Schooling, Part II

An unusually interesting presentation was given at our middle school during a teacher inservice day last week. There are about four such days scheduled during the school year -- when students have the entire day off while educational staff come into to work on issues in the field. I say that the presentation was unusual because it was successful at engaging everyone while staying relevant. This is rare. Mostly, topics address mundane issues such as data, that have been addressed many times prior. The result being that experienced staff act disinterested and new teachers become glazed.

The presentation given by the Foundation for Educational Administration (FEA) was entitled "Brainworks." It focused upon the class status of people, and the typical attitudes and norms that inhibit, or aid their transition from one socio-economic position to the other. The focus here was decidedly on the conflicting norms and expectations faced by teachers with largely middle class values and their -- often poverty class -- student body. Now this is an interesting dynamic to start with because despite how apparent this convergence is, most public schooling attempts to avoid such an examination in a (futile) effort to appear egalitarian. It's not that the topic has escaped examination, however. It has been broadly tackled by social scientists and school consultants as diverse as Jonathan Kozol (Savage Inequalities) and Jawanzaa Kunjufu (Motivating and Preparing Black Youth) to name just two. However, their work tends to have more currency in academic halls, on lecture circuits, and during keynote addresses. Once the schoolhouse opens in September, teachers and administrators do all they can to avoid discussions of racial, ethnic or economic realities that almost always impact the results of student achievement by June.

That is why our rare bout of professional introspection last week was a refreshing change. In my role as administrator, I hear too often from disaffected students, and their parents too, how "'ya'll aint't teaching nuthin' or ya'll ain't doing nuthin'." This is mostly a reference to consistent failures among a certain segment of the student body to graduate high school on time, or to pass a standardized test. Sometime they refer to the indifference this same subgroup has for complying school rules -- be they discipline or persevering through support (basic skills) programs intended to help them. My experience has been that despite the best rhetoric on instructional diversity, academic inclusion and student-centered teaching, rank and file educators are thoroughly moded in an arcane approach to instruction that has the student conveniently anchored at their desk, pencil in hand, and cooperating with the teacher's every directive.

Few teachers, and to be fair, their administrators, insist on applying the best practices for today's learners -- especially those from diverse backgrounds, or diagnosed with certain modern afflictions. For examples, I refer to certain tendencies among (some) students in the following subgroups. There is an increasing number of children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, or even Hyper ADD. Yet, despite being afforded a classroom with a second teacher -- ostensibly to help them focus -- class instruction stays as routine as if they were all a group of teenage science cadets. [And Referrals for discipline of classified students are rarely more tolerant that for regular education students]. What of poor students? Often indigent students must maintain a double-consciousness if they are to persevere through school. They have to balance middle class expectations for performance and decorum with a casual disregard, or even intolerance for these values, at home in the 'hood, the barrio, or some inhospitable rural setting. When you combine this psychic duality, and the pressing need to compete for social recognition among their more privileged peers, indigent children trod uneven corridors.

How do African-American and Hispanic children fair? Whether educators want to admit it -- or are even conscious of it -- they too often enter the urban schoolhouse with preconceived notions about the real possibilities these children might have. Sometimes, even teachers with the best intentions attribute the much promulgated underachievement of Black and Latino students on standardized tests directly to their cultural habits, and not to the inequities of the system: archaic testing modalities, under-resourced schools, or inept leadership at many levels. I have observed that too often "loud" Black girls and street-fashionable Latino boys are immediately heaped into a corner of low expectations and administrative referrals. Young Black men, who would not harm a hamster, are immediately perceived as menacing for their attitude, or for loosing their temper with a teacher even once. Now consider the delima faced by an indigent special needs ethnic student. One who enters a school where he is in the minority, and faced with all the expectations of a 20Th-century learning paradigm and little if any family advocacy.

To be fair, teachers often have the best intentions, and most do a laudable job with multiple classes of two dozen pupils or more; each with their own personality to unpuzzle. Indeed educators have the task of dispensing a homogenized state-driven curriculum intended for consumption by a locally grown heterogeneous student population. The task is daunting if taken seriously. And it must be. All the more reason why we need to take the gloves of the discussion -- just the way we did last week.

