Dr. Samori Swygert explains the importance and historical legacy of HBCUs, and why they’re still necessary in 2015. Give this a look.
Category Archives: Education
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D.C.’s educational battle – Books vs Boundaries
D.C.’s educational battle – Books vs Boundaries
By: Dr. Samori Swygert
The Mayoral race within the Nation’s Capitol is embroiled in some of the most captivating events. The current Mayor, Vincent Gray, has been swaying the voting tide by picking up extra support from ex-offenders. He’s also under scrutiny of a campaign scandal from his first election.
D.C. has also been in the thick of a social, and community overhaul. D.C. used to be referred to as “Chocolate City”, but a surge in city development, specialized employment, and cost of living has shifted the traditionally African American demographic to the outskirts of the city and local suburbs of Maryland. Individuals and families that have resided in D.C. for decades have been essentially , “priced out”.
A high influx of non-black citizens flush with cash and high paying jobs have replaced a significant African American demographic. Charter schools have bloomed all over the city, and now citizens are facing another social obstacle, EDUCATION. The access to equal education is at the center of debate now. The city is working on proposals that will either physically redefine the geographical boundaries on the map, and thus change school zones for the residents, or change the policy of what schools children are able to attend. Is this a form of “educational gerrymandering”?
The mayoral candidates have to address school overcrowding, under attendance, feeder patterns, and under performing schools. According to a Washington Post article, some parents are even considering relocation as an option pending the final outcomes of the education proposal. The education proposal is expected to be finalized this July.
Council Member, David Catania, is quoted as saying” I won’t support a plan that moves children from a higher-performing to a lower-performing school”. That sound’s good at first when you say it, BUT what it’s not saying is more troubling.
I have a few questions.
Why are there higher performing and lower performing schools? Will the city redistribute high performing teachers evenly throughout the city? What mechanism is in place that allows the channeling of the best teachers into a particular zone or school, while other schools are deprived? What performance improving strategies are you actively enacting to raise the performance level of lower performing schools?
A school is only as good as the teachers, budget, resources, and curriculum. D.C. is one city and the citizens pay taxes toward public education. Each student should be afforded an equal chance and opportunity to a quality education if public schools are funded by the people’s tax dollars. Why should geographical locale deny or afford two standards of education.
This is back to the issue of SEPARATE BUT EQUAL.
The teachers, money, upgrades, facilities, equipment, supplies, resources and other educational amenities should be distributed and allocated in an equitable manner to offset any disparity. Once children are within the confines of our public schools, each child should be afforded the same education regardless of their city zip code. We should exhaust all efforts to correct and standardize the aforementioned factors, because you can’t control the student’s domestic circumstance. Every child has a different domestic situation (parental involvement, income, community safety), and learning style, but identical quality education should be the constant that reduces the probability of our children falling to the wayside.
Andy Shallal, owner of Busboys and Poets Restaurant, is also a mayoral candidate. Andy Shallal said, ” I would put the whole boundary thing on hold. We need to not focus on boundaries but on fixing schools.” I like Andy’s response. Playing musical chairs with our children’s education is not cool. Fix the schools so that no matter which school a student attends, they can obtain a seamless continuum of quality education. A family should be able to move from Northeast D.C. to Southeast D.C. and receive the same quality education.
Education and Blueberry Muffins
If education was like a $3.45 freshly baked Blueberry muffin from Starbucks in Northeast, how would you feel paying the same $3.45 for a Blueberry muffin from Starbucks in Southeast, but the muffin is 4 days old and moldy? If Starbucks has true concern about its’ brand and image, they would guarantee the same quality freshness, ingredients, and customer service despite the geographical location of their stores. That’s how I see the accessibility and affordability of education.
Our children’s future should not be predicated and dictated on the basis of their current address of residence, or GPS coordinates.
What say you??
Source
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-mayoral-race-injects-uncertainty-into-school-boundary-overhaul/2014/03/28/03ab9e7e-b67a-11e3-b84e-897d3d12b816_story.html?hpid=z3
Howard University Mock Trial Team heads to championship tournament
Howard University Mock Trial Team heads to championship tournament
by: Dr. Samori Swygert
Howard University and other HBCUs have been receiving a lot of bad press in the news over the last year. We’ve heard about issues of enrollment, problems with student loans, budget and finance issues. Well we should also bring out the good and the excellence that is being produced simultaneously.
