Reform School Reform

I recently watched a new Ken Burns documentary on PBS about the Roosevelt’s, Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor. Like I am with most quality depictions of American History, I was fascinated. During the telling of Franklin Roosevelt’s role in dealing with the Great Depression I thought about the International Business Machines Corporation, known to many as IBM. In 1979 IBM recruited me out of the graduate school at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, to work in its marketing branch office. I was one of the first African Americans to work there. During the Great Depression America (and the rest of the world) was near economic Armageddon. The unemployment rate went from 3.2% in 1929 to 24.9% in 1933. Incredibly, Tom Watson Sr., IBM’s CEO at that time refused to lay anybody off. 

Watson believed that his most valuable asset was his people. He has been quoted as saying “you can take my buildings and inventory, but if you leave me my people, I can build it all again”. When the Social Security Act was signed by Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, IBM had the people and the inventory to do the massive accounting job. The company was also well positioned to take on many other government contracts throughout the years leading up to World War II. This “full employment” policy, packaged with an employee benefit package that included group life insurance, survivor benefits, paid vacations, profit sharing, and a pension, (all of which employees did not contribute a cent to) continued until the turn of the century, allowing IBM to attract the best and the brightest. There were no unions at IBM. We did not want or need one. We were loyal to the company because it was loyal to us. We were well paid and our benefits and working conditions were second to none. IBM was and remains one of the best companies in the world because it had and continues to have some of the best employees in the world.

Telling people how to fix America’s failing schools has become a profitable business. Whether you are a politician, former government employee, former educator, entrepreneur, writer, journalist, or philanthropist, there is a place for you if you think you have “the” solution. The problem itself, is real. I felt that after spending 10 years in predominantly minority schools just outside of the Washington DC beltway, working as an administrator in schools with a poverty rate near 70%, I was very familiar with the problem. That was before I spent a year in Cleveland, Ohio as an educational consultant. In my entire life, I had not seen the kind of poverty and educational dysfunction that I saw there. If the schools in America’s other large cities, such as Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Miami, Newark, etc. are similar, we are committing a crime against humanity. 

Langston Hughes said it best.

 “What happens to a dream deferred?

          Does it dry up
     like a raisin in the sun?
        Or fester like a sore…
               And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

          Or crust and sugar over…
                  like a syrupy sweet?

                 Maybe it just sags

                 like a heavy load.

                 Or does it explode?

 There are many very good schools in America. Those schools have strong, knowledgeable, politically savvy, courageous leaders. They have leaders with an understanding of the science of managing people, running a business, and the empathy of a clergyman, they are outstanding teachers in their own right, they have a vision of what their schools should be, and do not hesitate to articulate that vision to anyone that will listen. America’s outstanding schools have outstanding teachers. They are teachers that are smart, motivated, energetic, creative, demanding, empathetic, and nurturing. Those teachers are always prepared and take great pride in their profession and the accomplishments of their students. You cannot have a very good school without having very good people running that school.

A Superintendent is not going to reform a school. A Superintendent has as much power to fix a school as the President has to fix a neighborhood. What he CAN do is ensure that each of his schools has the kind of Principal described above. He can ensure that each of his schools has the type of  teachers described above, and the moral and professional support, physical plant and financial resources his students and employees deserve.

A Board of Education is not going to reform a school, neither is a city council or mayor or governor. What they can and should do is everything possible to ensure that the right kind of Principals and teachers are hired and the wrong kind are fired. If they fail in this task, nothing else will really matter.

A school is an individual organism. Each has its unique problems and solutions. Each has its own personality. Five-Year Plans with common goals, expectations, and resources did not work in the Soviet Union, and they do not work in education.

Hire the right people. Treat them well. Train them well. Pay them well. Like Tom Watson Sr. did at IBM. Eventually, the best and the brightest will line up to work in the schools.

And then maybe, just maybe, the dreams deferred, will not explode.   

           

Guns For Everybody

The Constitution of the United States is the framework for our federal government. It's amendments, including the Bill of Rights, guarantees the rights of its citizens. Amendments have been added and removed over the years, but it is a very difficult process, requiring a two thirds majority in both houses of Congress, the signature of the President, and ratification by the legislatures of three fourths of the States. In other words, we don’t screw around with the constitution unless it’s important stuff.

For example, we admitted the founding fathers got it wrong when they allowed slavery, so we added the thirteenth amendment to abolish it. The fourteenth amendment gave Blacks citizenship, erased the provision to count blacks as three fifths of a person, and gave blacks the right to vote. The sixteenth amendment was ratified when we realized the country needed the revenue from income taxes. The eighteenth amendment outlawed beer, wine, and anything else that could get you drunk! The nineteenth amendment decided that maybe we should let women vote. The twenty first amendment decided that the eighteenth amendment was stupid and unenforceable, so it said sorry about that one, forget about it.

In other words, the founding fathers, nor the other politicians that have been elected to office are perfect. Sometimes they make mistakes, and in order to “form a more perfect union” or to “ensure domestic tranquility”, those mistakes need to be corrected.

