INTELLIGENTNEWZNET...Wise Intelligent wants to open his own charter school!!!
INTELLIGENTNEWZNET
INFORMING the HIP-HOP COMMUNITY
INTELLIGENT SCHOOL
Peace
What up Family…
Wise Intelligent is one step closer to opening up his own charter school in Trenton, New Jersey! I hope you all can appreciate what an incredible opportunity this is. As you all know Wise has spent his entire adult life educating his community about themselves and the world around them. He is not only one of the illest MC's to ever touch the microphone, he is a tireless active activist on the frontlines of the struggle to improve the quality of education for our youth today.
Check out this breakdown of the charter school proposal from the Trenton Times.
TRENTON -- Two new charter schools that would serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade are being proposed for the city, the state Department of Education said yesterday. The founders of both schools are city residents and, if their applications are approved, each school would accommodate about 600 students.
The proposals for the Trenton Vista Academy and the Trenton Frontier Academy are among 25 applications for new charters submitted statewide, officials said.
New Jersey Department of Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said the response makes it "clear that interest in charter schools re mains strong in New Jersey." The state will now begin determining which applications will be approved.
Charter schools are privately operated public schools; they are open to any student in the districts they serve and receive tax money based on enrollment.
As it stands now, there are seven charter schools in Mercer County, including four that serve students from Trenton. Two new schools, Capital Preparatory High School and the Paul Robeson Charter School for the Humanities, are set to open in September.
If approved, The Trenton Vista Academy would focus on in integrating students into communications-based careers and getting them more involved in city affairs, said founder Timothy "Wise" Grimes. "Aside from providing students a more hands-on experience, we want to expose them to careers in fields such as journalism, entertainment and photography," said Grimes, who also records and produces hip hop music.
"The youth will attend city meetings, understand how it works, and then interview the key players," he said.
Eventually, the students would upload material to their own website and contribute to a print publication that goes along with the school's core curriculum, he said.
A lifelong city resident, Grimes owns a music company, Intelligent Music, that helps independent recording artists market and distribute their music.
His brother-in-law, Wayne Dennis, is the vice principal at P.J. Hill Elementary, a Trenton public school, and is acting as an adviser during the charter school process.
"I told him that of course I would support him, so long as it doesn't interfere with my work," Dennis said. "I don't think it will be a conflict."
Few details were available yesterday on the proposed Trenton Frontier Academy. Documents filed by the state list the founder as city resident Donnie Walker, whose application for a different charter school was denied last year by the state. He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Both proposed schools face a more rigorous approval process than past charters.
The state changed its guidelines after the Mercer Arts Charter School in Trenton opened in September 2007 and was forced to close four months later amid an inadequate academic program and projected deficit of $2.5 million.
Its founders admitted they rushed to open the doors.
Now, the state will require that all approved charter school founders must plan for a year before opening their doors to students.
The new procedure is sup posed to give founders more time to prepare, while cutting back on the number of failed applications, according to state officials.
Under law, public school districts must pay charter schools 90 percent of the per-student cost for every child who attends from their community.
Other funding can come from state aid.
Davy said next year, the state expects to dole out $247.9 million to the 62 charter schools in New Jersey that likely will open in September. There are currently 56 charter schools in operation. The Paul Robeson Charter School will be the last in Mercer County to open within the same year of being approved.
Contact Lisa Rich at lrich@njti mes.com or (609) 989-5692
Wise Intelligent currently has an after school tutoring program "Intelligent Kidz" in the Trenton public school system. When you download "Wise Intelligent iz…The Talented Timothy Taylor" from Itunes or cop "Blessed be the Poor? from CD Baby you are directly donating to Intelligent Kidz. Thank you for all your love and support…We can not do this without you! For more interviews, features, booking and information about Wise Intelligent, Intelligent Kidz, and the INTELLIGENTNEWZNET please contact Born Free at bornfree9@hotmail.com / intelligentmuzik@yahoo.com It's NO LONGER Smart to be DUMB!