My Ramadan 2008

Ramadan Mubarak! (Blessed Ramadan)

Today is my 2nd full day of fasting in observance of the Muslim tradition. Observance of Ramadan [when Muslims are obligated to forego food and water for a full month (30 days) during the day light hours] is the one aspect of Islam's five tenants I maintain dutifully. I am drawn by the self discipline it requires, as well as the idea of being in communion with deprived people around the world.

In about an hour I will break my fast with a formal prayer; and eat some dates, yogurt and a heaping glass of water.

Today I want to share one of my most favored iyats (verses) from the Quran. It is from Surah (chapter) 14(v4), Ibrahim:

"We sent not a messenger except (to teach) in a language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. So Allah leads astray those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases and He is Exalted in power, Full of Wisdom."

(Transliteration from Yusuf Ali)

The Quran is full of wisdom, indeed. In coming editions, I hope to elaborate further on Quranic wisdom -- religious politics aside.

Inshallah!
(If God wills it)


September 11, 2008 - 11th day of Ramadan - Alhamdulailah!

Ramadan is going well. Praise be to Allah (God) for the blessing of clarity, inner peace and guidance that comes with the tradition of fasting. I am contemplating how I will make further relations with Muslims during this time, and how I will make a monetary contribution at the culmination of Ramadan later this month. I want to raise money for PlumpyNut -- a nutritious food -- that benefits third world children... More research will be done during this month. Haiti was recently devastated by a hurricane. I will make a contribution to a relief organization. And finally, I plan to attend the 2nd annual MANA convention in Phialdelphia next month.

Today I want to share one of my most favored iyats (verses) from the Quran. It is from Surah (chapter) 10 v108, Jonah:

"Say, O ye men! Now that truth has reached your from your Lord! Those, who receive guidance, do so for the good of their own souls; those who stray, do so to their own loss; and I am not (set)over you to arrange your affairs."

(Transliteration from Yusuf Ali)

I favor this iyat (verse) because it reinforces, for me, the principle that their should be no coercison in Islam...That man has free will is Allah's blessing; and that we should not depend [superstitiously] upon Allah (God) to intervene on the routine affairs of men, as he has already provided proper guidance [in Al Quran].

September 25, 2008

Ramamdan Mubarak! (Blessed Ramadan)

I'm in the last full week of Ramadan, Al Hamdulailah! [Praise be to Allah]. For me the first two weeks are always the toughest. Now I am coasting a little on the stregnth of my resolve, and my body's adaption to the routine I have fallen into. A brother who works where I do came up to me this morning to ask if I was Muslim. I confirmed it. He said he had heard this but was not sure. He said if he had known he would greeted me with salaams. [That was a manly and beneficent gesture on his part.] I agreed to do so in kind.

I decided to give to hurricane relief in Haiti after Ramadan as my charity. For me, Haiti holds a facinating place in the history of the New World. I want to write about it here some day soon. Tuesday, I purchased several jars of honey from an Islamic website I like, Soundvision. I plan to lable them with some favorite verses from the Quran, and use them for dawa (subtle exchange of islamic faith). As for Eidul Fitr (Islamic holiday commemorating the end of Ramadan), I am not sure what I will do to celebrate. Typically, I say home, perferring to forego the crowds and immersing myself in unfamiliar company... It is my nature too. [I do the same for New Years and most other holidays.] We will see.

Today I want to share one of my most favored iyats (verses) from the Quran. It is from Surah 4, An-Nisaa (The Women)
Verse 36.

"Serve Allah, and join not any partners with Him; and do good – to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbors who are of kin, neighbors who are strangers, the companion by your side, the way-farer (ye meet), and what your right hand possess; for Allah loveth not the arrogant, the vainglorious."

