in all that, I still believe and I still have faith, that there are still may out there that still have the inner-fortitude to rise above the challenges of peer pressure and being cool, to suit their peers. And for that, I will continue to "reach back" and support and keep the faith of that of a "mustard seed" in seeing a better tomorrow for our youth in education.
I visited my old high school West Philly a year ago and I was astound at the metal detectors, bars on the class rooms (every class room) and the attitudes of the students. Cussing seem to be the official language and there was never a lost for hearing the word bitch and nigga, from every angle of the hallways. "Who is raisng these kids?" I had to wonder. It seem that school was (to them) only a past time to "hook-up" and just pass the day from doing nothing else but connecting and playing around for many of the students. "Where is the school pride?" I again wondered. For I saw many of the students just walk down the hallway and drop litter and laugh about it without remorse or care. Even when a teacher spoke to them to pick up the litter, their response was "Pick it up yourself bitch!" . I remember when that happened when I was in school and a teacher said that, you immediately stopped and apologized that you did that, then picked it up, and was threatened that your mom (or dad) were going to be notified.
With the schools test and aptitude scores being the lowest in the city, I had to wonder, is the quality of education going down and the quality of teaching at a minimum? Teachers are so scared for their safety and more concern on that issue, than getting the best out of the students due to the lack of concern from the parents. Ahhh..that is the answer! The reason and the main source of this problem. "Who's to blame!" starts right at that point. Surly, the educational system and the board have responsibilities and fault. The many decisions that were made and the changing cirriculum mandated, have some cause for one to speculate. Ok...taking prayer out of school may not be as big a deal as we would like it to be....but it has merit. It wasn't even a mandatory or schedule criteria. Then, gym was removed from the curriculum (some) and now we question the obesity of our youth. But again, the parents have made no such revoluntion toward stopping this behavior or manner of their childs actions. How many parents attend PTA meetings? How many go to visit the teacher when a student get's a D or E in their performance? I can say that the answer would be at a very poor rate or number.
Was Dr. William Cosby right on some of his assurtions of parenthood today, in the black community? I believe so. Have the parents of this generation, fallen short of its responsibilities of raisng, nurturing and caring for it's offspring? I believe so. Have the students taken another attitude on the responsibilities of education? I believe so. With many of them bascially raising themselves and mimicing today's hip-hop, professional and entertainment artists, it's a wonder that we haven't renamed our cities Sodom and Gommorah. There is no direction, there is no love or conern for "thy neighbor" there is no goal setting agenda's cause there is no parental guidance.
A parent will not go to see a teacher (most of them) when there is a matter of the childs behavior or low grade performance, but they will take off work immediately, if the child comes home and says the teacher acted (in their words) improper or another kid made a threatening jesture or act without knowing the whole facts on the matter.
What can be done? Many of the parents had seveal of these children when they were children basically. The statement " the chicken's are coming home to roost" is prime now in the structure of today's way of life. The parents of today (inner-city) still want to "get their groove on" and still please themselves with enjoying todays luxuries and care of their joy....when in essence, their lives must be centered on the nurturing of their children, by any means neccessary.
There are still many parents tha thave dedicated themselves and acted accordingly to the responsibilites of raising their children, in the proper and valued way. Many still care and give all that they can, in seeing that their child has all the nurturing that is demanded, for their child to succeed. Then there are those that don't have a clue and don't even realize the damage that they have created and done in not being responsibile and dedicated parents. Ok...go and get $150 dollar Air Jordan's before you think about getting a $15 dollar tutoral booklet. Ok...get your child the Timbers and stomach out blouses that the kids wear, to show that your child is cool. Ok...spend your hard earn minimum wage dollars to get your child a tatoo and a cell phone before getting them, a nice dress shirt, pants and note books. Let them call you out your name and raise their voice each and every time you speak to them about doing something and let's just see where we will be with that behavior. We already know...fires being set at schools, litter being thrown with out remorse or care, teachers being threatened and abused...and soon...we can make it offical...the names of Sodom and Gommorah will be resurrected. And we all know what happened to those places...when God finally got truly ...fed up.
