EVENT: New Skool Fresh (3/24/2012)

“New Skool Fresh”

New Skool Fresh: This is grassroot organizing at its freshest.

An old-school approach to encouraging sustainability in the youth of Tampa Bay. 

WHERE: Cephas in Ybor, 1701 E 4th ave, Tampa, FL 33605 @6:30pm-9pm

WHAT: Inspire Your Environment (IYE) presents its first community forum night geared towards ecological youth outreach. A time to recognize, celebrate and encourage the freshness of Tampa’s sustainable community and it’s efforts towards the local youth.

The night’s itinerary includes:

1. The Icebreaker
2. The Inspire Your Environment future project line-up
3. Special Community Guest speeches
4. Networking, mingle, food and funky music

WHY: What steps are being taken to provide a sustainable future for Tampa’s youth and how are they getting involved? This night, the green advocates in Tampa target the un-targeted. Come meet people who care about the same things as you.

WHO SHOULD COME: Teachers, mentors, community leaders and advocates, green thinkers, the health conscious, environmental justice advocates, the interested, the passionate, the creative; the ones who want to become involved.

COST: This event is FREE. Green or not, come be inspired. (21+ event) **Food will be available for purchase. Please note it is CASH only y’all. 

This is grassroot organizing at its freshest. Hope to see your face in the crowd…

On Facebook, like the Inspire Your Environment page 
Follow on Twitter: @IYETampa 

Thank you for your support!

#ComeAsYouAre
#WeOnThatGoalSettingTip
#MissionPossible
#MissionAccomplished
#TampaDoingItFresh
#ComeBeInspired
#InspireYourEnvironment

Questions? Email IYE at inspireyourenvironment@gmail.com

The Intentional Park Bench.

The intentional park bench.

Sitting under a natural awning of deep green leaves and swaying lichen, I’m at peace in the neighborhood park. Looking in front of me, about a yard away, I see passerby’s, trudging along the footpath.

 

One kind-looking fellow pumps the pedals on his bicycle, taking a small, uphill journey at a leisurely pace. The sanctimonious marriage of synchronous footsteps are taken by a young couple for the second lap on the trail. A child of maybe two years, laughs uncontrollably at a mother’s insistence for her to stay under her cautious gaze; there is a large body of unbarricaded water nearby. But the child is happy, unaware of any silly perception of danger. She is in nature, and even at the age of three, perhaps no older than four, she is enjoying this.

 

So I want to call out and ask the mother, “how old is your daughter? She has a lively way about her.” And I want to motion for the gentleman to draw nearer so that I may observe the build of his bicycle. I would even like to give the smallest gesture of recognition to the couple I see now on their third lap, coming closer just from around the bend.

 

But woe upon one small trifle: this seemingly unintentional park bench. How I wish it were intentional! So set on being a small beacon of solitude under the awning of this tall tree with deep green leaves and swaying lichen. So unabashedly humble in its invitation to mere strangers, yet so wallflower-like in its reclined position and distance.

 

Were it but one yard closer to the winding footpath, I might have the personal pleasure of indulging in meaningful stares of knowing eyes, and awkward glances with raised eyebrows alike! I would wave hello to my heart’s content and my smile would most assuredly be seen!

 

My thoughts are cut short by a young child fast approaching. His bright red shirt glares past me as he roars ahead on his scooter. I smile big at him as he draws near. He pauses from a short distance and waves.

 

“Hi there!” I wave back.
He stops by me for a curious moment. I ask him how he’s doing today.
“GOOD!” He shrieks as he gets in position on his scooter.
“Watch this!” he instructs me. At this moment, there is no time for conversations, questions or any other words. He whooshes by again, a blur of red courage, almost toppling over, making my heart commit a free-fall.

 

But he’s fine. And he’s enjoying himself at the park. He feels emboldened by the open space, the vastness of the area, and the attention of a crowd of one: me. I cheer him on under the awning of this great tree, with deep green leaves and swaying lichen.

 

As the sun has almost set, I realize that the sides of my face hurt. And it is because I just now realized…I have been smiling this whole time.

It’s a good book: “The Mis-education of the Negro, by Carter G. Woodson.”

Carter G. Woodson mural in Washington, D.C.

All pleasantries aside, this book blew me away. Honest and stark, The Mis-education of the Negro should be read by the ones who value education, societal progress and the intricacies of a well-fashioned sense of humanity.

This book review will take on a different tone. Divided into three parts, I want to provide snapshots of what exactly Woodson identifies as the Mis-education and his inspiring Quotes. I have included a number of Woodson’s applicable Takeaways that may be applied today and to all based on their universality. Finally, a comprehensive Glossary section that may be updated or expanded upon at later dates. 

In other words, I am not going to tell you what I thought. I am going to show you what I read.

The Mis-education.

