What becomes of a dream deferred???

In Langston Hughes' poem "Dream Deferred" he opines their fate as withering up from neglect like the proverbial 'raisin in the sun'. I am amazed that in a country where we preach, clergy and lay people alike, that "children are the future"...we are quite content to allow the travesty that is: No Child Left Behind! Signed by the 43rd President of the United States, George Bush in January 2002...we've only seen an inevitable decline in the standards of education. In Baltimore, MD yesterday, City Public School System CEO Andres Alonso outlined plans for cash incentives for high school students who show improvement on the High School Assessment. This is similar to a plan deployed in New York city where Alonso served as deputy chancellor prior to coming to Baltimore.

$900,000 plus of a total $6.3 million dollar budget will be allocated to this initiative. There will also be allocations for students who tutor other students to be paid from. Will they have to become certified too? What of this notion of AYP...ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS???? What kind of defeatist attitude is this that's being passed off as EDUCATION???? Ironic indeed that this is happening in Baltimore...inspiration for David Simon's critically acclaimed series "The Wire" where last season centered around the ineptitude of the public school system. CEO Alonso has responded to criticisms about the plan by asserting the success of this hybrid of sorts between Pavlovian conditioning and instant gratification! But, I suppose it's to be expected from an administration that treats their position as more of a zoo administrator than an educator.

I didn't realize until my friend was told she, "cared too much" about trying to actually educate the children in her charge, the hypocrisy of the public education system. The administration is not at all interested in achieving real milestones in the educational process. Their goal is clearly to meet every one of their management objectives to maximize their compensation suggesting a 'job well done'! Based upon results to date however and in deference to the writers of The Wire..."The Game Is Fixed"!!! There is, quite honestly, no difference in the approach taken to deal with educating Baltimore's public school children when compared to the approach for fixing the prison system. It would seem that the game IS fixed and that the Education Industrial Complex is a farm system for the Military Industrial Complex and/or the Prison Industrial Complex! I recall when I was growing up on the south side of Chicago, there was a genuine sense of partnership between the teacher's and the parents. That time, it would seem, has gone the way of the Albatross...nearing extinction. Teachers who do care are attacked on multiple fronts by administrator's who won't suspend/expell problem students because "the numbers" are most important and by parents who were in such a rush to be grown they didn't get an education themselves as well as the children of these parents who understand better than most the futility of gaining a racist education.

The education of our children today is our responsibility! We cannot depend upon the public school system to provide for our children an education that gives them the keys to unlock the glass ceilings in corporate America. The No Child Left Behind legislation is an affront because what it really means is: No Child is Left Behind, because No Child Moves Ahead! Direct Instruction and Inclusion simply don't work in the calamity that is the public school system! And sad as it may seem, it's largely falling along racial lines. Two score and four years ago, a courageous man endeavored to improve the station of his people in this undeniable Land of Opportunity! His efforts inspired a generation of young people who would become instruments of change. But change is cyclical...and the instruments of change yesterday are the vestiges of nothing more than a bygone era today!

Dr King preached about his Dream for a better tomorrow...but today we see that; not unlike the bounced check back then, we're dealing today with a similar phenomenon in the form of dreams so long deferred that today our children are sleepwalking through life. If I might invoke the admonishing of 'Radio Raheem' in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, I too would challenge people everywhere to simply "Wake Up!!!"

Coalition Of The Willing

The results of the Iowa caucus last night seem to represent what the President's coalition could not. According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) Senator Obama won 37.6% of the vote against 29.8% for Sen Edwards and a somewhat surprising 29.5% for Sen Clinton.

All indications are that Sen Obama's win was made possible by democrats, independents and republicans alike. The common denominator across these groups is 'change', and Sen Obama's representation as the best chance for it!

It would seem that people (no matter their political slant) are forming a coalition. And what's more is that this coalition is truly one with willing participants. Unlike the Iraq Coalition Forces these disparate groups have come together without coercion and quite simply it seems because it's the right thing to do.