“In this world, which is so plainly the antechamber of another, there are no happy men. The true division of humanity is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness. Our aim must be to diminish the number of the latter and increase the number of the former. That is why we demand education and knowledge.” -Les Miserables, pt. 4, bk. 7, ch. 1 (1862).
We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of the self. If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and in the world, then you will have little chance to know anything else. -Huey P. Newton
Over the past 25 years (since the crack cocaine era ravished and destroyed inner-cities across America, and profoundly affected the lives of school-age youth, parents, resources, and eventually saw the emergence of a new grandparents-raising-grandchildren dynamic pervasive in crime-ridden and crack-filled communities), American education has changed significantly. And within the vastness of American education inner-city youth have continued to struggle for their fair and equal chance to be educated and properly prepared for the rigors of college and life beyond. As one who’s spent a considerable amount of time and commitment studying education, as well as teaching in the urban school system, I can reasonably assert that the success of future educators – particular in the inner-city – will require that they forge new bonds with parents; create and sustain relationships within the community, get back to grassroots traditions in leadership and service in education.
I believe it was during my junior year as an undergraduate that I started to think seriously about a career in education. Still somewhat unsure about what type of career in education I’d pursue, I decided to motivate my interests by taking a TE 250 class where I was required to take part in a service-learning program. In my service learning experience I was frustrated at the lack of support, care, concern, and organization present at the school where I had been assigned to counsel and tutor high school students from low-economic backgrounds. During my service-learning duties, I’d watched helplessly as failed leadership, bureaucracy, flippancy, and non-professionalism interfered with teaching and learning. In my assessment, the children at this particular school were being denied a decent, proper, and useful education because the faculty and administration had low expectations of the students. From that experience, I realized that my mission in life would be one as an educator and activist.
The collateral damages of the crack-cocaine era left inner-city communities with disenchanted and complacent teachers transplanted in an ineffective school system shot through with complicity, and duplicity, with corrupt and rapacious managers. The crack cocaine era (roughly identified as the period between 1980 and 1990) had annihilated black lives, homes, businesses, and spirits. Even more important, the crack cocaine epidemic destroyed families which, in turn, destroyed educational prospects for the children that resided with drug-abusing parents. Mothers and fathers ran from parental responsibilities while affected children were left to fiend for themselves, often times the sole caregivers for younger siblings. As a result, the psychological and social effects of the crack cocaine dilemma caused many children to miss classes and/or drop out of school. Since the crack-cocaine era, the inner-city education system has been in a state of spiritual crisis that necessarily places a stricter demand on future teachers, if we are to see any real improvements in our on-going quest to educate inner-city youth.
First, we need to teach our future educators how to be leaders. The new wave of educators must understand that they possess the bold and courageous leadership qualities needed in inner-city education today. Immediately, we must set about the rigorous task of self-education on the issues of education, particularly, the dilemmas of educating inner-city children. For this, I recommend J. MacLeod’s seminal book, Ain’t No Makin’ It: Aspirations & Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood.[1]
MacLeod believes that there are complex reasons about why it is difficult for people of a particular socio-economic existence to even fathom the achievement ideology.[2] On the other hand, future teachers must also understand the existential levels of the social reproduction theory–racial, social, economic, and political. Future educators must be willing to consider race, as pertains to class inequality, as one of the main obstacles that beset the underclass, underprivileged, disadvantaged, dispossessed, and marginalized peoples (particularly the Black and Hispanic community).
So, the real aim and goal of future educators should be concerned with leadership, community, and tradition. Educating children from low-economic backgrounds will be challenging but also rewarding. In this sense, future educators will need to take whatever steps and precautions necessary to make sure that our under-represented children are accounted for in all educational reform measures. Future educators must actively condemn academic mendacity, as well as expose those who blatantly discourage equal access to education.
[1] J. MacLeod’s study of the social reproduction theory “identifies the barriers to social mobility, barriers that constrain without completely blocking lower – and working – class individual efforts to break into the upper reaches of the class structure” (MacLeod, 8). In chapter 1 J. Macleod posits a plausible thesis that regardless of the “rags to riches” story of folk like Andrew Carnegie, there are complex reasons as to why it is difficult for people of a particular socio-economic existence to even fathom the achievement ideology. To do this, he juxtaposes the life and times of two groups of young teenaged high school students, the Hallway Hangers, and the Brothers in order to create a case scenario of how the achievement ideology works for one group of teenagers, while failing another.
[2] It seemed as though MacLeod had not lingered deeply enough the existential levels of the social reproduction theory–racial, social, economic, and political. While I appreciated MacLeod’s work, however, no where in MacLeod’s research had he confronted, or even considered, issues of race, as pertains to class inequality, as one of the main obstacles that beset the underclass, underprivileged, disadvantaged, dispossessed, and marginalized peoples (particularly the black and Hispanic community, since Anyon’s “Inner Cities, Affluent Suburbs, And Unequal Educational Opportunity” reports that the highest percentage of poverty resides in these communities). MacLeod’s analysis, though insightful, had not fully convinced me that he understood the racial complexities of the social reproduction theory, since this he could have done by studying more closely the perspectives, frameworks, research, and theories of the people whom he’d professed to know: Minorities!
what about the kennedys 
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