INTELLIGENT FOLLOW-UP TO Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s 9/11 Sermon
Last week we sent out a bulletin breaking down our thoughts about the thoughts, opinion, and sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and all of the controversy that followed… (If you missed it you can check it out here… INTELLIGENTNEWZNET )
We appreciate all the feedback and comments that you’ve sent us; all of your points of view were very well thought out and INTELLIGENT!!! A lot of you were very skeptical of the media’s portrayal of Rev. Wright’s 9/11 sermon and asked if we had the whole and complete sermon in its entirety, so you could judge for yourself the views the Reverend expressed.
Click the link below to hear Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s whole sermon in context…
Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
Jeremiah…Chapter 7 verse 26-28…King James Version
After listening to, watching, and reading transcripts of Chicago’s now infamous Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons, as well as other people’s comments about those sermons, the inescapable reality of our situation hit me like a crane falling from a New York City skyscraper! That reality was that, to tell THE TRUTH is as "UN-AMERICAN" an act as bombing the WorldTradeCenter. The truth in our day has been deemed an "enemy-combatant" an "enemy of the state" a "threat to national security" and a hater of the "freedom’s" and "liberties" on which "democracy" was founded.
It’s time for us to be honest. WHAT PART OF WHAT REV. WRIGHT SAID WAS NOT THE TRUTH? He said…
"…the Government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a 3 strike law and then wants us to sing God Bless America…NO…NO…NO…Not God Bless America, but God Damn America! For killing innocent people, God Damn America for treating her citizens as less than human…"
Now am I missing something because America (CIA) DID bring drugs into the country! They DID flood poor neighborhoods with these drugs, and used the money to finance covert wars on foreign soil and subsequently built a prison industrial complex that incarcerates unsuspecting ghetto children while making themselves billions of dollars in the process! All of this might be an inconvenient truth, but it is the truth nevertheless!!! [See, Iran Contra; Dark Alliance by Gary Webb; ask John Kerry or visit Freeway Rick Ross at Prison]. The reverend continued by stating that 9/11 could have been the result of America’s tyrannical and oppressive foreign policy. He referred to this as the proverbial "chicken’s coming home to roost". He said…
"…We (America) bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki…and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye…We (America) have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done over seas are now being brought back right over into our own front yards…"
I’m not trying to be sarcastic but I really thought in 2008 that all of this was elementary and basic common knowledge. While watching an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, I heard Barney Frank say that "it was wrong for Rev. Wright to suggest that America had brought 9/11 on itself". Now I can understand why some people might think that it’s wrong to bring up these very uncomfortable things because it’s very painful to confront the potential reality of why such a horrific event could have happened, but in my opinion it’s vital for us to start dealing with the core and real reasons why people around the world have so many issues with America. If you can accept the fact that Saddam Hussein was executed because his "chickens’ of subjugation, oppression, and state sponsored terrorism throughout Iraq and the neighboring regions had finally came home to roost, it shouldn’t be considered Un-American for Rev. Wright or anybody else to start looking at America under the same type of microscope to try and figure out just what the hell is going on around here. How many American’s really understand the depth of this countries influence in foreign lands - for better or for worse? How many American’s know that "Al-Qaeda" is an American CIA invention? This group was armed, trained, and named by the CIA in the early 1980’s, and used to help destabilize the then Soviet Union. Guess what, it worked! America’s so-called "Cold War" or "War on Communism" created the world we are wrestling with today, i.e., the "war on terror" the ’war on drugs", etc.
·The Cold War was responsible for fueling the illegal drug trafficking in America beginning when drugs from Laos were shipped to America in the 1950’s – 60’s and profits from sales financed the arming of allies fighting against Ho Chi Min. Also, the flooding of African-American communities with tons of cocaine from South America with proceeds going to finance the contra’s whose task it was to destabilize the Sandinistas of Nicaragua.
·The Cold War was responsible for arming, training and financing such terrorists groups as Al-Qaeda, as well as the Taliban government of Afghanistan. Believe it or not Saddam Hussein was also a CIA "Cold War" creation.
·The Cold War was responsible for arming opposing African rebels in the Congo, thus, giving rise to the current "civil-unrest" in African countries like Sierra Leone.
