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Editorials/Columns
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Schools Aren’t Totally To Blame
hink with me for a while.
Let’s go back in time. You remember that child or children you either had out of wedlock or from a no good man. You know they are the ones who got no discipline as a youngster. They are the same ones who thought they were grown every since the day they were old enough to know themselves.
You have got to think of the times when you found it the funniest thing when you had your babies drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, cussing and dancing. Y ou were proud to show this motherless con- duct to your friends, and God how you would laugh. Before you knew it, those babies had grown into little monsters that had no respect for anybody, in- cluding you.
You sent those little devils to school expecting the school to send you back angels.
Let me be clear. This walk down memory lane does not apply to all parents. There are parents who don’t have these kinds of memories. They did not raise their children that way and would not have stood
for this foolishness one minute.
The parents that I am shar- ing these memories with, know who they are. The schools share some of the blame, but most of the blame starts at home for many chil- dren’s failures in life.
Most of these children, and that’s what they are, have no responsibility, not even taking out the trash. That’s not all the blame we must place on par- ent. It is a disgrace the way some kids come to school.
They come half naked. Boys come with their behinds and dirty shorts showing. Girls come with dresses, skirts or shorts so tight until they can’t breathe. Their dresses and blouses are cut so low until they leave nothing to the imag- ination.
They show up without books, pencil, paper or home- work. They run around school all day creating all kinds of havoc. They are so disruptive until they interfere with the children who are trying to learn. The minute a teacher says something to your child or he or she get suspended the
child comes home and tells you the disciplinary action taken was because they are Black.
Off you go to school mad as hell. You arrive at the school huffing, puffing, cussing and ready to kill somebody about your child. The sad part is, you haven’t heard the rest of the story and you don’t want to hear it.
In your opinion, your child is right. The child came with the parent to watch the teacher get beat up. It’s strange par- ents, you come to school to give a teacher a fit over your delinquent youngster, but you won’t come to parent/ teacher conference or PTA meetings.
The next thing you know, that kid has dropped out of school, he or she has no skill, they have a bunch of children out of wedlock, they are in jail or been to jail and are always begging you for help.
Is that worth you to start raising your children at an early age?
I know a bunch of Black children who went all the way through school and not one time were they failed or sus- pended, because they were Black. Our schools have their faults. But, Black folks need to stop looking for excuses and raise your children. I wonder what happen to that philoso- phy of old, parents use to tell the schools ‘you teach them and I will raise them.’
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Donald Trump: Don’t Count Him Out
s if we need to be told, Black America should begin im-
mediately to launch voter registration/participation campaigns throughout the land as if our lives depend upon it. In other words, voters especially Black voters, should not count Donald Trump out as an armed and dangerous 2016 presidential candidate. Count the reasons: he thinks and says things that millions of Klansmen are thinking, but are afraid to say.
Could it be, therefore, the silent majority has found a “politically incorrect” Archie Bunker to voice its opinions in technicolor?
Many political historians have compared Trump to Hitler during the Nazi’s formative years. In addition, voters should be concerned about Trump’s views on repealing the Dodd- Frank Act, which protects America from another pre-2008 era banking/investment/housing meltdown. Americans who now have medical coverage through the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) should certainly make sure they all are registered and voting since Obamacare is on Trump’s hit-list.
Certainly, environmentalists should vote, because Trump believes climate change is a fairy tale.
Heaven forbid, Trump (who doesn’t believe in Heaven) makes good his belief that American troops should return to the deserts of Iraq.
So, every eligible and able-bodied voter should prepare to vote in 2016, because Trump as President is an 8-count for America.
The Enemy Within
really like Cris Carter. I enjoyed watching him as player. And I've come to re- spect him even more as a foot- ball analyst on the ESPN
network.
With that being said, I have
to admit, I became a little dis- appointed with the former All Pro wide receiver after I heard about some of the bad advice he once gave to some young professional athletes. Instead of giving the future superstars nuggets of wisdom that could help them avoid the many pit- falls that come with fame and fortune, the Hall of Famer thought it would be a better idea to teach the freshly minted millionaires how to get away with miscreant behavior.
In a video taken during the 2014 NFL Rookie Symposium Carter, an invited guest speaker, is seen dropping this unbelievable jewel on a room full of recently drafted players while discussing how to keep out of legal trouble.
“In case ya'll not going to decide to do the right thing, if ya'll have a crew, you got to have a fall guy in the crew.”
And, just in case the term "fall
guy" didn't register with some of the squarer attendees, he broke his message down even more bluntly. “One of those fools got to know he's going to have to go to jail. And you'll get him out.”
Needless to say Carter's speech didn't go over too well with his bosses at ESPN and will probably go down in his- tory as a prime example of what happens when keeping it real goes horribly wrong. The irony being that Carter didn't have his own "fall guy" to blame for coming off sounding like a complete idiot.
Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on the guy. After all some of what he said did have some merit when it comes to certain situations.
I mean, a non-breadwinning entity falling on the sword to protect the golden goose makes perfect sense from a street perspective. The prob- lem is that he wasn't address- ing a well-structured criminal organization.
The group of men he was asked to speak with were col- lege educated professionals starting a new career. Guys
who were ready to listen to some helpful insight from a re- spected veteran who had al- ready succeeded inside of the arena they were now entering.
Giving them instructions on how to clean up messes in- stead of schooling them on how to keep their hands clean was irresponsible to say the least. And, considering Carter's audience consisted of a majority of young Black men who were already targets, his words seem even more de- structive.
Carter's actions reminded me of one of the main obsta- cles to excellence that Blacks often face. Too many men in our communities, who are supposed to be playing the role of elders who guide their peo- ple away from the harm they experienced, leading the gen- erations behind them to make the same costly mistakes.
While it's easy to blame racist law enforcement, the system or the all-controlling "white man" for the crisis we find ourselves facing, the bitter truth is that, it's often our own people, who have the ability to show us a better way, who are our worse enemies.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: realityon- ice@yahoo.com.
Why Homeroom Should Not Be Stopped
his is the story of a teacher who taught at Robinson
High School in the 1980s and insists they were some of his best years! Said the teacher, one of the things he loved most about his 10th and 11th grade English Basic classes was Homeroom.
There . . .you’re laughing. But in the midst of your chuck- les, allow us to introduce a teacher who, by year’s end had developed classes that did outstandingly well on SAT scores. How did he do it? The teacher smiles, “I combined creative teaching, progressive computerization and help from home- room. I don’t know why they did it, and up until recently, I hadn’t given it a thought until I read an article about area schools regarding homeroom periods as a waste of time.”
Explained the teacher, “The more I thought about it, be- ginning with the first day several students approached me in homeroom and asked if they could invite schoolmates for a homeroom visit, the more the impact of it began to make sense. Fifteen minutes before class-day began, students from throughout Robinson would troupe to our room, be greeted by friends and music supplied by a battered portable tape recorder, then begin to laugh and talk about whatever concerned them in a way I wish we so-called adults would emulate world-wide.
School Recess is no more; the idea of daily gym class for most schools is a memory; art classes and music apprecia- tion are often options at best. So, dare we do worse by pinch- ing off yet another piece of the opportunity to learn what it
means to be human? No, homeroom is not a waste of time. But believing it should be side- tracked is a dangerous waste of common sense.
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