By: Ray Rife – raysbbr@gmail.com

Welcome to Ray’s “Boom-Boom” Room.

I feel like I may be tooting my own horn in this instance, but helping someone to move is a true confirmation in friendship. Moving is terrible. So many people move differently. You can have the late packer who waits until you are actually there to start packing. Then there is the person that thinks that since they have space in the box they should fill it to the brim regardless of the weight restrictions of the cardboard. Plus, since you move all the time they don’t want you to scratch the walls or the furniture. I mean, the last thing you want to do is drop a 44” big screen or rip their leather couch with no insurance to cover it.

This past weekend I helped a buddy move across town and all I could do was think about the Seinfeld episode where he met Keith Hernandez and a week later he asked him to help him move. Now, this wasn’t the case here, this is like family, but during the worst part of the move (at least it wasn’t the lead-glass TV), all I could do was think, I wouldn’t do this for just anyone.

So, want to find out what kind of friend you have? Ask them to help you move.

Dr. Manning Marable

On Friday, April 1, 2011, America lost an icon in the academic community. Dr. Manning Marable, 60, was a professor at Columbia University. He was also a founding director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia. Recently, he just finished a new biography about Malcolm X, which is to shed a slightly different light on the civil rights activist. The book, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, was released this week. Many have called it Dr. Marable’s life’s work.

Dr. Marable started his academic and intellectual journey at Earlham College in Indiana where he obtained his bachelor’s degree. Then he moved on to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and obtained his Masters. He continued his journey at the University of Maryland where he completed his PhD in American History.

After stays at Cornell University, Fisk University, Colgate University, Ohio State University and then the University of Colorado, he landed at Columbia University and led the Institute for Research in African-American Studies into one of the nation’s leading scholastic programs for documenting the African-American experience in this country.

He was a well published author who wrote many articles in academic journals and edited volumes. He also wrote many books focusing on the history and establishing the documentation of the black experience in America. He was well respected by many of his academic peers. He also was a leader in using technology to deliver his educational teachings.

Recently, I have had the great fortune to meet his daughter who lives in Atlanta and works for an educational nonprofit (the proverbial apple doesn’t fall very far). I was told many years ago that the reflection of the parent is in how their children present themselves. I never had the pleasure to meet Dr. Marable, but if his character is reflected in his children, then he was a great man.

Sojourner, let me pass along my condolences and prayers to you and the rest of your family. Your fathers’ loss is shared not only within the familial binds of your family, but for the students who will not be guided by his wealth of knowledge and intellect. He was a great scholar, author, teacher and man. Society is poorer due to his loss.

May God bless you and your family.

A different solution to the problem in US Education

So since I’m on the topic of education, I wanted to provide something that most people in the debate of public education fail to provide; a possible solution. Many people can point out the problem with public education, but most fail to provide their solution.

When we hear the debate about public education there are many issues that come up. You can go to the US Department of Education website and review all the dropout statistics on our public schools. This is an important barometer and something that needs to be addressed. Yet, many people offer the same solutions, standardized testing and evaluation of these teachers based on the outcomes of these tests. Never mind the fact that standardized testing has many problems and isn’t exactly the best tool in determining educational prowess or failure.

Funding inadequacies are also brought up. I know there are many folks that don’t believe this, but it is a reality. It doesn’t take much peeling of the onion to observe the difference in resource allocation in our schools. Just take a drive to several different schools in several different neighborhoods and social strata. You will see the resource discrepancy.

I could list many other issues involved with the lackluster performance in our public schools but I want to ask why we as a matter of public policy we don’t ever address the one part of the educational triangle that needs the most help?

I was a part of a nonprofit organization that addressed this neglected part of the triangle. You see, there are three parts of the educational triangle for a student to succeed in their academic pursuits. The first is the student. The second is the school, which would include teachers, counselors and the administrators in the district. The third part of the triangle and the one that needs critical attention is the parents.

