A Note to My Readers
Many recent experiences convey to me the
failure of people in many quarters to recognize the importance of K-12
education, to understand the constituent components of an excellent education,
to comprehend the exact nature of the many structural impediments to the
provision of an excellent education, and to grasp the revolutionary nature of
the change that is needed to overhaul the key system of delivery of K-12
education: the locally centralized
school district, represented saliently by the Minneapolis Public Schools.
I wait abidingly for people on the terrain that
I traverse to demonstrate that they have
the necessary comprehension of the activist commitment that is necessary, that quality
and quantity of activism to which the great change-makers (think Gandhi, A.
Phillip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Gloria Steinhem, and Cesar
Chavez) gave their lives.
This article constitutes an update and
reminder of my own 47-year commitment and my ongoing efforts to revolutionize
K-12 education.
In the coming months, as I publish the books
of reference and prepare for important looming events such as a finance referendum
and an election of new members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of
Education this coming November 2018, I am going to be making abundant
appearances at many venues requesting the commitment of others who profess interest
In K-12 education, all the while communicating that the overhaul of public
education is the single most important task that we face as a nation, our
fulfillment of which must occur in order to make of this nation a democracy for
people of all demographic descriptors, in the service of all of our precious children.
Review now this description of the history,
principles, and day to day life of the New Salem Educational Initiative. And before I get to the program itself, I
give a brief description of my own background and life as a teacher in K-12
education:
Personal Background, Trainiing, and Life as a
Teacher
I attended Southern Methodist University (SMU)
in Dallas, Texas, from the autumn of 1969 through the spring of 1973. Prior to entering SMU, I had already become
intensely interested in the social revolutions (feminist, civil rights) that
were taking place in the late 1960s and early 1970s; my interest quickened and my activism
expanded during my years at SMU. I did
not march for causes very much; although
I have never shied away from confrontation, I have always wanted any confrontations
that I initiate to have a very specific impact, and my ongoing commitment has
been and continues to be to practical action meant to advance the common good.
By the spring (1971) of my sophomore year, I
had decided to be a teacher. I became
active in SMU Volunteer Services and soon took on the position of coordinator
for services rendered at institutions for the mentally challenged and in the
Dallas Independent School District (DISD).
I majored in political science and had near-majors in history and
psychology. I took math through calculus
and pursued a broad and deep liberal arts education. I also endured the excruciatingly terrible
education courses to gain certification in the teaching fields of government
and history; in time, in Minnesota, that
certification would come to include all of those subjects considered part of
social studies.
During my junior year, I served a semester
internship at L. G. Pinkston High School in West Dallas, an area of intense
poverty with a major public housing development. This experience solidified my dedication to
the education of urban youth. I did my
student teaching at another inner city school but returned to Pinkston for my
first two academic years (1973-1974 and 1974-1975) as a regular classroom teacher.
During the years from 1976 through 2003, I
traveled throughout the United States and most of East, Southeast, and East
Asia; got an M. A. (University of Iowa,
1979) and Ph. D. (University of Minnesota, 1993) in Chinese and Taiwanese
history; lived in Taiwan for a total of
three and a half years, becoming fluent in Mandarin Chinese and acquiring some
Taiwanese (the Minnan dialect similar to that of Fujian Province on the Chinese
mainland); and teaching in almost every
type of situation: English as a Second
Language (Taiwan); prison (Missouri
Eastern Correctional Center); instructor
at the University of Minnesota (two years teaching courses in East Asian
history in the late 1980s as I pursued my doctorate); a semester teaching modern Japanese history
at St. Olaf College; a rural high
school, a suburban alternative high school, and two different alternative high
schools in Minneapolis.
This is to say, too, that my wife, Barbara Reed,
and I moved to Minnesota in the late summer of 1982 as she took a position at
St. Olaf College in Northfield, where she still is a professor of Asian
religions with dual appointments in the Department of Religion and the
Department of Asian Studies.