The most famous amendment to the Constitution is the second. It states, “A WELL REGULTED MILITIA, BEING NECESSARY TO THE SECURITY OF A FREE STATE, the right of the people to bear Arms, shall not be infringed”. The Constitutional Convention ratified the Constitution in September of 1787. At that time, the United States did not have a standing army.  The defense of the nation depended on a “citizen army”. Each state had its own “militia”, men who lived and worked at home who had agreed to get together and help defend the State whenever necessary. They used their own personal weapons, the same weapons that they used to provide meat for their families to eat. If their right to own those weapons were not guaranteed, the new nation would have been defenseless. That is certainly not the case today.

On December 14, 2012 I was in my office at my high school in Maryland. The television on the wall was tuned to CNN when the first news bulletin flashed on the screen informing us of what was happening at Sandy Hook Elementary school. When I comprehended the fact that children were being killed in an elementary school I felt like I was having a heart attack. I could hardly breathe. My legs felt as if they could no longer hold me up. I closed the door to my office and sat down at my desk. As the toll continued to mount I felt physically sick. My heart ached for those little children. I thought of their parents and the unspeakable horror I knew they were experiencing. I knew that what was happening there could have easily been happening in my school. I knew that what was happening to their sons and daughters could easily be happening to my own daughter.

My greatest stress factor as a Principal was the never ending responsibility to keep more than a thousand children safe every day. You take every possible precaution but what makes your hair gray are those things you cannot control. The most difficult thing I have ever had to do was deliver a eulogy at the funeral for one of my students. More than once I have found myself in trauma centers with parents and family members, praying to God to spare the life of their child. Nothing is more precious than the lives of our children.

According to The Guardian, in 2011 the United States had 9,146 people killed by guns. Italy – 417, Germany – 158, France – 35, England and Wales – 41, Canada – 173. This is madness.

Why does a nation like ours tolerate this annual slaughter? Many would say “we have a right to our guns because the Constitution says we do”. What it REALLY says is if you are in a militia (which no longer exists) you are entitled to a gun to defend the country. Besides, the Constitution once said I should be a slave, and could not vote, and should be counted as three fifths of a person. It once did not allow women to vote. It once said beer was illegal. It was wrong then. Rational people must decide if it is wrong now.

I believe that the American people have been persuaded that the status quo that relates to guns is inviolable. The gun rights advocates will not be satisfied until guns for everyone is a reality. To quote Malcolm X, I think the American people “have been took, bamboozled, led astray, run amok… We’ve been hoodwinked”, into thinking there is no solution to watching our children, friends, and loved ones butchered every day.

My grandmother would say, “Baby, I know you’re upset, now, what are you going to do about it?”

   

Number 2

Last night something happened at Yankee Stadium that was both routine and historic. Derek Jeter won a baseball game for the New York Yankees, and we will never see that happen in that stadium again.

My mother was a huge Yankee fan, and if my mother liked the Yankees, I liked them too. I remember watching the 1960 World Series with her when I was seven years old. I shared her shock and disappointment when Bill Mazeroski hit a home run over Yogi Berra’s head in left field in the bottom of the ninth inning of the seventh game to win the thing for the Pirates. I also remember watching the Yankees beat the San Francisco Giants in the World Series two years later, and celebrating when the Yankee’s second baseman Bobby Richardson snagged a screaming line drive off the bat of Willie McCovey in the ninth inning of the seventh game to win that one for the Yankees.

Baseball was a really big thing in our neighborhood when I was growing up. Most of the people I knew hated the Yankees, and loved either the Dodgers or the Giants. Both were former New York teams that had conceded New York to the Yankees and moved to California. The Dodgers went to Los Angeles and the Giants to San Francisco. Of course, the reason Black people preferred those teams was because they were very welcoming to Black players. The Dodgers integrated the sport with Jackie Robinson, later adding all-time greats like Don Newcombe, Roy Campanella, Maury Wills, John Roseboro, Willie Davis, Tommy Davis, and Junior Gilliam. The Giants featured the great Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, and Juan Marichal. As for the Yankees, the only Black player they started was the magnificent catcher, Elston Howard. But, none of that mattered to me. The Yanks had Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Kubek and Richardson, and Yogi too. Besides, the Yankees seemed to always win.

My affection for the Yankees was strong until the Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966, and the Atlanta Braves became my home team. Birmingham is less than a two hour drive from Atlanta, so for the first time in my life I was able to watch major league baseball live.

It has never been easy to be a New York Yankee. It is a team larger than life designed for a city even larger. The expectation (ask any New Yorker) is for the Yankees to win the World Series EVERY year. The city elevates its winners to deity. It destroys and despises a loser. Its spotlight is blinding. Any mistakes are known within minutes by its millions of die-hard and casual fans. New York, New York… it’s a hell of a town.

Somehow, for the last twenty years, Derek Jeter has shown up at Yankee Stadium and performed better than most, especially when the chips were down. He has won five World Series, just like he was supposed to. He has been their Captain, and led them through the calm and the storms. Somehow, he has avoided controversy, and earned the respect and admiration of the most discriminating fans in the world. For twenty years.

