Over a year ago, I read the news that 23 public schools in Baltimore reported that not a single one of their students was proficient in math at their grade level. That was exactly 2,000 students who were not proficient. It gets worse. An additional 20 schools had only one or two students who were at grade level in math. And not one high school student in the whole city of Baltimore scored a 4, the highest possible score.Though this news may be old, the reality is not. If you think this is a problem that affects only certain kinds of Americans or certain neighborhoods, you’d be wrong. This is the future of America and Baltimore is just the worst-case scenario. Schools all over America are failing our kids and pumping functionally illiterate graduates into our cities.The reason why I’ve been thinking about this Baltimore situation of late is that it shows how dysfunctional our society has become. Most of the news articles that I read showed citizens blaming the city, the local and state governments, and the educators. They are right to do so. But shouldn’t they be blaming themselves instead?
I say this because all this blaming is getting us nowhere. The government officials and educators simply do not care. They see the problems right in front of them but rarely do a few take the necessary actions to right the ship. It is sometimes stunning to see how they have no shame when it comes to failing kids — too many of them hide behind the excuse of this-is-white-supremacy’s-fault.Then there are those who blame politicians. They say, if only you would stop voting Democrat! There are plenty of failing schools in GOP strongholds. My point here is that politicians are not the answer to this problem. They’re just politicians.
IF DEMOCRATS SAY THEY STAND WITH MY COMMUNITY, WHY ARE SO MANY STILL FAILING TO LEARN HOW TO READ?
But what I don’t see here is enough families taking responsibility for their kids. There are parents out there who are outraged and challenging the system. But it is not enough. Where are the boycotts? Where are the shutdowns? Where are the marches around the schools?Some parents tell me they are trying to work within the system. I’ve seen them try — God bless them — but they haven’t gotten anywhere. They then get tired out or their kid graduates and they give up and the problem still remains.Why did so many Americans march for George Floyd and demand that Black Lives Matter and not one of them cares about pumping graduates-in-name-only into an already struggling America where they will be struggling to make a living with two hands tied behind their backs? Why do we care about the theater of racism far more than we do about the transformative power of education?
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For the life of me, I cannot understand why education is not the number one focus today. Just weeks ago, the media was all abuzz about Vice President Kamala Harris stealing former President Donald Trump’s idea about not taxing the tips of the waitstaff. Our house is literally burning down and that’s what we’re talking about?All of these failures among our leaders should be clues to our parents that they are truly on their own. If they want their child to have a chance in life, they cannot trust them to these so-called authorities. They need to stop giving up their most precious commodities, their children, to the people who simply do not care.What happened in Baltimore proves the absolute failure of the education system that pays its employees hundreds of thousands of dollars. And what it also proves is that too many parents deferred the responsibility of raising their kids to the state.
I don’t care if they are working two or three jobs — take care of your kids. I don’t care what excuse there may be — take care of your kids.
Frederick Douglass and many other slaves learned out to read and do math under the oppression of slavery. There were no fancy schools or technology. Just pure will and the desire to learn and attain power through knowledge.
Parents need to parent and pass along the gift of learning to their kids. Otherwise, be a statistic.
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Pastor Corey Brooks, known as the “Rooftop Pastor,” is the founder and Senior Pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago and the CEO of Project H.O.O.D. (Helping Others Obtain Destiny), the church’s local mission. He gained national attention for his 94-day and 343-day rooftop vigils to transform the notorious “O-Block,” once known as Chicago’s most dangerous block, into #OpportunityBlock. Learn more at ProjectHOOD.org.