I suggest the uninformed American citizen grab him/herself a copy of Mahmood Mamdani’s Good Muslim, Bad Muslim (Tree Leaves Press, New York 2005). It was during this same "Cold War" period that Robert McFarlane and Oliver North asked the Saudis for $1 million a month to help finance their own international terror campaigns. The two, North and McFarlane, also tapped the Apartheid South African government for $1 million a month for the same covert terror. Then we wonder why the Reagan/Bush administration did nothing about the genocide in South Africa that was at its peak during this time?
You see, after the Boland Agreement that stopped funding for the "war on communism" the Reagan/Bush administration took two initiatives that all but destroyed America’s "black" community and changed U.S. foreign policy forever. According to Mamdani, these were 1) they turned to the drug trade for an illicit source of funds; 2) they turned to the religious right to implement those foreign policy objectives that Congress had ruled against, thus beginning a trend towards privatizing war." Rev. Wright was, in effect, RIGHT!
Remember Malcolm X made the "chicken’s coming home to roost" analogy famous amongst us. Malcolm used the proverb immediately following the assassination of JFK. Brother Malcolm was referring to the fact that America had just assassinated Patrice Lumumba and had been involved in the assassination of many other foreign leaders, so maybe the JFK assassination was an example of "reaping what you sew", one of those good ole "Judeo-Christian" principles on which America was built. Today we know that the same American "Judeo Christian" machine that assassinated Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Lauren Kabila, Martin Luther King and Brother Malcolm, was the same machine responsible for splattering JFK’s cerebrum all over his wife in front of the entire Judeo-Christian world.
Bottom line, Rev. Wright is a pastor whose only crime was telling the TRUTH! He had no cache of arms stockpiled in the basement of his church, he had no "weapons of mass destruction" and his church hasn’t and doesn’t receive any western-union transfers from Osama Bin Laden. The good Judeo-Christian Rev. Wright simply told the truth, now he’s an "anti-American villain", who supports the "terrorist" and the "axis of evil", [ooohhh…scary], when both these infamous boogie monsters have "Made in America" sewed in their underwear!
But, even in the seriousness of this public "denunciation" and disowning/disagreeing with the good Reverend’s "anti-American-rhetoric", I did find some humor in all of this. That laugh came from my own hood while watching black reverend’s from my area play such an agile and rhythmic game of hop-scotch trying their damnedest not to say what they really felt, something like "Yes…God Damn America!" It was like that part in the Bible wherein Jesus told the disciple Peter that he would deny him thrice before the cock crow (John 13:38). Peter wanted to be down and represent with, and for, the denounced, rejected and crucified Jesus, but at the same time he did not want the rejection, denouncing and public crucifixion that came with telling the truth in the ROMAN EMPIRE!
These are Christian pastors who, by all accounts and testaments are supposed to do "what would Jesus do". Jesus said that "the Truth shall set you free". America was supposedly founded on a Judeo-Christian morality which holds certain "truths" to be self-evident! However, when Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Medgar Evers, Fred Hampton Sr., Gary Webb, and many others were moved to expound on certain evident truths, they were all denounced, disowned, messages reduced to rhetoric and assassinated! When certain MC’s of Hip Hop’s "Golden Era" (Public Enemy, KRS ONE, X-Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers, Brand Nubians, Ice Cube, Paris, Kam, Sista Souljah, etc.) were moved to high-light certain truths that they held to be self-evident, the entire movement was officially "un-officially" banned from the publicdomain; denounced, disowned, message reduced to worthless rhetoric and all but assassinated?
So, if the countries so-called Christian leaders (white, black, etc.) want to maintain their positions of no-POWER in the current set-up, they must take the position of the high priest Caiaphas of Jesus’ day. For it was the high priest Caiaphas who said that if this man is allowed to continue with his sayings and works, the Romans will come and take all of our positions in the high places and destroy what’s left of Jewish autonomy (John 11:41-53)! Needless to say, in order to keep their positions in the high places, they sold Jesus out even though they knew he was telling THE TRUTH!
