Over the next weeks, children will go back to schools across the country. Many will have tough hurdles to overcome – shattered families, mean streets, undersupplied and overcrowded classrooms. Some will be hungry. The odds are against them.
We’re in the midst of an argument about No Child Left Behind and public education, but we’re still not doing the basics for kids. A savage inequality in funding still scars our schools.
Some children will go to modern schools with small classes, modern technology and skilled teachers. Some will go to schools that are dangerous to their heath, with dated textbooks, little equipment and untested teachers.
“We shall overcome,” goes the song. “We,” the song says, not “I” or “he” or “she.”
“We” starts with the family. Parents must show children how important they think getting an education is. Here’s a simple five-point program:
1. Take your child to school on the first day. 2. Meet his or her teachers and exchange phone numbers. 3. Pick up your child’s report card and discuss it. 4. Turn off the television for three hours every night; make study time a routine. 5. Take your child to church or another place of worship once a week.
African Americans who succeed in athletics discipline themselves. They come to practice. They pay attention. There are no TVs on the practice field. They put in extra time. They play more and practice harder so they can compete successfully against those who grow up with better equipment, better coaching and more extensive league play.
Academics are the same. Study more. Pay attention. Turn off the TV. Work harder than those students who start with an advantage by going to better schools with better teachers.
Responsible parents and diligent children are not enough. We must organize politically to demand that every child be given a fair and healthy start. Just the basics: good nutrition, health care, preschool, small classes in the early grades, organized afterschool activities, skilled teachers and a guarantee that, if they graduate from high school, college will be made affordable for them. We shall overcome not only by overcoming the odds but by changing the odds.
Today in ghettos and barrios, in working class suburbs and inner-city neighborhoods, scared young children go to school with the odds stacked against them. Many will make it. They will become the successes that we celebrate. Many more could make it if the playing field were even.
Our children will go back to school this fall to be tested on their progress. We will be judged by how we treat the “least of these.” And when it comes to too many children, they are doing better on their tests than we are on ours.