DETROIT
\'lE\VS O� EJ)l�C:\TH)N
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ri ,
rica e pneumonia"
eem never more tru th n
tod y. Thi i 0 d pite th [: ct
tty more Bl k Ameri ns
ve become middl income than
. .. ever in the . tory of t . country.
ceordin to th Popul tion
Reference Bure u of
W hington, D.C., the percent­
of Bl c ho eholds eaming
25,000-$50,000 nnually in
t 1990 census w 26.6 percent,
the middle income m urement,
nd nother 11.9 percent earned
50,000 or more.
Thi means that more than one
third of America , Blac familie
ere in the middle income brack­
, et or above. The approxima ag­
greg te income of all U.S. Black·
famili w, according to the
Bureau, a whopping S199.3 bil­
lion in 1990! That's a lot of
money no matter how you count
it.
And no doubt about it, this
represents progre ,by any
me urement. But when you
remember that nearly half of the
Black population in th United
· States is mired at the poverty
level-the working poor, or
· below- we find little cause for
cheering.
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· WHAT IS SO troubling is the
:' \ fact for tho e stuck at the poverty
• vel of below, there eems little
· ope � r relief on the irnrnedi
riz.
. one is ying. it at least so
tho e who are truggling "where
[he rubber meets the road," can
understand that the nature of
employment has changed almo t
overnight.
Gone forever are the
manufacturing jObs-auto, farm
equipment, steelmaking=- that
used to guarantee a largely un-
educated, blue collar class a job
at good pay virtually for life - a
. job that enabled the man to
marry, buy a decent home, pay
for health care and th education
for his children, which, in tum,
guaranteed that generation a bet­
ter life.
In my keynote address at the
83rd NAACP Annual Conven­
tion in July, I asked "Is Anybody
Ustening, Doe Anyone Care"
about (the Cries) that come from
those who are unemployed, as­
king where are the job?
"America that used to be the
manufacturing wonder of the
world is now moving from a
manufacturing economy to a ser­
vice economy, and nobody in
authority has even bothered to
: tell the American people, leave
o alone consult them," r said, ad­
dre sing the Presidential can­
didates.
"TODAY, TWO PER­
CENT of our work force is
I employed in agriculture, 77 per­
cent in service indus try and only
21 percent in manufacturing.
Where are the jobs?
When will you bring them
back home? When can we make
. decent wages so that when we
o (Blacks) work forty hours clean­
, ing bed pans, changing linen"
I washing sick bodies, we won't
have to get food stamp to make
it over-Mr. Bush, Mr. Clin­
ton- is anybody Ii tening, does
anyone care?"
The horrendous Los Angeles
riots expo ed the joble problem
o in our urban centers such as
Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis,
o <;:leveland, and in many other
American cities sufferingjobles
pains, as well.
S .JOBS A10
.,
" e're getting th h rt end of
th tic " dded Rico Cro tt, 16,
who i to begin hi enior year t
Ren i nee. "We eniors have
deadlin for transcripts, college p­
pli cati 0 and the ACf and SAT
te ."
mpowerment, The Big
Knowledge is power. If a flve­
year-Old wins $1 million dollars in
the lottery, that child would till be
unable to live alone and meet its
own needs comfortably and effec­
tively. A five-year-old doe n't
have the power to raise itself. A
five-year-old doe n't know
enough.
There is no possible way for the
Detroit Board of Education to em­
power parents without informing
them first. Yet everything parents
need to know about the wholistic
education process graces Board
communicatons as "professionally
guarded secrets."
Parents never find out how
many knives, guns, crewdrivers,
etc. are confisca d at their school.
They never find out who the per-.
petrators are or what measures
have been taken to discourage
other students from commi tting the
same offense.
Nearly every police precinct in
C'ly lla a lli� rat of aue
a perso a110 . e citiz
in its area. The perpetrators
those crimes (and only a relative
small per cent are even reported)
are not normally childless. They
also are not normally paying
private school tuition.
IF Y ARE a Detroit parent,
you n ed to know that your
children are in classrooms where
the standards for behavior brought
from home are not in the least
education centered, or even social­
ly centered.
The standards most children
bring are need-based for satisfying
immediate needs.
Children are normally
psychologically structured that
way and have only parents to
model behavior which allows some
delayed satisfactions.
Our parents are often young,
stressed persons, or persons com­
pletely unable to hold our
professed classrooms standards up
to their own with clarity or
cooperation.
THEY ARE OFfEN unable to
consider any modification of their
child's behavior as a necessity for
the good of the whole. Most of
them are so busy that school is
school and home is home.
ecret
However, if we informed
parents on what enrichment aids t9
purchase, how to use them, and
orne way to enforce restrictions
on unruly children that would carry
over to the classroom-our parents
would automatically be em­
powered wi th the only ort of
power they could use to ensure a
child's learning.