It is a sad day in the world when men are threatened to denounce, disown, and disassociate themselves with the truth. If men were not afraid to speak truth to power America would not have invaded Iraq on the premise of an out-right LIE! If someone in congress or the presidents cabinet would have been brave enough to publicly tell the truth about Saddam’s "WMD’s", over 4000 American soldiers and 120,000 Iraqi citizens would not be dead. It was George Orwell that said "in a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act".It was the Apostle Paul that said "Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? (Gal. 4:16)
INTELLIGENTNEWZNET...Professor Griff benefit show in Philly on March 16th
INTELLIGENTNEWZNET
INFORMING the HIP-HOP COMMUNITY
Peace
What's GOOD Family…
On Sunday March 16th (9:00 pm) at Club Tritone on 1508 South Street in Philadelphia, PA, Wise Intelligent of Intelligent Muzik and Center Stage Promotions will host a benefit show for Professor Griff and his Family. For those of you who are not aware on February 10thwhile Griff was in New York giving a lecture his home and studio were consumed in a devastating fire. Griff and his family are physically fine, but they lost about 90 % of everything. Griff lostan expansive library collection of over 3000 books, CD's, DVD's, lecture transcripts, furniture, clothing, instruments, studio equipment and countless international valuables/artifacts collected during the course of a twenty-year professional entertainment career.
Intelligent Muzik and Center Stage Promotions are putting on this benefit show to help our Brother financially recover during this trying time. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT! We need to have this club jam PACKED with fans, family, and friends of our Brother Professor Griff. This is the time for us to make are rhetoric a reality!
Venue – TRITONE
Performers – Wise Intelligent of the Legendary Poor Righteous Teachers, DJ Akshun, Richard Raw, Side Effect, Cymarshall Law, Charlie K, B.O.E. (Board of Education), Burke
Venue Address- 1508 South StreetPhiladelphia, Pa19146
Doors open- 9pm
Cost- $10
Come on out and show your love and support for your Brother. Professor Griff has spent his entire life on the front lines of the struggle to educate and uplift our community and it's time for us to give something back.
If you can't make it out to this show in Philly please send all donations (checks/money orders may be made payable to: Kavon Shah)
INTELLIGENTNEWZNET...WISE will be on the new Self Construction project!
INTELLIGENTNEWZNET
INFORMING the HIP-HOP COMMUNITY
INTELLIGENT UPDATE…
Wise just submitted his vocals for the upcoming "Self Construction" project. "Self Construction" is the follow up to the classic "Self Destruction" song and movement of the late 80's. This new song and album will also feature…KRS ONE, Nelly, David Banner, The Game, Chamillionare, Rakaa (Dilated Peoples), Cassidy, Talib Kweli, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, Zion I, Method Man, LL, and many many many more artists.
Peep these Stop the Violence promo videos…
This is not the first time Wise Intelligent has stood right on the frontlines of the struggle to help deal with and fix the problems that we face daily in our communities.
In 1993 Wise joined Professor X of the Legendary X-Clan to release the song "Close the Crackhouse" . You can also hear The God on 1999's "Mumia 911" track with the Unbound Allstars. Wise then linked up with Mos Def and Talib Kweli in 2000 to jump on the Hip Hop 4 Respect album.
I just listen to a few of the MC's on the "Self Construction" song and everyone is bringing their A game! I have no doubt that this will be another classic song to help raise awareness to the very real issues of the day…
DOWNLOAD NEW MUSIC FROM WISE INTELLIGENT...THIS IZ LUV
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.....
Intelligent Muzik proudly presents the next offering from Wise Intelligent's critically acclaimed 2nd solo album, "Wise Intelligent Iz...The Talented Timothy Taylor!"
"This Iz Luv" is the kind song that our so-called "leaders" and radio/TV personalities said did NOT exist in Hip Hop. This song was NOT created and inspired by Valentines Day! "This Iz Luv" was written and produced to pay tribute to the type of Black Love that lays at the very foundation of our lives.
