Soul Searching Education

Evolving Instruction and Developing Minds

Lisa W. Beckwith

• Publisher: Lisa W. Beckwith, LLC
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781087973661
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Education is the platform for the involvement of individuals with their surroundings to promote a life filled with fruitful, fulfilling experiences. In this work, Educator Lisa W. Beckwith shares insight upon the relativity of education in students' lives with the need for strong leaders (their parents and teachers) to instill a mindset of excellence for self development.

Prominent issues are discussed regarding the modern forms of education and social discrepancies that restrict the advancement of our students' learning in today's society. As we dissect the effects that race, student motivation, teacher influence, and parental guidance have on the experience of our students, we grow with time and attention regarding the transcendence of the mind of the student. Educator Beckwith enhances the function of our thoughts and attitudes toward education. She evaluates the struggles that are prevalent, but which do not have enough power to annul the forces of education.

Her desire is to fulfill the understanding of what it means to take part in the school system, and the responsibility that students, parents, and teachers alike should activate once this knowledge is revealed to them. The conclusion of this book finds that there are no bounds to education and that the will to promote an elevated educational formula exists in our everyday lifestyles. To education and beyond...

Chapter 1

BLACK LIVES MATTER:

Absent Through the Ages of Education

Education is the center of our society. Our lives are shaped from the advancement of individuals for a collective production of moral, ethical, and behavioral standards through cognitive development. No matter the occupation, education is always the preeminent elevation of our job description because it involves the methods in which we function within ourselves and the world surrounding us. Education opens the door for the mind to ponder, for questions to be answered, for creativity, and for humanity to thrive in its existence. The journey of education has succeeded because of the determination of leaders to enhance individuals for substance to conquer tomorrow.

The blend of students that connect within the classroom, under the tutelage of leaders, amalgamate to form new matters of discussion, enlightenment and joy from the collaboration of minds. However, these students’ existence is grounded upon their home environment, their family, and their upbringing. Although we are equal as a humanity, we are characterized by our differences. As teachers experience their students from a bird’s eye view, categories are formed of the elite, mediocre, and challenged students of the system. These evaluations occur due to student performance within the classroom. As history displays, I would like to discuss the noticeable difference among those of African descent regarding their counterparts in the American school system.

Within this chapter, we will observe the evolution of the history of education as it relates to this minority group. We will merge the experiences of this one culture with the experiences of all cultures in order to spark educational conversations that contribute to the movement of change within our brick and mortar schools. Schools should reform as times progress. Our educational facilities should exemplify what America represents. As we live and continue to witness various historical movements, many are left with daunting questions regarding the vast changes made within our society and how our educational system will respond. Such questions are: What is the best resolution to making sure our future generations are given a fair chance to learn on the same platforms as all demographics? How have these movements impacted our generation? How can we prepare our future successors for what is to come?

BLACK LIVES MATTER

The BLACK LIVES MATTER (BLM) movement, founded in 2013, has required all people of all races to reflect and respond individually and collectively. Many instances have risen in order for this movement to have been amplified through various forms of society. This chapter is in response to the need to acknowledge the Black community and to further connect this movement to its impact on education and understanding the unrest that the culture has had to endure. Not only has this culture suffered, but a nation, and a world. What is important to one must be important to all!

WE MUST COOPERATE IN ORDER
TO COLLABORATE

Slavery

In short, White universities felt no special mission, as centers of American culture, to incorporate the former American slaves into that culture
~Allen Ballard, The Education of Black Folk

As an educator, it is very important for me to understand the series of events that have stifled the Black community from excelling in education, and to try to decode the lack of desire and performance of our Black students within the school system. All students struggle through some point in their studies. My drive, however, is to leave no child left behind. Through my experience, I have repeatedly seen the dissociation that is present specifically for our Black students regarding school performance. Black students are not only the responsibility of the Black community, they are also an asset to the wellbeing of society. If a whole culture is absent from the elite world changers that we have today, their voice will not be heard, and they will be left to the hand of their counterparts.

The purpose of getting to the foundation of patterns found within the Black community will aid the responsibilities that I have, as a Black educator, to empower my students through example. This means I must equip myself not only to teach new skills in excellence, but to enhance the productivity of the students’ work ethic as they progress within the classroom. I have to decode what success means to them, and if they lack the desire, I must be ready to make learning of value to them. In order to understand how education was shaped for Blacks, it is important to comprehend the reality (from the political process) of the Black community, beginning at the homeland, Africa, and evaluating social changes that amalgamated to form the African American society. Africa constitutes many cultures. Before Africa was colonized, there was education, but not to the degree that it is today.

