Rebuilding Our Communities Through Education and Moral Leadership

We often find ourselves wondering what will become of our African-American youth. In most inner-city public schools, it seems as if the majority of our youth are failing, loosing, and giving up. School halls and classrooms are often filled with profanity uttered from the mouths of children. School suspension lists are inundated with names of students who are angry, defiant, and/or emotionally wounded. If you walk into a classroom you are likely to witness any of the following: students with their feet on the table, pants sagging, headphones in their ears, asking for school supplies, explaining why they did not do their homework, talking over the teacher during instruction, gazing out of the window, or vandalizing school desks. On the other hand, African-American students who appear to be serious about learning are either vexed about their educational experience or begging their parents to put them in another school where they can learn without such interferences.

In many cases, our youth are likely to learn in school settings where there are low expectations of student performance, poorly structured administrative systems, scarce school resources, unstable teaching force, and a lack of vision about collaborating with community-based agencies to meet the needs of African-American students. Our children are our future mothers, fathers, husbands, and wives. They are also supposed to be the next generation of doctors, lawyers, teachers, CEOs, government officials, computer techies and property tax payers.

We are concerned that if this culture of mis-education is not eliminated, our kids will be ill-prepared for the world that awaits them. If we do not help our youth heal from their wounds, manage their anger, adopt better "rules for living", and realize excellence, they may produce the next generation of African-Americans who are totally hopeless, heartless, hungry for personal gain and willing to get their stuff "by any means necessary".

Dr. Robert Franklin (President of Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA) suggests in his recently published book titled, Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African-American Communities that we need to rebuild the three most potentially effective institutions in our African-American communities-that is our families, our churches, and our schools. These have historically been our formal and informal systems of education. In order for us to do this, we believe we must embrace moral leadership in education like never before.

Moral leadership in education involves living by example with integrity and social responsibility. It also includes allowing one's decisions and actions to be dictated by a moral conscience that is higher than one's self and does not leave others on the short end of the stick. Moral leadership is not blinded by the enticement of fame, fortune, or self-aggrandizement. When moral leadership guides the collaborative efforts of our parents, schools, businesses, and community leaders, we believe we will see a rebirth of the excellence in education in the African-American community. Our youth will also be empowered to pursue their education with a passion, rebuild our communities with conviction, and engage in activities that will ensure the vitality and posterity of the African-American community and the communities that surround them.