b'EDUCATIONAncient Secrets for SuccessBy Carolyn R. Jones, Ph.D. andevenourownfamiliesandchurches.WhileIincluding politics were and still are perpetually sup-recognize the significance of all these challenges weported by whites (rich, middle class and the poor) F orthepastare facing, education is my major concern. Schools,whointurngainsomebenefitsfromthesystem, fortyyearsIwhether they are private, public or charter are placesthough most will not admit it. have been involvedof indoctrination, and are not designed as meritoc- Is there any way African Americans can change ineducation,asracies, even though that is the claim we often hear.this system and make it more equitable? We have amiddleschoolSchools were and still are used as sorting machines,triedincreasingthenumberofBlackandBrown socialstudiessortingthevariousgroupsintocategories:thefitteachers and administrators hired into positions of teacher,middleversestheunfit,thoseconsideredsuperiorfrompower, but too often, if they are to survive in these andhighschoolthose considered as inferior; by class and the finan- positions,theytoobecome watch online: bocnews.com counselor,multi- cialandsocialstatusofonesproductsofschoolculture,a culturaldirectorfamily,byrace,gender,andculturethatdemandsassimi-for Aurora Public Schools and Cherry Creek Schoolothersincludingstandardizedlation,evenasmosttryto District,adjunctprofessoratDenverUniversitytests that supposedly are unbi- resist.Otherthingswehave SchoolofEducation,principalofChallenges,asedandmeasureindividualstriedareculturalawareness Choices and Images Charter School, and as a mar- ability or intelligence.programs,AfricanAmerican riage and family psychotherapist in private practice.AlongwithbeingsortingandLatinostudies,multicul-Throughout this lengthy career I have observed andmachines, schools are politicalturalprogramsthatfocuson participatedpatientlyattimesandaggressivelyatinstitutionsdesignedtomain- culturally responsive pedagogy, othersthesocietalandcommunitypushformoretain the status quothe powerand workshops on racism and equitable educational opportunities for marginalizedofthewhiteeliteandstatuscultural bias.groups of children. While this push at times seemedandwealthofpoliticianswho to be genuine, the results have remained the same.do the work for the white elite.Tofightthesystem,African This is especially true for African American childrenThe main purpose of both is toAmericanshavevehemently whoconsistentlyreceivemoredisciplinaryactionsestablish institutions that cre- showntheirdissatisfaction and less academic support.ategreaterwealthandpowerthroughdemonstrations,and In1990,Ialongwithanumberofeducators,forboththewhiteeliteandfiling court cases in local, state parentsandcommunitymembersestablishedthepoliticians,keepingtheandfederalcourtsincluding Challenges, Choices and Images (CCI) a civic orga- massesintheirplace.InThetheU.S.SupremeCourt,as nizationthatfocusedondevelopingprogramstoWays Schools Work, (1995) thewith the Brown v. Board which supportAfricanAmericanandothermarginalizedauthors Bennet and deMarraiseventodayisnotfullyimple-groups of children and their families. The first CCIpointoutthat,schoolsareCarolyn R. Jones mented.Wehavetriedtak-sponsoredprojectwastheCCISaturdaySchoolorganizedtofacilitateresis- ing combative and conciliatory which ran for five consecutive years with volunteertance to changes not congenialapproaches, being passive and teachers and other support staff, serving over 100to dominant groups in the system or societyand areparticipating in advisory groups, and coming up with children per year along with dozens of parents. Thedesigned to have great impact on the thinking andsolutions that often are never put into full practice. program was so successful parents asked that webehavior of children, holding them captive throughWehavetriedboycotts,workshops,threatsand open a full-time school. The independent school rancompulsory education laws that make it mandatoryassimilation, but still the white supremacy system from 1997-1999 when the organization applied forto attend school from ages 5 to 18. In those yearsof greed and selfishness prevails. We have fought to and received a Denver Public School Charter. Thechildren cannot escape indoctrination. At the samebe educated in this country for over 400 years. Our CCI school ran successfully from 1999-2008 receiv- time, as schools became mandatory, European sci- enslaved ancestors taught themselves the language ingthe2004GovernorsAwardandtheColoradoentists, in the eighteen-hundreds, were busy usingspoken by the oppressors; they snuck books from Department of Education Award for Most Improvedfaulty science to prove the inferiority of black peoplethe big house, where they secretly put letters togeth-School in the State.and the superiority of white people. These theorieser to form words. During and after Reconstruction alignedperfectlywithmandatorypubliceducationourancestorscametogether,sometimeswiththe OverthelasttenyearsIhavesatontheside- policies which no cultural group