The African Educational Evolution shares a great understanding of the African Culture and its relation to Education from the foundations of its origins to its change into a colonized world by the Europeans. Education in Africa was a tool in which the society used to grow upon and to flourish within their own homeland to cultivate a society that worked together to create an equal unity within their communities. However, a multitude of transitions took place once these African communities became subdued to the European culture and methods of teaching. Mosweunyane clarifies the distinction between what was taught in pre-colonized Africa and post-colonized Africa:

Members of African societies learnt through their interaction with their physical and spiritual milieus, as evidenced by their design of tools which they used mostly in their agro activities and in fighting for resources. The other area in which learning took place was that of spirituality or mysticism, as some superstitious members of African communities were believed to have powers of communicating with their ancestors. Most learning that occurred in Africa was necessitated to meet the exigencies of the whole society through training of its individual members either in groups or on individual basis. The traditional schools were used to provide the necessary skills and knowledge that African societies needed for their survival. This qualifies as education if we are to borrow a definition by Moumouni as cited by Koma (1976) who said, education is everything that prepares the young people for either integration in a given specific society with the aim of perpetuating the established values and norms of such society or transforming and changing such values and norms. The arrival of the colonial forces embarked on an agenda to make African knowledge and skills to be inconsequential and engaged in an undertaking to replace them. Education was seen as a vehicle through which western cultures can be fostered or promoted in the African continent by its colonizers. This arrangement viewed Africans as having little or no knowledge of their own, which meant they had to learn advanced, organised, systematic or sophisticated skills. Education in Africa during colonialism was used to convert Africans into foreign religions. It is evident that learning that was brought into the African societies got structured to produce individuals who did not fully identify with the values of the continent. It is important to indicate that almost all African countries form what is referred to as the Third World. Hegel as cited by Wilks (1971) is said to have stated that Africa is no historical part of the world; it has no movement or development to exhibit and that is why the colonial era should essentially be an age of enlightenment. As noted by Asante (1987) any interpretation of Africa must begin at once to dispense with the notion that, in all things, Europe is teacher and Africa is pupil (Mosweunyane, 2013, p. 50-57).

It is clear that the definitive fall of the African culture and its people was due to the weakness exemplified by its culture in relation to that of superior Europe. Hence, color has nothing to do with the domination of the European (Caucasian) culture over the African (Black) culture. What matters is the psychological advancements that took place in the European culture years before it had time to cultivate in the African culture (which has much to do with the conditions that each culture lived under). This is an example of survival of the fittest. In this situation, Europe had the manpower and the tools to dominate a culture and mirrored the power that one nation can imbue upon another in order to create a higher submission. Nonetheless, the destruction that took place is still in the mental forefront of the change that occurred in the mindset of the Black culture that has caused the mind to continue to alter toward a less promising future for this minority group.

The subjection, therefore, was not only physical slavery, but mental slavery, to get this culture to adhere to the standards of the European culture. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, the definition of a slave is “a person held in servitude as the chattel of another” or “one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence” ... (“Slave”, 2020). Our independence from slavery was not until 1865. Before this time, there was minimal/limited education. As they were subject to slavery, they were also subject to the teachings of their slave owners. The level of education was highly influenced by the slave masters. The word educate, as defined by Merriam-Webster is: “to train by formal instruction and supervised practice especially in a skill, trade, or profession,” and “to develop mentally, morally, or aesthetically especially by instruction” ... (“Education,” 2020).

Education is the bridge that connects individuals and cultures in order to thrive together. The slave owners knew that this community needed some type of education in order to function (to receive orders, complete tasks, understand the language, etc.), however, not to the level that educating them would make them empowered to rebel or to have a mind of their own. Learning the ways of life (to take orders) was encouraged, however, reading and writing were two elements of education that were suppressed. Blacks were allowed to learn, but the extent to which they could implement their learning skills was stifled. Black Codes were set in place for slaves to follow. With these constraints, there were no outlets for the power of the mind to operate in full control of each individual. They were physically enslaved, hence becoming mentally enslaved as well.

Slavery was an era. Some regions and peoples experienced different levels of suppression. This lifestyle limited Blacks, but the inner drive to do and be better within, as a human being, did not stop the determination of their will to learn. Eventually, all Blacks were allowed to receive fundamental education. The fourteenth amendment was one of the first steps taken to ensure the security of a Black nation into equality. Even so, the union of Blacks and Whites in the same school setting was another hurdle to overcome. As such, Blacks and Whites were not equally educated. Jim Crow Laws set rules for restricting Blacks. These laws were focused on segregation, essentially creating a divide of two worlds, a White world, and a Black world. Two figures advocated for the support of education: W.E. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. Their approach to change varied, but their purpose was the same.