I have been active in K-12 education in North
Minneapolis since 1991, became a member of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church
in 1993, and for 24 years have coordinated and taught in the New Salem Tuesday
Night Tutoring Program, which currently includes five tutors in addition to
myself. Over the years from 1988
forward, I have written eight books, including a co-written book with
Barbara. I researched and wrote two
books for the Minneapolis Urban League (The
State of African Americans in Minnesota, 2004 and 2008 editions). From the very beginning of my academic career,
I have always focused on K-12 teaching while training like a university
scholar.
In addition to continuing to run the New Salem
Tuesday Tutoring Program, for the last ten years I have coordinated the New
Salem Educational Initiative, which incorporates the Tuesday night program but
also includes a seven-day-a-week small-group program, my written output of
articles on K-12 education, and activist efforts to overhaul K-12 education.
The Day to Day Functioning of the New Salem
Educational Initiative
Through the Tuesday night program, the
small-group program, individual studies, and continued mentorship once students
start matriculating at colleges and universities, I now have 125 students in my New Salem Educational Initiative
network. My most time-consuming efforts
go to serving students in seven-day-a-week small-group academic sessions.
Students now typically enter the small-group
program of the New Salem Educational in Grade K (kindergarten), following older
family members who have been in the program.
I perform all functions in the service of these students. I generate the curriculum and compile the
materials for study, do the initial enrollment, attend to all office details,
write grants and raise funds. Most
importantly, I talk with and counsel family members of students, transport
students to and from each academic session, and teach each two-hour session
personally.
The relationships that I form with students
are permanent. Once students are
enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative, they remain under my academic
instruction and personal mentorship forever.
Students who enter after a few years in school typically are functioning
below grade level in math and reading when they enroll in the New Salem Educational
Initiative. My first effort, then, goes
toward bringing a student up to grade level in these two key skill areas. This generally happens within an academic
year or two. Once a student attains
grade level competency in math and reading, she or he moves on to a college
track course of study, reading and hearing about subjects across the liberal
arts curriculum. Reading at that point
becomes not so much a skill as a portal for advanced learning.
Students in the New Salem Educational
Initiative acquire full grasp of mathematics skills pertinent to the four basic
operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), fractions,
decimals, percentages, graphs, tables, proportions, and ratios; and they learn all skills necessary for
algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus.
Students also acquire strong verbal skills,
learning how to write cogent essays and to read complex material with
acquisition of advanced vocabulary and ever ascending levels of college
preparatory reading comprehension. They
read a generous number of selections from the Core Knowledge books edited by E.
D. Hirsch, and they move in logical sequence through additional material chosen
to impart strong knowledge sets across the liberal arts (math, natural science,
history, economics, psychology, fiction and poetry, and the fine arts). Students use this strong liberal arts
background in reading material from newspapers and journals, in both hard copy
and online. Middle school and high school
students read Shakespearean plays such as Hamlet,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Twelfth Night.
Students enrolled in the New Salem Educational
Initiative all come from low-income families with multiple challenges. Currently, all of my students are African
American and Hispanic. In the early
years, students tended to enroll after having spent a number of years at the
Grade K-5, Grade 6-8, and even the Grade 9-12 level in the Minneapolis Public
Schools--- and had to make up
significant and often severe academic deficits.
Now, with so many younger students following older family members into
the program, they tend to enroll at the Grade K (kindergarten level), and thus
are always advanced for their grade levels.
Either way, the economically challenged students of the New Salem Educational
initiative end up on a college track course of study far more typical for
students at the middle and upper economic levels.
Principles Undergirding the New Salem Educational
Initiative
Implicit in the above and more explicitly
stated here, the principles undergirding the New Salem Educational Initiative,
in accord with my views on K-12 education, are as follows:
For the United States to claim full democracy,
all students should receive high quality education across the core subjects of
the liberal arts curriculum. This is the
same kind of education envisioned for good citizenship and high quality life by
Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann, who wrote of “common schools” for all. The abiding assumption in the New Salem
Educational Initiative is that the logical acquisition of strong skill and
knowledge sets promotes rich intellectual and cultural life, creates good
citizens, and prepares the way for high professional and life satisfaction.
