How do we extricate ourselves from the mess in which we find ourselves?

I want to share a message my daughter posted on Facebook because she said it better than I could ever hope to. Her message reminds us there are no simple answers to what is happening in our society and that nothing will change until each of us is ready to change:

“Please don’t let your outrage at the fires and looting distract from the reasons why it is happening. Our country is deeply damaged. Anger has festered for decades and it is time for a change. This type of anger is not always expressed quietly and calmly. It is ugly and uncontrolled. As ugly as the racism that has led to it. We must rebuild a better America. An America that is not great AGAIN but great for everyone going forward. White people must realize that people of color are not to be feared – WE are. We have caused this and contributed to it and we must be a part of the change. Do what you can. Donate, volunteer, demonstrate. Speak out when you see something wrong. Find your own way to help. But most importantly, learn empathy and examine yourself. We can all do better.”

                                              -Jeanne Hawkins Beaupre, Facebook, May 31, 2020

We must work to change the fundamental character of America and this can only begin with our system of education, whether public schools, parochial, or private. There is no other way.

Every child must be given the absolute best education we can provide, and this will not happen until we are willing to change how we teach them. We must not allow a single child to fail and we must never forget they can only fail when we choose to allow it. 

We have the power to ensure the academic success of every one of our nation’s children.  

We cannot accomplish this by teaching the same things we have always taught in the same way we have always taught them. We must change the very nature of our education process. While this may seem like an almost impossible task, you will discover it to be easier than most of you can imagine.

We must help every child learn as much as they are able at their own best pace. We must help children establish a foundation of knowledge and skills from which each can begin to create a positive future for him or herself. We must help every boy and girl choose whatever direction suits their interests and abilities.  The education we provide must give them a wide menu of choices of what to do with their lives in order to find joy and meaning; must prepare them to provide for themselves and their families; and, it must enable them to participate in their own governance.  

If you would like to learn how this can be accomplished, please check out The Hawkins Model© at my website at www.melhawkinsandassociates.com

As you read the model, strive to imagine what it would be like to teach and learn in such an environment, not in search of reasons why it will not or cannot work.

If you like what you read, please help me find a superintendent willing to test the model in one of his or her struggling elementary schools.

What do we have to lose? If we continue to do what we have always done, we will continue to get the same disappointing outcomes  we have been getting for as long as any of us can remember.

Lack of Insight and Empathy are Subtle Forms of Racism

It is amazing how many white people think there is no reason why African-Americans, poor black people specifically, cannot pull themselves out of poverty and live their lives like we do. When a black person is shot by police these same people will say “if they don’t want to be stopped by police they shouldn’t break the law!” These Americans have no insight into the implicit pre-judgment in their minds that the black person must have been doing something wrong,” or even worse, that “they should not have been there in the first place.” How can America be great if there are public places to which access is denied because of race or religion?

These white Americans do not understand why anyone whose car broke down along a highway would be afraid of an approaching police officer. They cannot imagine that that they would be perceived as a threat when walking through someone else’s neighborhood. Most white men cannot imagine that women, whom they pass on a sidewalk or other public place, would feel endangered by their nearness just because of the color of their skin. White Americans do not understand what it is like to be profiled by the color of their skin.

White Americans are incensed when a millionaire black athlete kneels during the National Anthem as a form of protest over the death of yet another black man at the hands of police. These white people have no insight into the fact that the reality in which young black children are reared in the U.S. is not the same reality with which they are familiar. They do not understand that the chasm that separates poor blacks from mainstream American society seems as wide as the Grand Canyon to black Americans. Most whites Americans cannot comprehend that life in poor urban and rural communities is not a matter of choice. They do not see that the black athlete who kneels during the national anthem is using his platform to speak on behalf of young people who are unable to speak for themselves.

White men and women who ridicule the idea of “white privilege” are oblivious to their own lack of empathy. Rather than seek to understand or work to find solutions they opt, instead, to pass judgment on their fellow citizens. They are so busy exercising their “white privilege” in response to their perceptions of black America that they have no insight into how they, themselves, are perceived by that other America. Sadly, far too many do not believe that blacks are entitled to such privilege and they do not care what black America thinks. These Americans reject the assertion that their behavior is a subtle form of racism. They also reject the possibility that they could ever be wrong.

It is because of such intransigence that we remain divided as a nation, unable to assuage the pain of past and present injustice. When are white Americans going to acknowledge that the greatness of America is a matter of perception and that we do not all enjoy the same opportunities and freedoms?

Rather than strive to address the inequities of our society and the prejudices of the American people, conservative white men and women want to turn back the clock to a simpler time when they felt safe, secure, and in control. We cannot achieve the future we seek by bullying, calling people names, blaming others when we do not get our way, by clinging to the past, or by abandoning our democratic principles. What we all must understand is that there will never be a simpler time.

The reality that is early 21st Century America is a function and consequence of our government’s policies since the end of World War II; both republican and democrat, liberal and conservative. Since the world has changed exponentially, we must be willing and able to think exponentially, which is just another way of saying “think outside the box.” The one thing of which we can be certain is that the problems of the balance of the 21st Century will not be solved by the solutions of the past. The sooner we accept this truth the sooner we can begin working together to repair the widening breach that divides us.