I’m very proud of my Alma Mater, and I felt great joy to visit the university website this week and saw that their Mock Trial Team has made it to the championship tournament. They will compete against Princeton, Penn State, George Washington, Rutgers, American University, and the University of Maryland.
The competition takes place on Saturday, March 22 and Sunday, March 23 at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse (333 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001). The team is led by a faculty advisor, Angela Minor, Esq. The University of Virginia will be the hosting school.
They will act as five prosecuting attorneys and four leading witnesses, according to the university’s website. The proposed case argument will be positioned around a person committing an armed rοbbery that resulted in an involuntary manslαughter.
The team is composed of the following members: seniors Jamsion Harris and Aliayah Baaith; juniors Mercedes Parker, Jeryd Wilder andD’Sean Williams-Brown; and sophomores Edward Harding, III, Gavin Reagins, Nicholas Taylor, and Sha’huni Robinson.
Let’s wish them luck, and once again, I’m very proud. GO BISON!!!!! Hopefully we’ll put that Wiley College, Great Debaters whipping on them.
You can also find this article at: http://www.yourblackworld.net/2014/03/black-news/howard-univ-competes-with-ivy-league-institutions-for-mock-trial-championship
14 yr old Dominick Allen has a shot at space!
14 yr old Dominick Allen has a shot at space!
by: Doc Swagg
The contributors in the YBW network love seeing African American youth excel and achieve. The more our children pursue higher education, and exhibit diligent effort to obtain success is very inspiring for us, our elders, the African American community, and the youth behind them.
I ran across an article in the Greenpoint Gazette yesterday evening. Junior High School 126 in Brooklyn, New York received some EXCELLENT news. 8 students from the school were selected to participate in this years space camp.
Dominick Allen, 14 yrs old, is an African American student that was selected as one of the 8 to participate in the space program. This is an international program involving 5 countries: USA, Turkey, Israel, Poland, and Bulgaria. The students have Skype pals in the participating countries that they communicate with and coordinate plans and share ideas. They’re also learning how to manipulate everyday items with microgravity, and applying concepts of physics to them.
This is truly awesome. They will eventually go to Turkey and participate in space shuttle simulations, and other activities. The program in JHS 126 is being supported by their local Greenpoint Lions Club.
This is the first time the school has qualified for the program. They are raising money for the students trip to Turkey. The school is accepting donations to help. I feel this is a good cause, and we can help make sure young Dominick Allen can reach higher heights (no pun intended). Don’t forget the other 7 students need support also, but we recognize how young black males are at risk in today’s society, so we really should seal this deal as a good faith effort for Dominick.
The original article is here with all the info for donations and school/program contacts:
Let’s uplift this young African American male during black history month, and give him a chance to enrich our legacy…Peace
Are HBCUs still relevant? …YES!
ARE HBCUs STILL RELEVANT? YES!
By Samori Swygert
A question that will recurrently buoy to the educational surface is, “Are HBCUs still relevant?” My response is an emphatic and resounding yes! Before delving into the matter of their relevance, it is imperative for all participants in the discussion to have a firm historical perspective on racial policies in America. Prior to Brown vs. Topeka board of education, prior to Bull Connor, prior to the Little Rock 9, prior to separate but equal, it used to be illegal for African Americans to learn to read, and a book was considered contraband to slaves.
I would like to consider other facts in establishing my case. Slavery was abolished in 1865. The top notch universities that are still revered as elite institutions of education were functioning well before 1865. Harvard University was established in 1636, Yale University was established in 1701, Princeton University was established in 1746, Columbia University was established in 1754, Brown University was established in 1764, and Cornell University was established the same year as slavery was abolished, 1865. You must gain an accurate temporal relationship with these dates in correlation with the timeframe of slavery. These dates indicate that young white students were privileged enough to gain an education while blacks were concurrently enslaved! White students were afforded the head start, and momentum to create and contribute to the society blacks were still seeking freedom and rights in. The irony of the existence between these two institutions continued for well over a century. While some young white adults were being educated in science, math, literature, politics, engineering, and the arts in a comfortable environment, black children and adults performed strenuous and laborious tasks under a harsh, violent, and unsolicited system. Learning was encouraged in these institutions of education, and learning was discouraged and denied in slavery, complete polar opposites.
