7/30/2019 america education
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Starla Muhammad a Final call news staff Writer wrote a very
strong editorial entitled Back to
school or back to hell? Why Americas education system continues
failing Black students. (Final call
1/5) To compare School with Hell and claim that the School
system is failing Black students is a heavy
accusation to support, which she does very well. Muhammad starts
the first paragraph with vivid
descriptions of the schools conditions Faulty equipment, Fights
in the hallways, overcrowded
classrooms, failing grades, security guards, scarce resources
and high suspension rates. She goes on to
say that This is not the description of a school in some Third
World, war torn country. It is the
unfortunate yet glaring reality facing thousands of Black,
Latino, and poor children in the United States
educational system. This sets the tone right off giving the
reader vision into the public school setting,
pulling you into the situation first hand.
Ms. Muhammad presents statistics to show the gap between black
and white students. She
says according to the Schott 50 state report on Public Education
47% of black males graduate from high
school verses 78% of white males. Data collected in 2009-2010 by
the U.S. Department ofEducations
office of Civil Rights, Says that black student were three and
half times more likely to be suspended or
expelled than White students and 70% of students involved in
school related arrests or referred to lawenforcement were Black and
Latino. One in five Black boys and one in 10 Black girls received
an out of
school suspension according to Department data. Blacks students
are less likely to have access to
college preparatory classes but are quick to be ushered into
special education classes. Black and Latino
schools are grossly underfunded compared to majoritywhite
schools.
She goes on to say that Reports and studies are released year
after year, with the same results;
Black children are falling further and further behind as
collateral damage, victims of an educational
system that is failing them. Thus giving the reader a thorough
overview of the overall outcome of the
American public school curriculum.
The writer interviews Chike Akua the Executive Director of the
Teacher Transformation
Institute and author ofEducation for Transformation: The keys to
Releasing the Genius of African
American Students; He is a former teacher of the year and
currently develops African centered
curriculum for schools and travels the country teaching and
training teachers and administrators. Mr.
Akua says Educational research has demonstrated that the real
purpose of public education is to
reproduce current power relations. So if Blacks and Latinos are
disempowered, the current system is set
up to perpetuate this disempowerment. By presenting this case
she lays the basis for the need for a
solution to this problem. She mentions that the Nation of Islam
seen the deficiencies in the 1930-40s
and pulled their children out of the public schools and
established their own schools (Muhammads
University of Islam) a Godcentered Practical curriculum to train
students to be productive and develop
future leaders. She goes on to say that today more and more of
black parents are pulling their children
out of public schools to Home school them providing a culturally
rounded education.
The Writer says that the students left behind in cities like
Chicago, where a teachers strike is
looming or in Lauderdale county, Miss. where the Department of
Justice accused officials of running a
school to prison pipeline, serious problem remain.
