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HOW TO INOCULATE YOUR CHILDREN AGAINST POVERTY

BECAUSE this article focuses on inoculating our children against poverty, instead of on my usual emphasis, "Reforming American Education," some readers may think that I've departed from my accustomed train. However, somewhat predictably, by the time I get to the end, the discernible reader will recognize my inability to drift from my standard screed: far too many of our children (up to 50% in some communities) are not mastering their fundamental academic skills: how to read, write, listen, speak, organize information, study and do math. Our education system and political leaders are bankrupt, our school boards are moribund, our teacher-education programs are bereft, our well-intentioned teachers poorly trained, our schools delivering a sub-standard product. This state of affairs is causing more economic loss and entrapment than any deadly virus. It is imperative that we inoculate our children against the consequences.

Today, because of the low-quality product our schools are delivering, far too many young people graduate high school functionally illiterate. They have little to offer the work force and will probably contribute few solutions. In short, they risk growing into adults (sic) unable to continue their educations or hold jobs with a future, further exacerbating the centralization of wealth, benefits and power into fewer and fewer hands. This centralization is not a rational recipe for democracy, creativity or productivity. This is the recipe for an oligarchy.

The good news is, there is a solution: When explicitly taught, virtually all children master their basic skills: how to read, write, listen, speak, organize information, study and do math. The single most effective vaccination program, nationally or internationally, is not some vague notion of "universal education," it is an unequivocal plan to teach all our children how to master their basic academic skills. Allow me to list these skills again: reading, writing, listening, speaking, information organization, study skills and math. Teach these fundamental skills and the three behaviors associated with success: how to start on time, stay on task, complete assignments.

RADICAL CHIC and THE WEALTH OF NATIONS

In October 1966, in Oakland California, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Panthers championed, and fought to establish, revolutionary socialism through mass organization, community based programs, and a militant self-defense of minority communities against the police and government. The party's agenda sought to establish real economic, social, and political equality across gender and color lines.

Their theory was rooted in the teachings of Malcolm X, a mixture of both militant revolution with dignity and self-respect. The Panthers followed Malcolm's belief in international working-class unity across color and gender. Around this theory various unlikely groups coalesced: White Panthers, Young Lords, Children of God, gays and lesbians, women, yippies, hippies, swamis, students, Marxists, Maoists, Weathermen, anyone opposed to the centralization of "power" into the hands of the military industrial complex.

Because of their blackness, style, hipness and "street cred," the Panthers established themselves as the vanguard of the revolution: more resolute and committed, better organized, and able to take a leading role in the struggle. They addressed what they saw as the evils of capitalism and the police state.

Malcolm X provided the rhetoric, "This government has failed us. The white liberals, who have been posing as our friends, have failed us."(1) And what had the government and liberals failed to do? They had failed to provide children with a way out and real economic opportunity. Today, half a century later, too many children still have no way out or any real economic opportunity. Too many still can't read and, the poorer the reader, the poorer the adult.

Malcolm continued, "Once we see that all these other sources to which we've turned have failed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves. We need a self-help program, a do it yourself philosophy, a do it right now philosophy." And what kind of "self-help, do it yourself, right now philosophy" has been proven most effective? Teaching children to read and master their basic academic skills.

"We want freedom by any means necessary We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary," Malcolm continued (2). And what is the path to freedom, justice, equality? What means works best? Teaching all children to master their fundamental academic skills and behaviors is the answer. In short, teach them to read.

WHAT DID ALL THESE PEOPLE WANT?

Because their approaches were so radically different, filled with bombast in place of explicit behaviors, the leaders were soon embroiled in the division and argument they initially decried. The Panthers carried weapons. The Jesus freaks carried Bibles. The Hippies carried drugs. The Weatherman carried bombs. All amassed huge FBI files, many ended up hiding underground, many in jail, many dead, many burned out on junk and social isolation. Most rejoined the means of production and sighed a deep sigh of resignation and despair upon the receipt of their first pay check. The revelers, worn out and depleted, after turning Yasgur's farm into a muddy dump, abandoned Woodstock Nation and waited for someone else to pick up the trash. They gave up. Complacency reasserted itself as the order of the day. We didn't adopt a usable rhetoric of "reading" then, and we aren't doing it now. The system continues to stick another brick in the wall.

One doesn't go to school to get educated. One goes to school to acquire the skills required to pursue education, should the impulse arise. If you have any spark of revolutionary fervor remaining in your bosom, forget all the rhetoric and teach the skills. If you have any inclination to believe that the poor need a fighting chance, forget all the rhetoric and teach the skills. If you have any inclination towards justice, forget all the rhetoric and teach the skills. If you have an idea that the world would be better without terrorism, that it would be good to drain the rage from religious extremism, forget all the rhetoric and teach the skills. If you want people, communities and production to be self-sustaining, forget all the rhetoric and teach the skills.

There is no more effective program to improve the health, living standards and well being of our nation and the world; there is no better way to train people for global sustainability and to inoculate them against poverty. Everyone must be taught his or her basic academic skills: All children must be taught to read, write, listen speak, organize information, study and do math.

And how does one go about insuring that teachers know how to effectively teach these skills? The very first step is by delineating an education policy that clearly states what we want to accomplish, "We want all children, all grades, all abilities, to master their fundamental academic skills: how to read, write, listen, speak, organize information, study and do math." Second, train teachers to deliver the goods. Where can teachers go to receive this training? It's immediately available, for free, at Brainsarefun. Beyond Brainsarefun, our schools of education must commit themselves to teaching skills for school success.

In summary, be very specific. Teach all children their basic academic skills and behaviors to mastery. Anything less is tantamount to running around screeching, "The sky is falling. The sky is falling." Anything less is to watch our children become infected by poverty.

Notes

1. Ballot or the Bullet, 1964 speech.
2. By Any Means Necessary, 1964 speech.

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