These are tomorrow's leaders, creators and movers-and-shakers. They are the future key holders of our community and society. These kids are suppose to be the foundation of our legacy. They are suppose to carry the torch that was past on to many of us, from those that gave of themselves (and their life) for us to have the rights that we now have. If you were to give the torch to many of these kidfs now, they will either roll it up in a blunt, smoke it and enjoy the essence of the burning smell and aroma of the sweat, blood and tears that gave us these privileges. Many would wear these rights as a aparel item in the form of a G-string outfit or place the theme on their hats. But even in all that, I still believe and I still have faith, that there are still may out there that still have the inner-fortitude to rise above the challenges of peer pressure and being cool, to suit their peers. And for that, I will continue to "reach back" and support and keep the faith of that of a "mustard seed" in seeing a better tomorrow for our youth in education.
1 comment:
... and as usual - here are my two cents worth of what I think:
I think by now we can all agree that to a great percentage our Government is at fault ALONG with people (don't want to necessarily call them parents) that just keep having babies and dumping their responsibilities in someone else's lap.
Let me explain my view:
Government's fault for the simple reason that it has taken the power away from us parents to be able to discipline our children. No - to no degree am I talking about abusing them. But I have to admit that those few times it was probably a good thing to get my butt whooped and my attitude put back in check - my mother had a way to make her point perfectly clear without having to be afraid of me calling her names or even worse - creeping in her bedroom at night pointing the 9MM at her. Now we are taught that 'violence' (whooping your kids hiney) only means that hitting others is OK to get your point across. SAY WHAT? I've NEVER laid hand on anyone else for no apparent reason and thought it would be OK. Bologne!! It was perfectly legal to keep me from eating dinner until my chores were done. Do that with your kids now and Child Protective Services is at your door charging you with neglect. Did I turn out all right even though my butt stung at times and my ear turned a different color then the rest of my face? I am not malnourished due to going to bed hungry a few times because I decided to be stubborn and not do my chores, nor did I turn out bulimic because of that.
I suppose I did turn out somewhat OK, I'm still sitting here writing to you, I know how to respect ALL living creature, haven't spend a night in jail (and don't plan to either), are not addicted to anything else but Chocolate, and still have a healthy respect for law enforcement. Does that make me not cool, a wuss or a coward? Certainly the farthest from the truth.
Brings me to the second issue:
Parents responsibilities. Don't think that just because your son/daughter is in school or daycare it is the teachers responsibility to raise your child. A teacher is there to do one thing - TEACH. Without fear. Arithmatic, Geometry, Calculus, History - you know what I mean. It is YOUR responsibility to teach your child everything else that has nothing to do with Grammar, English, PE, Foreign Languages and so forth.
YOU as a parent are your childs first and most important teacher! Your responsibility is to teach your child the lessons of life. Respect, Honor, Integrity, Compassion, Love, Companionship, Honesty, Faith, so many to name. Be a role model! If you are a Christian, start living as one and make sure that you teach your children what it really means to follow Christ! They learn from modeled behavior, so if they see you doing the right thing instead of following what society thinks is right (or cool), they will soon follow in those particular footsteps.
Do we really have to buy our kids those video games that are only about violence? Is it important for their future to know how they can kill the enemy before they get shot, or if they will be able to car-jack a Ferrari within 20 seconds and hey - if they run over the driver, oh well.. at least their score is highest? Is it OK for a 10-year old to watch one wild-looking-muscle-packed-sreaming weirdo to body-slam another, just so he can practice that at home with his friends just to 'accidentally' injure them? Come on people - is that really what we want our kids to be about?
We all know that life in todays society has changed. It is different than what it had been in the days when we went to school, but the principles are still the same. Treat others the way you want to be treated.
The teacher that is brutally beaten up because he gave you a bad grade (which you more than likely deserved) could be your mother or your father. The school property that was set on fire could have been your living room, the woman you called bitch on the street could have been your sister, the 101-year old that was mugged over 30 Dollars could have been your Grandmother.
Isn't that something that we should teach our kids? Why don't you try to put yourself in the other shoe for example? What if, what you are doing to your teacher or your school hits home? How would you feel?
Are our kids so much in need for love and acceptance by society because we don't take the time out of our busy schedules anymore to let them know that WE love and accept them for who they are?
Do we really have to work two jobs to make ends meet, or is it just about to keep up with the Jones'? Wouldn't it be more satisfactory to see your child graduate as an honor student from his class and become a role model for other students, for younger siblings?
It starts at home...providing a HOME and not just a house - one thing that makes you a parent and eventually brings our future leaders back on the right path!
P.S. Another thing that I am teaching my kids: the sentence "I don't care" is banned in my house. START CARING!!!
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