Young People Matter
The city of Baltimore gave us a lot to consider last week. From Monday’s uprising to Friday’s indictments, the news outlets were kept quite busy. In the midst of it all, I found myself mostly drawn to the treatment of young people. I was acutely aware that they were called thugs with the same venom in which blacks have been called the n-word. I was shocked in the sea of people (both within and beyond the black lives matter movement) that levied a criticism about the improper way in which the youth channeled their anger (as though uprisings throughout our country’s history have not served as a catalyst to progress). Mainly, I was frustrated at the lack of awareness in how adults have influenced, by their negligence and their ill-conceived conceptions of "student achievement," a generation of disabled and impotent leaders.
Today's post illustrates this point... a point that indicts adults--- teachers and school leaders; parents and politicians; and preachers and civil rights leaders. To do this, I continue my conversation started last weekregarding the film “Selma.” While I originally wrote this piece, as part two to the first, I am amazed at how it naturally fits my thoughts surrounding Monday’s revolt and how it is a timely contribution to a needed conversation about schooling and youth leadership.
Returning to Selma
As represented by the movie Selma, key players in the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were located at the ground level. Yes, there was President Johnson who signed it into law, but it was the people most disenfranchised that served as the catalyst for change. In the movie, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC ), led by Dr. King, partnered with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC ), a field-based initiative led by students (including John Lewis), to increase the public’s awareness that black people were being denied access to voting.
As represented by the movie Selma, key players in the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were located at the ground level. Yes, there was President Johnson who signed it into law, but it was the people most disenfranchised that served as the catalyst for change. In the movie, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC ), led by Dr. King, partnered with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC ), a field-based initiative led by students (including John Lewis), to increase the public’s awareness that black people were being denied access to voting.
Looking at Martin Luther King, Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, C.T. Vivian, and John Lewis, I began to reflect on the competencies needed for them to understand sociopolitical problems, for them to own their personal part in the solution, and for them to muster up the courage, the conviction, the strategy and influence to execute change. In short, what were the skills and dispositions needed to lead a movement? And, what role did their K-12 education help them to develop these skills?
Lost Treasures of a Segregated Schooling System
Prior to the desegregation of public schools, black students were primarily taught by black teachers (and non-black teachers specifically committed to them). In this space, schooling was a community experience, where people living and experiencing life together also came together to teach and to learn. As a result, there was a distinct pedagogical approach. Milner said that black teachers during this era taught students for integration, so students could possess the capacities needed to work, live and prosper right alongside of their white counterparts. Delpit ’s discussion on power codes helps to showcase the value of the segregated era. She delineated instruction as a cultural tool of power in which those with power have established the rules of what is and what is not acceptable. Teachers in segregated schools understood these codes of power and based their instruction on empowering students with this knowledge. As stated by Ware, a teacher in segregated schools “emphasized the importance of education for political and economic success” (p. 429).
Prior to the desegregation of public schools, black students were primarily taught by black teachers (and non-black teachers specifically committed to them). In this space, schooling was a community experience, where people living and experiencing life together also came together to teach and to learn. As a result, there was a distinct pedagogical approach. Milner said that black teachers during this era taught students for integration, so students could possess the capacities needed to work, live and prosper right alongside of their white counterparts. Delpit ’s discussion on power codes helps to showcase the value of the segregated era. She delineated instruction as a cultural tool of power in which those with power have established the rules of what is and what is not acceptable. Teachers in segregated schools understood these codes of power and based their instruction on empowering students with this knowledge. As stated by Ware, a teacher in segregated schools “emphasized the importance of education for political and economic success” (p. 429).
In general (and of course there are some significant exceptions to these findings), students were not limited to contemporary education standards measured by high-stakes testing. And, they were not limited to a deficit based identity due to being taught by teachers who possessed a mono-cultural lens of right and wrong. Unfortunately, however, this is the experience of many black students (as well as brown, red, and poor white and yellow students) in today’s K-12 learning environment. In the midst of a climate where everyone is championing reform, the real deal is that very few reform- driven schools are truly reformed. Why? Because many of today’s schools, in the gross decline in the number of black teachers employed, fail to see the relevant relationship that schooling has with the sociopolitical needs of disenfranchised communities, as those schools did in the segregated era. Today’s schooling climate treats minority and low-income learners as objects that need to be managed and controlled to achieve a set of outcomes that has very little to do with living, learning and leading in the 21st century (Dye, In Progress).
Baltimore’s Youth Uprising
The young people of Baltimore, in their revolt against the death of Freddie Gray, were categorized as being immoral… as being wrong… as being ignorant. There were those such as Mayor Stephany Rawlings-Blake who said that it was idiotic to destroy one’s community (as though the place in which these young people live truly exists as a commune of safety and dignity). There were others who argued that nonviolent protests are the moral means to promote change (as though the nonviolent protests in Ferguson and New York garnished justice for Michael Brown and Eric Garner).
The young people of Baltimore, in their revolt against the death of Freddie Gray, were categorized as being immoral… as being wrong… as being ignorant. There were those such as Mayor Stephany Rawlings-Blake who said that it was idiotic to destroy one’s community (as though the place in which these young people live truly exists as a commune of safety and dignity). There were others who argued that nonviolent protests are the moral means to promote change (as though the nonviolent protests in Ferguson and New York garnished justice for Michael Brown and Eric Garner).
I am not here to condone violence but I am also not here to condemn the young people either! As adults, we have failed to equip them with the tools necessary to lead… to take a stand and have a real impact in their world. Instead, we have treated them as consumers of a set of literacies that will give them minimal capacity to address the social barriers impeding their true progress. As adults, we have treated them as objects that must comply with a set standards that has more to do with upholding the humanity of someone else than it does with upholding their own humanity. Case in point, many people publically support the parental pounding of a 17 year old on national television (calling her the “Mother of the Year”) because we believe a child’s true position is one that is inherently without voice, dignity, honor, or power.
Our current climate of schooling (and parenting) does not see the true value of young people. It is structured to produce young people who consume and comply… two conditions located nowhere near the transforming work of Dr. King and the civil rights coalition. Our schools are primarily based on a banking model where students take in and then they are rewarded on how pure and exact they give it back. Schools serving the politically disadvantaged don’t give students an opportunity to apply their knowing to real problems… to create meaningful solutions… to generate new ways of knowing.
This is what Baltimore’s children were trying to convey last Monday. To me, their actions showed that they want a way to make a difference. They want a way to matter! In the absence of having their socio-emotional intelligence utilized in their K-12 academic training, what we saw was an explosion of a bottle neck desire for change -- all without having adequate resources (such as validation, support and training) to successfully serve as change agents.
Conclusion and Considerations
Baltimore’s uprising is a cry for a different way to treat minority and low-income students. They need schools Young People Matter:
Angela Dye's blog is part of our Purple Wisconsin project. Dye loves to ask tough questions and critically examine social-structural systems that impact individual development and individual responsibility.