The track was produced by Masada and Wise Intelligent of HavKnotz Productions and features the soulful vocals of the exquisite Tye Austin.
Theshear beauty and elegance of "This Iz Luv" will have you reflecting and thinking about the kind of love and relationships that we all desire and need to survive in this cold world. This song represents our honest, deep, intense, and passionate feelings of love, friendship, and commitment to the women in our lives and the women in our communities…
This Iz Love feat. Tye Austin
(T. Grimes, J. Pierre, E. Stevens)
Produced by Masada ASCAP and Wise Intelligent ASCAP
Recorded and mixed at Found Sound Recording Studio
Engineered by Scott "Supe" Stallone
Tye Austin recorded at Super Baller Studio, Oakland, CA. Engineered by Lamar Kelly
Written by Wise Intelligent and Eugene Stevens
DOWNLOAD this song and send it to your favorite radio stations and DEMAND that they play more INTELLIGENT MUZIK!!! IT'S ALL UP TO US!!!
History is a clock that people use to tell their political time of day. It is a compass that they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It also tells them where they are, and what they are. Most importantly, an understanding of history tells a people where they still must go, and what they still must be.
Ok ladies and gentlemen its "BLACK HISTORY" month, how appropriate for my first blog of the New Year. I initially began writing something "inspirational" you know some journalistic libations for the noble ancestors upon whose shoulders we as a people, nation and individuals now stand. But sadly, that train of thought was derailed by a BBC article that came via the mighty Mundah and the Real News Network. The article entitled "CanadaAfrocentricSchoolSparks Debate" served as a confirmation of my position that "We [black folk] just don't get it?"
The first paragraph of the article gets right to the point and focus of the article saying that "A decision to create the first Afrocentric, or black-focused school funded by taxpayers in Canada's biggest city has sparked a heated debate."
Why should, or how could an African Centered school "spark heated debate" in a society of the "western world" where grandiose ideals like "diversity", "inclusion", "tolerance", "pluralism", "multi-cultural" and "melting-pot" roll off the tongues of western world citizens like stanzas from a Shakespearian play? I mean the current public school system (which is also funded by taxpayers money) is extremely Eurocentric or white-focused even when 90% of the children in attendance are non-white? So the first question that comes to my mind is that if it's okay to use "taxpayers" money to fund a Eurocentric public school curriculum, then why should it "spark heated debate" to create an Afrocentric one in an African Centered School?
I believe I can say without too much rebuttal that the over whelming majority of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native citizens of Canada and America pay taxes with the same pleasant irritation as European or White American/Canadians do, and I'm quite sure that they have earned and deserve the right to have an educational system that is reflective of their ethnic and cultural contributions to the nation in which they live. Why does the idea of an all-inclusive or should I say more simply an honest and balanced view of history create such negative feedback and adult angst?
I believe that if you're teaching history Deal with straight up facts no mystery Teach the student what needs to be taught Cause Black and White kids both take shorts When one doesn't know about the other ones' culture Ignorance swoops down like a vulture…
KRS ONE… "You Must Learn"
So now that the "can of worms" has been opened, we can see that the western worlds non-white citizens have been paying taxes to help fund the current predominantly Eurocentric or white-focused schools throughout the entire western world to their own detriment. The article goes on to say that the "scheme" yes, the "scheme" (read plot) was approved at a packed meeting of the Toronto District School Board.
From kindergarten to the western university taxpaying non-white students are bombarded with overtly racist ideas, myths, falsities, omissions and all sorts of gross misinformation that comprise the legendary lying lore that western "mis-education" is fashioned of. This is why Noam Chomsky said that "education is a system of imposed ignorance". I mean truth be told Pythagoras had no original patent to the concept of a "theorem." The square root of the hypotenuse was used in Egypt some two-thousand years before Pythagoras was a drop of semen. Columbus "discovered" nothing. There were people in the "New World" when he got here. The journals of these same Spanish explorers confirm that West Africans had long been making the trip to the "New World" before Columbus was a drop of semen. The Egyptians were black! Hippocrates was NOT the "father of medicine", and the Civil War was NOT fought to "free" the "slaves" because the North thought enslaving human beings was wrong! Now should non-white taxpayers continue to support and fund the perpetuation of the Eurocentic legendary lying lore?