When slavery was abolished and the reconstruction era started, it still was difficult for the newly freed slaves to thrive in this new society. Despite their new found freedom, admission into institutions of higher learning was still denied and the sheer cost alone was almost impossible. How were African Americans able to gain an education on a mass scale to compete with their white counterparts in society?
There are many stories and cases of blacks that matriculated into Ivy League schools overtime. However, there was no single institution that facilitated the mass education of African Americans until Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The movement to create institutions specifically geared toward the education of blacks across the country empowered the African American race, and propelled them forward. Once afforded this opportunity to learn, it fostered a change in their lifestyle because they gained the competence and confidence to compete, and take command over their own destiny. HBCUs gave blacks more independence. African Americans did not have to attend traditionally white institutions in order to gain a degree. The obstacles on their road to progress began dwindling. Time proved that blacks were just as educable, competitive, innovative, and intelligent as whites. The deprivation and denial of resources, time, land, and money was the only difference. A classic historical example made evident was the debate team legacy of Wiley College portrayed in the movie, The Great Debaters.
The Journey Continues
As we continue down the timeline we’ll see black law schools, medical schools, dental schools, nursing schools, pharmacy schools, and business schools emerge, and an exponential production of well trained black professionals. The HBCUs began a legacy of greatness that compounded with each year of existence. They established a rich heritage of inspirational stories of triumph, and success that each black student can relate and aspire to. They are the true stories and examples of “pulling yourself up by the boot strap”.
But why an HBCU?
The key attribute about HBCUs is that they tell students they can make it. Yes, HBCUs will take those high scholastic performing students, and they will also take that borderline student and hinge their bets on that borderline student’s potential. It’s said that many African American students may not be afforded the opportunity to an Ivy League college due to stringently high academic criteria, theorized institutional bias, or the exorbitantly high cost of education. Whatever the reasons may be that some black
students don’t attend Ivy League or traditionally white institutions, HBCUs provide a unique empowering and educational haven for black success. If a student may be average, borderline, or insecure, the HBCU provides a positive identity for that student and a sense of pride.
A question of identity
In American History classes, students will hear about the brilliance of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, John Kennedy and more. So white students have symbols of success they can identify with. That identity encourages them to do better, or replicate their historical models of success. However, the under-emphasis of black success in American History classes may leave young black students feeling hopeless and devoid of any historical pride, and thus have low expectation and standards of themselves.
At HBCUs student will be in classes with peers of the same color, some of similar stories that they can relate to and share true inspiration and motivation to get through their journey. The second component of identity that HBCUs provide is within the history. Students are taught in University 101 about how blacks like themselves were able to achieve success despite the social odds against them. The students can look at George Washington Carver and say “a black man did all this”. The student can read about the life of Charles Drew and his medical achievements and say “that was a black man”. They can look at Black Greek Letter Organizations and see the positive power in the unity of young blacks that are devoted to one common cause. Students can walk the halls and see the statues of great blacks, and say “I’m much greater than the stereotypes and statistics that the media portrays”. They are surrounded by professors that have a concept of the racial struggle for equality for blacks, and thus have a genuine vested interest in giving the best education they can to further the posterity of each generation of students.
You can’t plead the same exact case for Ivy League and Non-HBCU institutions of higher learning. HBCUs reaffirm the greatness in the potential of every black student if provided that opportunity, because it gives them multiple frames of reference. The student can always look at past and recent historical black diamonds that may have just been a piece of coal that needed careful positive pressure. Since their inception to contemporary times, HBCUs have their niche and their need!
I cringe at the thought of all the talented black youth that have potential, but are not afforded the opportunity for higher education, and are sometimes temporarily or permanently locked out of a better way of life. I also cringe at the thought of the deprivation of such a rich cultural heritage that gives them an identity of greatness, and unlocks all their potential unbeknownst to them. Ivy League and other Non-HBCU institutions are great and an education in general is wonderful, but it’s my opinion that HBCUs provide a more holistic, nurturing education that compliments the needs of the black student. So are HBCUs still relevant? My answer is an emphatic and resounding, YES!! A more serious question to consider is this, “what would have happened to the millions of HBCU graduates that were not admitted to Non-HBCUs if HBCUs didn’t exist?”