As public policy, we address the schools and the students. Currently, we have No Child Left Behind that addresses school districts and their learning environment. Arnie Duncan, the current US Secretary of Education, has created Race to the Top that is basically the same as NCLB but with a small twist. It still demonizes instructors for poor student performances based on standardize testing. School districts provide extra-curricular activities and programs to provide additional instruction. Yet, we continue to leave out parents.

Now, I know that many people are weary of telling parents how to raise their child, but this neglected part of the triangle MUST be addressed.  I’m not asking to go into every household, and like DCS, come in and tell people what they are doing wrong. No, I suggest the same model that I worked with in the past that showed promise in being successful. The program provided academic support and resources to parents and students to assist in their pursuit of a post-secondary education.

Let’s say your child wants to be a nuclear engineer. Do you know how to make him/her into a nuclear engineer? So what would you do to assist them in becoming a nuclear engineer? You would find people who have done it or are aware of the processes and resources to become a nuclear engineer.

Now what about parents who didn’t complete high school or attend college? Have you seen the graduation rates here in America? We have many people that fit this description. Should we just expect these people to know how to provide or even know where to find the information to push their students in the right direction? Should we be surprised if they have kids that follow them down the same path of functional illiteracy? This is what’s happening now.

So what is my idea?

The first part of my solution is to equally distribute federal funding. I don’t see why we can’t equally distribute all monies to all schools across the nation. No, this isn’t socialism; it’s keeping the playing field level. The federal government would authorize “x” amount for education. Hopefully, they would fund in adequately but that’s another blog. Once determining funding a determination of a dollar amount per student should be calculated and then based on the number of students in your state, each state get’s their allocated amount of funds. These funds would not have strings like race, culture, economic status or any of that attached. “X” amount of funds per student…period.

Now, for the people that are against the government infringing on states’ rights, this is going to upset you. The next step would be to establish the same kind of regulations to account for the distribution of funds. If the state accounting office cannot not accurately account for an equal distribution of education funds throughout your state; then the state incurs a penalty. It could be a fine or diminishing of funds. The point is, let’s eliminate the unequal resource allocation.

All the funds though, wouldn’t be allocated for just funding the schools. The government could reserve additional funds, maybe 15-20%, to provide funding for private nonprofit organizations that would work with the students and parents. These organizations would assist in teaching parents on what is needed to support a student pursuing higher educational pursuits. It would also provide resources and support to the students themselves.

Many parents want to see their students achieve greater success in life than they achieved. Access to higher education is the pathway to this success but if you’re an individual that didn’t complete primary and secondary education yourself, you may be too embarrassed or just plain unable to research these options. This in turn, creates an apathetic attitude that the student internalizes and manifests into apathy into their studies.

To maintain their participation into these programs, the parents and students would sign honor contracts pledging their attendance and complete participation in the program. This would mean parental involvement in meetings of the program and contact and communication with their student’s teachers.

Now, I know for those of us that understand the importance of engagement with their child’s instructor might find this trivial but trust me, if you did not complete high school, this is something that you wouldn’t think about.

The students, through the organization could obtain mentors, individual counseling, tutoring and potentially computers for their use, as long as they followed the rules and regulations of the organization. It would merely be a supplement to their public school education.

Basically, until we address the parent side of the triangle we are just spinning our wheels in the sand. We can provide standardized testing and all of the other ideas that we create that penalize the schools, but until we get the parents involved, it’s just throwing good money after bad. Almost any teacher will tell you that getting the parents involved is crucial, yet, we don’t address this. Why? I think we should start doing that…now!

Final Thought

So Michelle Bachman (R – MN), recently announced that she was going to take her pay and donate it to a nonprofit organization that helps military families. She is doing this because if the government shuts down, military personnel will not receive their paychecks on time.

While I find this a noble idea and really a stand up thing to do, why did she have to cheapen it by trying to collect political capital with it? The nicest thing a person can do is doing something that no one knows about. I guess as much as she attempts to paint herself an outsider, she is still nothing more than a media whore like the rest of Congress.

Thanks for stopping by…

Ray

raysbbr@gmail.com