Considering the above, we must honestly ask and answer the question of what's wrong with a public school in the west wherein the curriculum aim to use "the sources, knowledge and experiences of peoples of African descent as an integral feature of the teaching and learning environment"?
With a drop out rate among young black males as high as 40%, it is obvious that the current system is not working for a very high percentage of young black people. Why then is the people's attempt to implement a solution that has been proven to work (as evidenced by privately funded CIBI schools in the U.S.) met with such visceral public resistance from the custodians of the legendary lying lore?
"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today"
Malcolm X
Take the statement from Anthony Hutchinson for example, an economist and former university professor who the article says "has been involved in a number of youth outreach and employment programs." The article quotes Mr. Hutchinson saying "This belief that if we teach kids about their social and cultural identity they're going to perform a lot better is just stupid." Now how can teaching people the history of themselves (good and bad) be "stupid"?
The above quote is disturbing and interesting because the same individual previously states in the same article that he "blames the school system for marginalizing students." To marginalize someone means to make them feel unimportant and unnecessary. To lay blame for this marginalizing of black students at the foot of the school system you must know that the school is responsible for making black youth feel like they are nothing. How does the school marginalize black youth? It tells them they had no history before slavery at the hands of Euro-Americans. It teaches them that their culture is "primitive" or "third world". It severs Egypt (and recently Ethiopia) from Africa and made them and their marvelous accomplishments apart of a fictional land mass called "the middle" or "near" east. The current Euro-centric or white-focused system teaches the black child that slavery was a blessing and forever repudiates the black world as being of no value!
The only way to reverse the lying lore of the Euro-centric or white-focused system is to establish a system that deals with the truth concerning the people that have been oppressed and exploited to no end. This must been done even if it means the establishment of a counter Euro-centric or white-focused, African-centered or black-focused school. When does Africa get to tell its side of the story? When does the Native American get to tell his story? When do ALL non-white people get to tell their story? Why have we accepted the exploiters version of the story (his-story) as the only story? I don't see any of these custodians of the legendary lying lore pointing out the undeniable fact that the current school systems of the west are Euro-centric and white-focused in their curriculum.
"what you're calling Negro history, and
African history is the missing pages of world history."
Arthur Schomburg speaking to Dr. John Henrik Clarke
Next the professor states that an African centered school is "counter-intuitive and counter-productive" arguing further that "You're going to take public money from the public school system to channel towards a special interest imperative. This is a slippery slope that we do not want to go down." If you really want to start talking about what has been "Counter-productive" we can deal directly with the current Euro-centric system to the tune of a 40% black male drop out rate? This is not a matter of "taking public money from the public school system" it's a matter of scraping the singularly Euro-centric and white-focused public school curriculum and replacing it with one that reflects and includes a more honest and complete historical perspectives of all of its students. Furthermore, is the current public school agenda not a "special interest imperative?" Are not black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American/Canadian students a "special interest" of the current system? I guess not. That being said, the reality of the built-in failure mechanism for black and other non-white youth in the western world public school system is crystal clear.
But how about the statement from the city's influential newspaper, The Toronto Star, who said that the idea of an African-centered school "smacked of segregation, which is contrary to the values of the school system and Canadian society as a whole". If 90% of the student body in the poorest schools are predominantly black, but 90% of the student body in the wealthiest schools are predominantly white…YOU ARE ALREADY SEGREGATED!!! What kind of a pathological flight from reality must one be suffering from not to see this?
Furthermore, how is it segregation when children of ANY RACE, ethnicity or cultural background can attend? No one has said white kids can not attend the African-centered or black focused schools. Segregation was predicated on the idea that blacks could not attend the same schools as their white counterparts. This is not the case with the African-centered school. My son attended the Afrikan Peoples Action School (APAS) in Trenton, NJ for his entire elementary school experience. In such an institution ALL CHILDREN are welcome, but in this dynamic it is pointed out that George Washington cut down the cherry tree and crossed the Delaware but it is also conveyed that he was a slave-trader that owned over 300 slaves, reportedly raped black women and sold a Blackman for a jar of molasses. This is the TRUTH! This is real and complete EDUCATION, and not legendary, lying lore!
