Parent Report Card

A Tool for Making Mother's Job Easier

The headline in the April 19, 2012 Tri-State Defender newspaper out of Memphis, Tennessee caught my eye. It said, "State To Parents: Get On Your Job!" The article is about a new law in the state of Tennessee that was designed to urge parents to "get involved and stay engaged in their children's school and education."

I don't know whether it is sad or creative that the state has to mandate by law that parents get involved in their child's education. But it doesn't really matter how it came to be as long as it works to improve a child's education prospects and keeps them out of the pipeline to a criminal track and to the State's prison system. The Law has two parts to it. Part one is the Parental Contract, and part two is a Parental Report Card.

The Parental Contract encourages parents to sign contracts that assure the school that, among other things: (1) they are committed to getting their child to school on time; (2) making sure that their homework is done; (3) attending parent-teacher conferences regularly; and, (4) generally, guiding their children in doing their primary job of getting an education as they prepare for the future. The School District will be responsible for giving the parents clear directions as to what their expectations are.

The Parental Report Card will measure the parents against the district's goals and allow them to grade themselves against the expectations of the School District. Each parent will receive a blank report card and grade themselves on how they are doing to help their kids and where they can improve.

If such a program is implemented and it leads to more children avoiding the penal system, it is a giant success. When you attend a school graduation, and you know that your child not only attended school, but was a learner because you helped him/her study, or you got help to keep them on track, it has to feel better than watching him/her marching into court with handcuff's on because he/she stole something, or worse, robbed or killed somebody. You can help the process by assuming the parental role even if it means playing the tough love game.

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Education Means Building More Schools

An article in the Wednesday, March 21, Pasadena Star News caught my eye because it was about educational opportunities for a select group across the country. The article entitled, "Growing In Pasadena" had a subtitle that said "Providence Christian College plans merger." It was about a small local Christian college, Providence, joining with a larger Southern Christian college, Covenant College in Lookout, Georgia, planning to expand their capability to educate more Christian students on the west coast. Providence, located in Pasadena, CA, has only 74 students. Covenant has over 1,000 students.

The article caught my eye because I have been talking about such a project since the first issue of the Pasadena Journal published in November, 1989. I have been asking why one of the Historical Black Colleges didn't create a western arm as an extension or why someone doesn't just create a new Black College in the West? The recent step by the University of California partnering with the Historical Black Colleges is evidence that it can be done.

The action by thousands of Whites, Asians, Jews and Armenians is evidence that there is a need to build private schools to augment the public education their children get. The fact that Black African slaves built churches, businesses, and schools, as soon as they could, following slavery, and even risked their lives to learn how to read, is further evidence of the need that getting an education is a priority toward real freedom and equality.

Someone once asked me why I believe there are no Black Colleges west of Texas. I responded that the newly freed slaves didn't see the need. Well, the need is here and if the Tea Party ever has its way, we may need it more than ever. They don't see why public education should exist for everybody. I later read that since 80% of the Black population lived in the south following slavery, that is where the need was. Now, since that is no longer the case, and since Blacks live all across the country, we need to build more schools before we fall further behind.

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The New Klan is Uniting to Lynch President Obama

History tells us that throughout the history of America, any progress made by Black Americans was destroyed by racist White supremacists. The motto of White America has been to keep African Americans in the place designed by the American Slavery Movement. That place is as a servant who is never to be equal to the white man. Time and time again, the African spirit rises to the top to prove that, indeed, Blacks are not just equal but they can rise to lead, whether it is in politics, business, athletics, the arts, or in leadership. Each time the spirit of hate that created the evil empire of Black slavery rededicates itself to trying to crush the African spirit, we rise and fight.

The spirit cannot be crushed, except by the spirit being withdrawn by God or the bearer's silence and acceptance of being crushed. History tells us that this has not happened, no matter the obstacles and pitfalls placed in the way. The poet Maya Angelou writes, "And still I rise". Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quoted the poet, William Cullen Bryant, who writes, "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." Prophet, teacher and preacher, Jeremiah Wright, taught us that it is the Spirit of God that keeps us strong, again and again.

It is time to call on that spirit to defeat the efforts of the new Klan, personified in the Tea Party and members of the Republican Party, who work to stop Blacks from voting for a brilliant young Black President of the United States. The NRA (National Rifle Association) is a part of the new Klan as it works to sell guns across the nation and change laws that would return us to a time when it was okay to kill Blacks with impunity as was done with young Trayvon Martin. The organization called ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Conference) is part of the new KLAN as it writes legislation across the nation, and with money from guys acting like new Klansmen, like Carl Rove, the Koch Brothers and the NRA to reduce certain Americans' rights to vote.

The majority of those sitting on the United States Supreme Court are also a part of the New Klan. They are ruling that rich corporations are people who can fund elections and buy politicians who are hell bent on replacing democracy with a plutocracy that is ruled by the rich for the benefit of the rich. Blue Dog democrats are part of this new Klan as they vote to overturn laws that would ensure fairness to the least of us and strip the country of laws that serve the masses, like affordable health care, Social security and Medicare.

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“ If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?”

A few weeks ago I spoke to the Ujima class at Pasadena City College. The professor is Gabrielle Pina, the author of the play, "Letters From Zora." Because I think that when we speak to young people we need to leave them with something meaningful, I prepared an exercise. The exercise involved requesting them to write in a little booklet while or after I talk. I handed the booklet out at the beginning of the class, and picked it up at the end of the class. On the booklet cover is the picture of a hobo/bum with the words, "If You're so smart why aren't you rich." I've spoken of this topic many times before in this column. You may remember, the picture idea comes from a drawing that my mother gave me after I passed the bar exam. The original was drawn in 1929, the year of the great depression. I prize the picture for a lot of reasons, not the least of which, it keeps me humble and is a constant reminder of the wisdom my mother and my father taught me.

After reviewing the writings in the booklets by the students, I was reminded of how smart our children can be. It also demonstrated to me that what you put into young people is what comes back at you. It's kind of like the old computer wisdom that says "Garbage in Garbage out." In short, if you expose your children to garbage on a daily basis, you can almost be guaranteed the chances of you having a child that grows up as an example of a wasted life, just taking up space, instead of achieving their full potential.

On one side of the booklet I asked the students to write five reasons they believe they are not rich. On the other side I asked them to write what they needed to become rich. I told them it was not necessarily all about money, but rich with a fulfilling life. Here's a sampling of what I got:

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