Students in the New Salem Educational
Initiative come alive in the world of knowledge. They don’t think twice about whether they can
achieve at a high level. They can tell
that I have full confidence in their academic abilities. They move through challenging material in
logical sequence. They work on a task until
mastery is achieved, and then they move on to the next, higher skill. They witness their own success, and they want
more of the same. Just a few days into
their participation in the New Salem Educational Initiative, students see
themselves as successful learners, and they take off toward ascending heights
of skill and knowledge. Whatever
challenges of material poverty they bring into the program, students gain a
wealth of knowledge and they do not see poverty of any sort in their futures.
Students know that I will never go away. They see me week after week. They feel my love. Their families feel my love. I feel the love of these wonderful people in
return. We all understand that we have
entered into relationships that are permanent, that endure beyond the K-12
stage, that continue through attendance at excellent colleges and universities,
that will endure into the stage of adulthood.
Students in the New Salem Educational
Initiative succeed, because they have all of the ability to do so, and because
I will have it no other way. I care
about my students as if they were my own, and in the manner of excellent
parents and teachers, I do anything necessary to assure that my students, my
children, are successful. Mainly, I
teach up a storm. I exert heavy-duty
effort, in the application of what my West Texas pappy called “elbow
grease.” The parents of students in the
New Salem Educational Initiative care deeply, as all parents do, either in
manifest expression or latent potential.
I guide them either productively to apply the former or to tap and
activate the latter.
The overhaul of K-12 education must be the
thrust at the current stage of the Civil Rights Movement. High quality K-12 public education will end
cycles of poverty and turn societal liabilities into economic and cultural
assets. Through my conducting of 17
two-hour academic sessions for groups of three to five students each, I ensure
that my students will become productive and happy citizens. Through my writing, speaking, and activism, I
am fully dedicated to inducing the Minneapolis Public Schools to become a model
for how centralized systems can do the same.
My Current Efforts in the Overhaul of K-12
Education--- and My Vision for the
Minneapolis Public Schools as a Model for Locally Centralized Schools Districts
Imagine the Minneapolis Public Schools improving so thoroughly as to become a model urban central school district that similar organizations in other cities can utilize as reference for their own overhaul of K-12 education at the level of the central school district.
In my new book (Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education) focused on the subject areas of economics, political science, psychology, world religions, world history, American history, African American history, literature, English usage, fine arts, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics; I am providing the knowledge and skill set that would provide the essence of the curriculum productive of well-educated graduates of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). Based on such a solid base of academic information and skills, graduates of MPS would possess knowledge that even our present version of university graduates in the United States would be happy to remember from courses in the given subject areas.
What I am doing in all aspects of the New Salem Educational Initiative--- including writing Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education; monthly production of the academic Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota; hosting of the television show The K-12 Revolution (every Wednesday at 6:00 PM on Channel 17, Minneapolis Telecommunications Network [MTN]); personally conducting 17 small-group college preparatory academic sessions per week in a network that includes 125 students and their family members; superintending the Tuesday Tutoring program at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church; speaking at numerous public venues (including monthly appearances during Public Comment time at the convening of the MPS Board of Education); and the posting of well over 200 articles on this blog--- is providing a vision for K-12 education and the future of North Minneapolis that encompasses what I am hoping to leave to the world when my own days on earth are numbered.
Imagine MPS extrapolating the principles of the New Salem Educational Initiative so as to design a locally centralized school system so worthy as to offer a model for the excellent liberal arts education that I am always advancing and that I am now detailing in the nearly completed book (I have finished ten out of the projected fourteen chapters).