There can be no greater tragedy than to forget one's origin and finish despised and hated by the people among whom one grew up. To have that happen would be the sort of thing to make me rise up from my grave.
Paul Robeson, 1938
Next the article lauds the mother that lost her 15 year old son to gun violence when she said the following in opposition to the African-centered school "Martin Luther King and so many of our fathers fought to come together so black and white can be together, for us to sit in the front of the bus together. What we're doing is all segregating each other. We should be one…" Again this in NOT about segregating each other, it's about creating a true and accurate historical educational system that ALL people can participate in and benefit from. Now let's get to the reality of segregation in 2008. At what point will we realize that America and the west are as segregated as it's ever been? When you get on the bus in your hood how many white people do you see sitting next to you (front or back)? When you gaze across the street, up and down your block how many white faces do you see? When you look around your classroom in your inner-city public school how many white faces do you see? Few and far in between I'm afraid.
Martin Luther King and our fathers who fought with him set out to accomplish a great work…changing the hearts, minds and attitudes of Americas white majority…unfortunately the only thing that changed were "paper-precepts" i.e., laws, while the hearts, minds and attitudes of the white majority remained exactly the same as they were when Martin Luther King lie bleeding from the neck on a Memphis motel balcony. In the late fourth quarter of the Civil Rights initiative Martin left us what was in my opinion, his most valuable lesson. This lesson came in the form of a premonition of sorts and was conveyed to his close friend, confidant and brother Harry Belafonte. The message was "Brother Harry…I believe we are integrating into a burning house…"
To the good people of Toronto Canada who have set out to accomplish a great work…changing the hearts, minds, and attitudes of black youth…in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Booker T. Washington, Maria Stewart, Frederick Douglass, Kwame Nkrumah, and all the many…OPEN THAT SCHOOL…By Any Means Necessary!!! At least Black History will then be for an entire school year!
… "A final reason for the African centered curriculum is the nature of the population composition in the United States. This country is composed of a variety of ethnic and racial groups. As such the country should properly be conceived of as the United States of various ethnic, national and racial groups. The Eurocentric curriculum, more or less, serves the cultural interest of most European ethnic groups. It does not serve the cultural interest of most people of African descent. Since population patterns are such that most African Americans live in predominantly African American communities and attend predominantly African American schools, it is logical that they should be taught from an African perspective if they so choose…"
Jacob H. Curruthers…. Essay on African Centered Education
Just a little bit more of tax payer Public School history on my way out the door…
It was Georg Wilhelm Hegel who, in order to lend credence to his ignorant assumption that Africa "has no history", proposed that Egypt be severed from the continent and made a part of a pseudo-geographic land mass called the "Near East." Hegel knew that Egypt was a black African civilization and that the certain Africans were the Egyptians, but this fact did not support his racist supposition that Africahad no history, so he had to take Egypt out of Africa. But, Hegel did not stop there. To explain the great civilizations of Carthage, Tunis, Cyrenica, etc., Hegel proposed that "North Africa" be considered a part of Europe ascribing it the appellation "European Africa." The falsities, ideas, and assumptions of the racist George Wilhelm Hegel, are the very same ideas that shaped and developed the American Educational System. This is not good for black people in general, let alone our children.
Although the German Hegel did not contribute directly to the American System of education himself, it was rather through his "Hegelian" students (as they were called) William Torrey Harris, Horace Mann and John Dewey that his ideas were laid at the foundation of American education. In The Origins of American Philosophy of Education, J.J. Chambliss states that William Torrey Harris was the "central figure in rationalism's influence on American philosophy of education" (Chambliss). In Public Schools and Moral Education, Neil G. McCluskey informs us that the "consensus among historians of education and students of social thought clearly indicates that Horace Mann, William Torrey Harris, and John Dewey can be considered the triumvirate whose thought has most affected the creation and development of the present philosophy of the American public school" (McCluskey).