(Transliteration from Yusuf Ali)

I favor this iyat because it crystalizes the moral imperative for Muslims. [It is one of the most often repeated exhortations in the Quran.] This verse explains what the obligation of Muslims are in the context of citizenship -- wherever they are in the world. It also establishes common ground for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Assalaamu Alaikum!

Election 2008

Barak Obama for president! The Dems had a really good convention -- even the weather cooperated. Obama's speech was excellent, as was the entire production. John McCain made a chess move -- picking Sarah Palin as his running mate. If he wins, his campaign was brilliant. If he looses, he will be the GOP goat for years to come. [And that strategy will not be used again by either party].

I think this whole election season has been good for the American electorate. I predict that this will be the largest voter turn out in many years.

Coming Soon...

Obama Watch. Barak Obama receieved the democratic nomination for president, making political history.



Ramadan Mubarak! As a practicing Muslim, I am obliged to observed the holy month of fasting which begins September first this year. I will chronicle my experiences here, on my blog, Inshallah (If God wills).

Book Review: 'A People's History'

I recently completed a fascinating read. Howard Zinn is the author of A People's History of the United States (1492 - Present). I count it among the most important books I have read. And I claim that it is essential reading for the re-education of the American public -- whom mostly posess only a cursory knowledge of history. Zinn is a known personality in the world of academia, he has been "a historian, playwright and social activist" for many years. In this edition (2003) of 'A People's History' he retells major events in the maturation of this country from [the invasion of] Christopher Columbus to the Bush "war on terror." He reveals obsure events like precolonial rebellions by Davis Bacon, counter expansionist battles by Native Americans, the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, the vacillations of President Lincoln on the issue of slavery, and the many campaigns (wars) for American industrial markets -- many executed without the consent of the public (i.e, un-Constitutionally).

I recommended 'A People's History' for all who claim to value American citizenship. Whether you are on the right or the left -- or like most of us, somewhere in between -- your perspective on the history of United State's will be reshaped.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey

I have been eager to write a comment about the early 20th century Negro (Black) leader Marcus Garvey for a long time. I always defer, however, because I am never confident that I can do a just commentary on his contribution to the maturation of Black people for [these] modern times. I recently read a selection from a book I keep near my bedside -- "Selected Speeches and Writings of Marcus Garvey." His speech on unemployment from that book is what motivated this installment.

Garvey was certainly a man of his times. He was a "race man." His speeches are colored with the racial vanacular of that period -- when 'Jim Crow' was dominant throughout all of America. As a result those who are unfamiliar with his many comments on race and economy may well be put off at first. However, one must note that Garvey was reacting to the prevalent racial attitudes of his time, not fomenting them. Indeed, Garvey was controversial among Black people and among Whites. He chastised the leaders of Black people for not responding more effectively to the many afflictions facing the masses of African-Americans, such as mob violence and poverty. His platform -- like that of his idiological mentor, Booker T. Washington -- was primarily economical when the established leadership among Blacks were concerned with social equality and academic achievement.

A very good example of this was his speech on unemplyment given in New York City on February 11, 1921. Garvey gives a brilliant analysis of the tendencies of [White] employers and [Black] employees that could very well be given today, and with almost as much accuracy as it had then. I have often mused that a thorough education for black people -- indeed all people in a capitalist economy -- must include a lesson on fundemental economics, at least.

In some measure, Garvey was a forerunner to, among others, Elijah Muhammed, Tony Brown, Malcolm X, and Earl Graves. His stance on race relations, economic mobility and cultural pride have been vindicated by the publications, exhortations and commentaries of such diverse contemporaries as the National Urban League, Tavis Smiley, Ebony magazine, Louis Farrakahn and many more.

HBO's 'Black List'

The documentary 'Black List' on the thoughts of Black people in today's society currently appearing on HBO is excellent. The film -- essentially a series of plain interviews with accomplished African-Americans -- is marvelously poignant, yet effective in its simplicity. 'Black List' hits the mark that CNN missed by a mile.

Watch it for yourself. Find a way to download it. Show it during Black History month, Kwanzaa or the "King Holiday." This is one holds enduring value.