The Board of Education has not
found a way to consistently inform
parents. That is why parents can­
not be empowered. Teachers can
only be empowered if the Ie ons
they teach are not constantly inter­
rupted.
If parents are not going to be­
come ultimately responsible for the
behavior of their children in a
classroom, teachers will be atis­
fied with what they are teaching
whether or not it makes children
competitive on a scale a bit larger
that a Detroit measure.
PARENTS N ED TO know
that they have di mi ed a multi­
t� of sins in the c rooms lor
over a decade now, and there is the
price of a non-education to pay.
The time has passed when
people an blame the teacher, then
think the problems have begun to
be solved.
Detroit teachers put up with
anything. Detroit teachers are not
to send children to counselors or
administration under any cir­
cumstances as a rule.
Some teachers can't even admit
the many interruptions are crip­
pling instruction. The most dedi­
cated teachers are mostly
CO-dependent on limiting produc­
tive learning in favor of keeping
order and keeping the head count­
two standards the Board does ad-
. here to daily.
In Detroit, a class called Cal­
culus I may teach mostly Calculus,
or it may not. Detroit education
standards look marvelous on paper.
But they do not measure up in the
competitive world.
Whoever empowers his or her
mind is totally empowered.
Whoever cannot will run amuck no
matter how many gimmicks be­
come institutionalized.
A Detroit Parent and Teacher
Name withheld by request
__ . _ - _ - __
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Student march, ch ntlng, We want to go to
wan to be like Dan Qu I I·
mpo
up
chool talk
Ian rip
z. Th high chool graduation ra
will Incre e to at least 90 percent.
3. American tudents will leave
grade four, eight, and twelve having
demonstrated competency in chal­
lenging ubject m ner including
English, Mathematics, Science, His­
tory, and Geography; and every
school in America will ensure that all
tuden learn to use their minds
well, 0 they may be prepared for
re pon ible citizenship, further
lea'rning, and productive employ­
ment in our modem economy.
4. U.S. students will be first in the
world in science and math achieve­
ment.
5. Every adult American will be
Ii tera te and will po e the
knowledge and kills neces ary to
compete in a global economy and
exerci e the rights and re pon-
ibilities of citizenship.
6. Every chool in America will
be free of drug and violence and will
offer a disciplined environment con­
ducive to learning.
The pl n goes on to explain that
all six goals, excluding 2, 3, and 4,
have been erved.
John Chubb, a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institute, did a study on
American high chool and found
that chool that are extensively con-
SeeSTRIKEA10
By TUREKA TURK
Mlchhl.n Cltlz.n
DETROIT - What exactly i be ...
hind th struggle over the empower­
ment is ue in the Detroit Public
School?
Empowerment i the issue Super­
intendent Deborah McGriff and the
Federation of Teachers spent the first
two and half weeks of the strike
throwing back and forth at each
other. The qu tion on many p rents
and students' minds is why?
Empowerment could be the
knight in hining armor to save the
distre ed schools in Detroit or, for
that matter, allover the country. The
concept allow the students, parents,
and staff of each individual school
the "opportunity to take the initiative
to exerci e independence in achiev­
ing the District's mission, goals, and
objectives", as one pro-empower­
ment brochure define .
That works by giving the faculty
the freedom to create their own cur­
riculum in the classroom. Parents
become more involved with the J' I J I ,) - ,l"'lJ I.G 11I'!'UU fl" 'rt or • • " ... , "0
education of their child which has Jb�JllQl'fT]nl' , 1i 1 e s ��PM4'� I - .(.
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the power to make that decision. LEN, ROYAL JELLY, BEE PROPOLlS, GINSENG-Teas,
Empowerment is not just a local SS
idea. It is happening all over the liquids, Extracts, BARLEY BRASS; WHEATGRA ,
country as a branch of President SPIRULlNA, GREEN MAGMA, CHLORELLA '
Bush's Educational plan. Outlined
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I. All children in America will FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED CALL 1-8()()..649-3n7
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� JU��
Marcha Por La Justica
Insaaf Kay Liye Pat Yatra
AI Sayer Lil A Dalla
Urugenjo Rw'Uutabera
Muchat Aladala
Marsz 0 Sprawiedliwasc
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Muendo Wa Uhuru
Comminate Perla Guistizia
Marche Pour La Justice
Gay Far Frykite
Hodaj Za Pravdu
Insaaf Vastay Paidal Yatra
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In any language, it means join us in our pledge to end racism,
poverty, and injustice.
WALK with Focus: HO,PE Sunday, October 11th, at 1 :00 p.m.
Call 833-7440 for information.
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