Jolita Berry, an art teacher at Reginald F. Lewis High School in Baltimore was attacked by a student and the video has been everywhere. This attack caused African American Political Pundit to ask if Black American has lost control of its children.
What is going on black America? Why are we as black adults allowing our children to control adults? Run amuck in our own homes, neighborhoods and communities? Why are we allowing these types of activities to occur across our communities? What's going on Black America! OK, what am I talking about? Is it time to bring back reform schools? oops that's called prison - Right? So what should black adults be doing?AAPP
My answer is that not all of Black American has lost control of its children. I kow plenty of little Black children and teens who wouldn't dream of attacking their teacher at school, that being said, I think the pricklier question is should the children whose parents have control of them be forced to sit in a classroom with the children of parents who do not have control of their kids?
One of the hazards of blogging and of READING BLOGS *hint* is that you tend to hear about the foolishness. The kids who are going to school and want to learn, who are managing to function in chaos don't make the news unless someone shoots them. We do stories on all of the people who get attacked or killed, but we rarely do posts about the people who survive and thrive. So on one hand I recognize that there are a bunch of folks behaving badly on YouTube, we do have to pause and recognize that there are lots of decent parents whose kids are not on YouTube.
In relation to AAPP's distress that Black kids are on TV acting a fool, what did you expect to happen? We have a culture where the Black family as we know it is going to be extinct in about two generations. Marriage will be a status symbol just like a McMansion and the matching Hummer. (well maybe if it did because a status symbol more folks would get married because people LOOOOVE status symbols) Its not just that people are not marrying each other or being committed to each other, they are not committed to their children. So what does that mean?
That means the glue that is civil society, the REAL SAFETY NET, not that claptrap politicians try to sell you, but the safety net of family is also unraveling. You used to have Mama, Daddy, the grand parents the cousins, the aunts the uncles all these people created a buffer zone of safety. Not to mention people to model good behavior, correct you and keep you in line. Many people don't have any boundaries anymore and children, even teenagers, need boundaries. Even a bear cub has boundaries.
Now all many of these kids have is Mama, and she's struggling, the kids can see it and feel it. Many of them are the victims or witnesses of violence. They live in a world that is violent where they become more aggressive to survive. Combine that with trying to build their own status by popping up on YouTube and a permissive community and I am actually surprised we haven't seen more videos of attacks on teachers.
Now that this video has hit the news, I predict even more teacher attacks. Copycats who now know that fighting and acting a plum natural fool gets you attention. Schools don't need to just be expelling the student, but all the idiots standing around taping and chanting instead of clearing out the room and going for help.
For those looking for an alternative, Mahogany Momma has two words for you "HOME SCHOOL":
The secret is out. Many black parents are taking their children out of the American public school system and everyone is talking about it. Empty promises are no longer quieting poor minorities and the inner city masses. People are tired of waiting for smaller classes and bigger budgets. Black parents specifically are tired of seeing their children transform from bright eyed elementary school students into unmotivated, poorly educated, high school dropouts. Every year these kids receive an alarming amount of mental/behavioral misdiagnosis and negative criticism in their classes rather than proper encouragement and guidance. Moreover, beyond merely acknowledging these poor educational conditions, public schools have done very little to improve the state of education for black students. It is for this reason that Black Flight is on the rise. More black parents are seeking alternative solutions to the public school system in an effort to regain control over their children’s education. Mahogany Momma
I would tend to agree with her, but that poses a problem. Home schoolers I would assume are in two parent households, somebody has to pay to feed these kids, so what is the solution for the 70% of Black children who the stats are telling us are growing up in a single parent household and what about the parents that don't have the education or skills to teach their own children- because I have seen some of these parents today, and they can't even teach their children how to behave in public, how are they going to teach them science and math?
VOUCHER'S?? CHARTER SCHOOLS?? You say what?
WAOD NOTEABLE:
The NAACP is saying that the third graders who allegedly plotted to harm their teacher and brought a steak knife, handcuffs, a paperweight and assigned tasks like who was going to distract the teacher, who was going to knock her out and who was gong to wipe up the blood were planning to throw pies at the teacher. Um then why didn't they find any key lime, lemon meringue, pecan, sweet potato, or banana creme pies with along with the steak knife and hand cuffs? Now the NAACP wants the teacher investigated. . . there is your answer African American Political Pundit. Even though it was in Georgia, I told myself that this was not a group of Black kids because we would have seen their little faces blasted all over the television, but I was wrong. The teacher was white, all nine children involved were Black