• The results of an education of an individual aligns strongly with how he functions in society, and what he aspires to be and do. Woodson does not focus narrowly on grades and academic degrees, because he just as fervently dismisses many educated African-Americans as attaining these degrees and being the worst off from receiving them. If community uplift and outreach is not labored for, the education received by African-Americans has been earned in vain.

• Educating freed slaves and their descendants after the Civil war was embedded in philanthropy, which focused on encouraging Black people to live a life in society that abolitionists hoped to make it, but not how it was. The later generations of Black men and women were not taught how to function in society nor were they convinced that their humanity could be recognized and valued. As a result, a back-to-Africa approach was adopted by many.

• The overall mission was to transform Blacks, and not develop them. Condemnation and pity surfaced aplenty. Woodson sharply asserts, “…bear in mind that the Negro has never been educated.”

• A warped slant was used to educate Blacks in the academic areas needed for their progress: i.e., from literature, the works of Africans were excluded, law students were taught they belonged to the most criminal segment of the country, in medicine, Blacks were informed of their inferiority when studied as germ carriers, in history, Blacks were only taught of their subjugation, etc.

• Black students were not permitted to learn of the Declaration of Independence, nor the Constitution of the United States in schools.

• African-Americans learned by way of their oppressors that there were certain professional spheres they would not be able to enter or thrive in. Some professional schools were then closed down in Black institutions. An immensely woeful action, Woodson calls this “a striking demonstration of the mis-education of the race.”

• Paying careful attention to the centrality of the Black church, Woodson credits ministers as co-creators of the old educational system. He therefore maintains that the church, “in many cases…made it possible for Negro professional men to exist.” The antiquated Black church supplies the greatest illustration of the educated African-American becoming estranged from his community, and failing to carry out a program of progress for that community.

Quotes.

“But can you expect teachers to revolutionize the social order for the good of the community? Indeed we must expect this very thing. The educational system of a country is worthless unless it accomplishes this task.” 

-Carter G. Woodson, excerpt from “The Mis-education of the Negro.”

• “In the schools of business administration Negroes are trained exclusively in the psychology of economics of Wall Street and are, therefore, made to despise the opportunities to run ice wagons, push banana carts, and sell peanuts among their own people. Foreigners, who have not studied economics but have studied Negroes, take up this business and grow rich.”

• “When a Negro has finished his education in our schools, then, he has been equipped to begin the life of an Americanized or Europeanized white man, but before he steps from the threshold of his alma mater he is told by his teachers that he must go back to his own people from whom he has been estranged…”

• “The servant of the people is down among them, living as they live, doing what they do and enjoying what they enjoy. He may be a little better informed than some other members of the group; it may be that he has had some experience that they have not had, but in spite of this advantage he should have more humility than those whom he serves, for we are told that, ‘whosoever is greatest among you, let him be your servant.’”

• “As to whether or not a white man should be leader of the Negroes may be dismissed as a silly question. What has the color to do with it? Such a worker may be white, brown, yellow, or red, if he is heart and soul with the people whom he would serve.”

• “Every man has two educations: that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself. Of the two kinds the latter is by far the more desirable. Indeed all that is most worthy in man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is that which constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves.”

Takeaways.

• To become a purposeful educator, you must identify yourself as a connected part of the group you are serving.

• A teaching style of memorizing facts and abandoning the understanding of humanity is disastrous.

• Woodson strongly believes that religious schools must teach the people it serves “how to tolerate differences of opinion and to cooperate for the common good.”

• Service rather than leadership. Focus on an individual approach to understanding the larger/mass problems form a smaller perspective.

• Step away from duplication and toward partnership and merging.

• Engagement in politics is vital.

• Be innovators, not imitators. Black Americans must find the unique offerings they can contribute in the area of academics. There is a need of ‘new vision’ to African-American education, with a special need for more Black historians, economists, artists and philosophers.

Glossary.

• Teuton: a native of Germany or a person of German origin.

• Nonentity: a person or thing of no importance.

• The Black Belt

• Espouse

• Peon

• Vitiated

• Grafter

• Libertine

• Apropos

• Wardheeler: a minor politician who canvasses voters and does other chores for a political machine or party boss.

• Polemic

• Traducer

• Puerile

• Attrition

• Despot

*From this book review and forward, I will strive to cut back a bit out of my book reviews for the purpose of brevity. But if you ever want my full notes on a book, please do not hesitate to email me and I will send you the original Word document (Adjoasutota@gmail.com). 

Inspire Your Environment

Sometimes your environment inspires you.
Other times, you inspire your environment…

Come along and inspire yours!

InspireYourEnvironment.com

If You’re Into Education Reform…

Exhibit A.

Waiting For Superman. #Films

Exhibit B.

The Classic Study: The Mis-Education of the Negro. #Books.

Exhibit C.

With All Deliberate Speed: A look at the landmark Brown vs. The Board of Education. #Films.

Exhibit D.

The controversial Smithsonian article: Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?