of children whitehelpofabolitionistsandreligiousgroupssuchas lines watching, as more and more schools foundedor black, could escape. Thus, all children learned tothe Holiness, a rebel group of the Methodist Church byAfricanAmericansandLatinosaretoooftenbehave in accordance with their color designation.andQuakersputtingtogethercrudestructuresto closed by trumped-up fraudulent charges made byWhitepseudo-scientifictheoriesdesignedtoproveserve as school facilities, where volunteer teachers, unscrupulous, diabolical, and greedy financial firms,white superiority and black inferiority married man- white and black often worked with little or no pay, politicians, and educational institutions seeking todatorypublic-schoolattendance.Thisbecameanand members of the community providing wood for fulfiltheirownselfishagendasandgoals.Duringextremely effective tool used to perpetuate, for hun- heating. Our ancestors fought to be included in pub-these ten years the school systems, public and char- dreds of years, a system of discrimination, oppres- lic school funding available to white students, but ter,continuedeliveringdevastatingoutcomesforsion, denial of equal opportunity, and the blamingnot having any success, in order to keep the school marginalized groups of children, especially Africanof the child deemed as inferior for their own lack ofopen, they had to rely on limited funding, unequal American.This,continues,despitetheeffortsofacademic achievement, rather than on the system. educational facilities, inferior materials, and less pay concerned groups of parents, educators, civic orga- for their teachers.nizations and just plain ordinary citizens diligentlyItisclearthatthegreedandselfishnessoftheSoherewearein2019,onehundredfifty-four working to improve educational outcomes for mar- whiteeliteandpoliticianswerethedrivingforcesyearsfromemancipation,andfour-hundredyears ginalized groups of children.intheestablishmentofmandatorypublic-schools.plus from the time we entered this country, stolen Also, over the last ten years, I have had time toWhite skin, in the eighteen-hundreds, was an effec- from our homes and the country we knew and loved reflectonwhatIseeastherealproblems,weastive political tool used to maintain power. Thus, theand now watching as our children are demoralized, marginalized people face. We face challenges in notgovernmentbeganbestowingthestatusofwhiteoppressedandtaughtthattheyareinferiorand just educational institutions, but in all aspects of lifeto immigrants from supposed undesirable countriesincapable of higher levels of learning. We are forced in the United States to include: the government, poli- (those with skin tones light-brown or tan than white)to watch as so many of our children are continually tics, the job markets, businesses, housing, health,such as Ireland, Poland, Hungry, Italy and Jews andlabeled as the victimizers preventing other children other undesirables, not yet classified as white. Theyfrom learning, while all the time overlooking how our were all not formally classified as white. In this waychildren are habitually subjected to abuse, racism, the powers that be sought to prevent these newlydiscrimination, and are feared and seen as criminals. designatedwhitegroupsfromformingbondsandAfrican American parents often feel the sting of being uniting with blacks which, in reality could become a It is clear that the greedpowerful force to overthrow the status quo and whitelabeled lazy and good-for-nothing, welfare defraud-minority, wealthy elite.ers,loudandaggressiveandthecausesoftheir childs school failures. Too often the school blames and selfishness of theBestowing the honorary status of white to thesethe child, the parent, and the neighborhood for the immigrants left only Blacks and Native Americanslack of school success of black and brown children white elite and politicianswithout this designation, making whites for the firstwhile failing to acknowledge the role the school plays time in the newly formed United States the majorityin keeping these children in their assigned roles of population.Tomaintainthismajoritystatus,theinferiority. What chance do they have at bucking this were the driving forcesnewly adorned white groups (those who had origi- systemwithoutfoundationalchangesandsupport nally been viewed also as inferior) were elevated infrom school staff and administration?in the establishmentstatus and indoctrinated using the mandatory pub- A list of questions put forth by Black and Brown lic education system to ensure the continued powerparentsandcommunitiesfordecadeshavebeen of mandatory public- of the wealthy white elite and the politicians whose interest was to satisfy their own greedy and selfish interests.Thenewlyordainedwhitesinorderto schools.secure their newly found status had to disavow theirContinued online atBOCNews.comown interests and needs to remain in good stead and keep their newly found status. Thus, the policies and practices of public schools and all other institutions 2 OCTOBER 2019 BOCNEWS.com'