Imagine school classrooms from the K-5 level forward that are replete with academic resources of both the venerable print and the contemporary technological sort. Hold in your consciousness an image of classroom walls and hallways filled with maps of continents, nations, and ecosystems from throughout the world; and with prints of great works of art and visual representations (paintings, photographs, and sculpture) of historical personages of great thought and accomplishment.
Consider the transformative lifetime impact on young people who fully function at grade level in mathematics and reading and then follow academically committed teachers on a journey through the exciting world of knowledge. Think about the effects on the lives of our precious young people, alive in the world of knowledge and excited by the banter of teachers who truly love them and effortlessly blend academic, comedic, and culturally attuned comments into their verbal expressions, their communications, their teaching.
Imagine schools as genuine places of knowledge acquisition that welcome students, their families, and community members to the sites and into the hallways of learning and ethics. Into these hallways would come experts from the realms of academia, business, government, social service, and theology to talk to MPS students and their families in a setting alive with the love of knowledge and ethical action--- and to engage in lively intellectual encounters with teachers capable of exchanging informed views with people of enormous information bases and great expertise.
Ethics would be an important topic for discussion in the schools of the future for MPS, with powerful conversations flowing in consideration of ethical precepts from the world's great religious traditions, applied in the context of an extensive knowledge base acquired both through dedicated academic study and active engagement with the workaday world:
Young people and their families would be invited to participate in discussions focused on the nature of the good, the beautiful, and the empathic--- for the express purpose of advancing human understanding and promoting peaceful, productive relationships among people.
Imagine beckoning rooms in our schools from the K-5 level forward that are packed with great classic and contemporary works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; performance stages; technological resource area; media center; kitchen for student use; along with conventional classrooms used for traditional purposes and as centers for discussion, lectures, and speeches.
Imagine schools from the K-5 level forward that include spaces for instruction in the vocational and technical arts, arranged for particular students upon expressed interest, so that the transmission of liberal arts knowledge would flourish alongside instruction that could include auto repair, plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, and various other vocational arts.
Minneapolis in general and North Minneapolis specifically would become much better places for our young people and their families to dwell--- very much including those who are my personal passion: those who have been mired in cyclical familial poverty for generations. Schools would become tangible expressions of the joy of knowing and understanding the great world and universe, centers of information and wisdom in the midst of a community that radiates love of knowledge, ethical conduct, human beings.
I am developing the New Salem Educational Initiative as a vanguard community, formed by the 125 students and family members in my network, with the view of educating hordes of others interested in increasing their knowledge in all manner of subjects and coming to a place where ethics and moral conduct are treated as cherished guides to human action and interaction.
A very definite component of my vision is the transformation of the image of the North Minneapolis community that I love, from the perception of a place of destitution and violence to the recognized center of advanced academic knowledge and elevated ethical conduct.
This can and must happen in the future overhaul of K-12 education at the level of the locally centralized school district, with the Minneapolis Public Schools serving as model to a world that must thrive on the basis of knowledge and ethics, rather than perishing for a lack thereof.
…………………………………………………………………………………….
In addition to producing the book, Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts
Education, I also am drawing together a bevy of material on the Minneapolis
Public Schools and will soon be ready to offer the results to the general
public as Understanding the Minneapolis
Public Schools: Current Condition,
Future Prospect. I am organizing
this work into three parts, the first giving objective data and facts pertinent
to the organization and programs of the Minneapolis Public Schools; the second analyzing that organization and those
programs, and assessing the performance of staff members, particularly those
drawing high salaries and responsible for the poor academic performance of
students in the Minneapolis Public Schools;
and the third detailing the philosophical underpinnings and programmatic
approaches that will transform the Minneapolis Public Schools into a model for
the locally centralized school district.
This is quite a production, as is the book
offering the detailed, fourteen-chapter presentation of curriculum.
I’ll keep you readers posted as to the
completion of these volumes, and assume that you will thrust yourselves into the
pot that I am stirring or at least watch the contents of that pot boil--- as these two books make their public
appearances.
No comments:
Post a Comment