Neil McClusky informs us that "the roots of Harris's work in the American educational system were firmly planted in Hegelian principles." The following definition of "Hegelian" principles shows us how Hegel's students believed that all power to control the individual should be held by the institution. "To the American Hegelians, education was an effective tool for developing the individual mind to promote "self-activity," or to cultivate the mind to a point at which every individual became entirely aware of his position as a subject in the complex interactions of reality. As Harris put it: "...education is the process through which the individual is led to attain his freedom" (Harris, Twentieth Annual Report). Although the ultimate goal of Hegelian education is freedom of the individual, "freedom" in the Hegelian context denotes a dependence on the influence of institutions. Institutions, as the embodiment of man's rational behavior and thought, are the ultimate tool of freedom."
Boone, Richard G. ed. by William T. Harris. Education in the United States.New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1903.
Brackett, Anna C. "The Science of Education," Journal of Speculative Philosophy, December 1878.
Chambliss, J.J. The Origins of American Philosophy of Education. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1960.
Harris, William Torrey. "The Education of the Family, and the Education of the School," Journal of the American Social Science Association. XV, February 1882.
Harris, William Torrey. "The Church, the State, and the School," North American Review. CXXXIII, September 1881.
Harris, William Torrey. Twentieth Annual Report to the Board of Directors of the Saint Louis Public Schools for the Year Ending August 1, 1894
Harris, "The History and Philosophy of Education," The Chautauquan III, October 1882.
McCluskey, Neil Gerard. Public Schools and Moral Education. New York: ColumbiaUniv. Press, 1958.
Schaub, ed., William Torrey Harris, 1835-1935. Unknown publisher, date.
What's good Family? I know I've been off the radar for an extended minute but believe me I have an excellent excuse…At the end of last year while I was out on the "It's NO LONGER Smart to be DUMB" promo tour supporting my new album "Wise Intelligent iz…The Talented Timothy Taylor", I got the chance of a lifetime and I could NOT turn it down. As you all know (and for the ones who don't) the focus of my mind, body, and soul over the past 15 plus years has been on community education, upliftment, and development, but outside of doing lectures, workshops, and panel discussions I've only had the chance to put most of my ideas, thoughts, opinions, questions, and solutions on wax. While this was cool for a minute it doesn't really have the power to realistically make a substantive and long lasting positive impact in the lives of our youth. Things have snowballed way out of control in our communities and we can longer afford to just sit on the sidelines talking about the issues and just hoping for things to get better. I think its past time for us to start balancing out our theories with direct community action, and I can't think of a better way for me at this time in my life, than helping to facilitate an after-school youth program right in my own hood!
So at the beginning of November 2007 I/we linked up with the Arline Institute to help implement an After-School tutoring program. This exciting and powerful new youth program is not only specifically designed to answer the educational and social needs of our youth, it will provide them with invaluable life skills and lessons that will prepare them to live in the real world in real time. Everything kicked off officially at the beginning of this year (2008), and is off to a fantastic start. The initial jump off is a 10 week program and it's in most of the Trenton public schools as we speak. Intelligent Kidz Inc. is the "liaison" between TrentonPublic Schools, Parents, their Children and the Arline Institute. Over the last few months we have been out in the community making the parents and students aware of the FREE tutoring services that are available to them. After which we help to facilitate the implementation of said tutoring program in the TrentonSchool District.
Here goes a brief background on the Arline Institute…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2008
Arline Institute, Inc. a mid-Atlantic regional educational consulting firm, provides comprehensive supplemental educational services (SES) through our 'Back-To-Basics' tutoring program. The 'Back-To-Basics' program is specifically designed for students attending public and charter schools designated "in need of improvement" by the U.S. Department of Education under the No Child Left Behind Act (2002). Arline Institute instructors work closely with parents, schools, community organizations, and local educators to implement our research-based tutoring program. Arline instructors ensure that all students improve academically by providing appropriate support, motivation and small group instruction tailored to their individual needs.