The men wanted to help their community by improving lives and knew that education would be a key factor in the Blacks’ advancement. Booker T. Washington was a slave and used these experiences to better himself. W.E. DuBois was gifted with the opportunity to advance himself to his own standard of excellence, which allowed him to support Blacks through education. DuBois believed in the talented tenth of the Black population, who would carry the success of the Black population through intellectual advancements. DuBois knew that Blacks still needed the majority’s (whites’) influence. He was a part of powerful movements and desired to help Blacks understand the need for education. He wanted to show them that they did not have to learn the way White people did. DuBois was very passionate about what he wanted and he was very radical. Black Education notes that:

In terms of voting, DuBois believed that agitating for the ballot was necessary, but opposed giving the vote to the uneducated blacks. He believed that economic gains were not secure unless there was political power to safeguard them. This is shown in this comment from DuBois regarding Booker T. Washington: “He (Washington) is striving nobly to make Negro artisans business men and property-owners; but it is utterly impossible, under modern competitive methods, for workingmen and property-owners to defend their rights and exist without the right of suffrage” (DuBois 68). Washington, on the other hand, felt that DuBois’ militant agitation did more harm than good and served only to irritate southern whites. “I think, though, that the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing… (Washington 234)

(Black Education, n.d.).

Even though the men had different philosophical strategies for Blacks, their similarities overrode them. For example, they wanted the best for Blacks. They did not want a war within their community. As for education, Washington felt liberal arts were necessary for the Black community, but he strongly advised Blacks to educate themselves industrially as well. Both men shared the same heartfelt approach, which was, to make sure that Blacks received the best opportunities as a community. There were many others within the community who took advantage to further their education. There are many stories that show us how education was not easy, but necessary, for Blacks to experience. The school system has not shown equality as a whole even to this very day. Most educational opportunities for Blacks are inferior to White institutions in both the public and private sectors. Most of the Black community, when they were taught, were segregated from Whites, which did change the methods of learning and the learning environment.

The university fancied itself free of racism and imbued with the belief that it is the man, not the color, that counts. But self-perception is often fatally in conflict with the perception of others. The White American university, as viewed by Blacks, was White and racist
~Allen Ballard~The Education of Black Folk

When it comes to the school system and Black Lives Matter, two famous cases come to mind. The first,Plessy Vs. Ferguson, and the second, Brown Vs. The School Board. In the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson, it revealed the truth about what separation from Whites looked like. There was not necessarily equality displayed. This was an issue between a Black passenger, who refused to remove himself from a seat from the White passenger’s section. This was a major public case in 1896, where the superior court honored the integrity of racial discrimination under the “separate but equal” concept. Plessy V. Ferguson in History states that:

In declaring separate-but-equal facilities constitutional on intrastate railroads, the Court ruled that the protections of 14th Amendment applied only to political and civil rights (like voting and jury service), not “social rights” (sitting in the railroad car of your choice).

In its ruling, the Court denied that segregated railroad cars for blacks were necessarily inferior. “We consider the underlying fallacy of [Plessy’s] argument,” Justice Henry Brown wrote, “to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it” (History, para. 12-13).

The verdict against Plessy displays the lack of support of aspects of the Black community in the legal system. If Blacks had minimal support in the legal system, how would they be supported in the school system?

The other major case, Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was another pivotal case that relates to the incongruities within the educational system. This case took place during the Civil Rights Movement. Even though the Civil War had ended in 1865, there was still a fight for Black people to have the same rights as Whites. The main point to consider is that Whites’ main offense to Blacks was the treatment toward them through centuries. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is one of the most notable groups for civil rights. It was organized by Blacks and Whites, who saw the need for racial equality.

The laws of segregation in public schools was one of the needs for change. If Black people needed legal support, this organization would represent them in an educated and professional manne...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Purpose
• Special Acknowledgements
• Note From The Author
• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1: BLACK LIVES MATTER: Absent Through the Ages of Education
• Chapter 2: Title I: The Contradiction
• Chapter 3: Testing in America: Higher Order Thinking
• Chapter 4: Structured Education: Developments within the Classroom
• Chapter 5: Tier Plans
• Chapter 6: Student Achievement: Trends in Education
• Chapter 7: Evolving Involvement: Parental Awareness
• References
• Fun Facts About the Author
• About the Author