 I have great respect and admiration for Derek Jeter. I don’t know anybody that doesn’t. I may no longer be a Yankee fan, but I always have been, and always will be, a Derek Jeter fan.

Last night, something historic happened at Yankee Stadium. The voice of the late, great Bob Shepherd announced it when we heard him say for the last time….

“Now batting…for the Yankees…Number 2…Derek Jeter…Number..2”.

Pull Your Pants Up

Several years ago I heard Chris Rock say something during a performance that I never forgot. It was funny. It was sad. It was true. I remember him saying “Why would someone just getting out of prison get more respect than someone just graduating from college?” I can’t remember if he answered the question, but it is a question that anyone that is saddened by, disgusted by, or disinterested in the problems that are endemic to and generated by America’s poverty-ridden inner cities should consider.

I am very confident that most of us have observed young men walking around in public with their pants hanging halfway off their butts, intentionally exposing their underwear. Most of us have wondered why and how could such a disgusting habit become so commonly popular?

One plausible theory is based in America’s prisons. Prisons do not allow belts. (For obvious reasons) The theory is, since belts are not allowed in prisons the prisoner’s ill-fitting pants would hang loosely and slide down their behinds. When African-American men returned to their neighborhoods from prison they continued to wear their pants this way. Every culture has role-models. Children emulate adults.

As a high school principal I would often tell frustrated parents that children pay a lot more attention to what we DO than what we SAY. One of my strictest rules was a ban on visible underwear. That rule would have had no validity if my students EVER saw me or one of my teachers walking around with our underwear visible. However, one of my biggest frustrations was when one of my student’s fathers or guardians would visit the school blatantly violating the rule we were trying so diligently to enforce.

This principle applies if those role-models are farmers, politicians, teachers, factory workers, miners, or military officers. Culture is the most powerful determinant of human behavior. To change an individual’s behavior, remove him from his native culture. To change a corporation you must change the culture. To change a school you must change the culture. To change a neighborhood, you must change the culture.

Today’s young people living in our inner cities or beset by poverty have difficult choices to make. They must often choose between a sub-culture that is lacking resources, education, positive role-models, and high expectations, and another culture that encompasses all of the aspects of the American dream. To choose the latter often means being very different from those that you have learned to trust and depend on. Success usually depends on having a powerful support system in a very good school that will provide consistent support and academic challenges, as well as extensive guidance in planning that young person’s future. It is a leap of faith that not enough dare to take. America's achievement gap is not so much a lack of ability as it is a lack of courage.

To tell the truth, if the Temptations had performed in pants hanging half-way down their butts, I would have been tempted to do the same thing. Fortunately, the culture would not have allowed it. A few years ago a common myth stated that there were more Black men in prison than college. The popular media may make it seem otherwise, but progress is being made. Thousands of minorities and poor children are taking that leap of faith each year to transcend a culture of mediocrity and realize their full potential.

It would help tremendously if their fathers would pull their pants up.        

If I Should Die Tonight

There have been many times when in the middle of reflective conversations with my friends that I have said, “If I should die tonight I would have no regrets. I’ve had a really great life”. There are no places that I wanted to go that I haven’t been to. I have been able to have a positive impact on many others and consequently, the world. I have had the pleasure of knowing very smart and interesting people, including many fascinating and beautiful women. I have experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. I have reconciled myself with the awesome vastness of the universe and the enigma of how it came to be. I have loved and been loved for no other reason than because it was so.

One of the most difficult things that I have ever had to deal with was the inevitability of death. During my twenties this was my most difficult challenge. Ironically, this coincided with my college years, and a philosophy professor that I will never forget. Learning how to think forced me to question everything that I had been trained to accept without question as a African American child growing up poor in apartheid Alabama during the 1950’s and 1960’s. I would often wake up in the middle of the night, thinking of being in a casket, unable to breathe, terrified. I often wondered about heaven and hell, how could it be so simple when the earth and the universe was so incredibly complex? I wondered how Christ could be the answer when so many people had lived before him and so many others lived and died with no knowledge of him.

My heroes have been few, but they have had an enormous effect on me and the life I have led. My maternal grandmother taught me to go beyond complaining about what’s wrong and to do something about it. Martin Luther King Jr. taught me about courage, and the power of rhetoric to move people, shape opinion and effect change. My high school football coach taught me that white people in Alabama and anywhere else could believe in equality and fairness and the potential of minority children. 

I thank God that I was born in The United States of America, in the Great State of Alabama, the “Heart of Dixie”. I am glad that I was there with George Wallace, Bull Conner, and the White Citizen’s Council. Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Shuttlesworth, Ralph Abernathy, and so many others were there too, and me. All of those tragic and historic events in my state made America a better nation, and made me a better man.

I want to talk about my life. I want to talk about being poor in Alabama, integrating my high school and Auburn University. I want to talk about playing football and basketball and my love for the Auburn Tigers.

I need to talk about being in the Marine Corps, integrating IBM in Mobile, Alabama, owning my own business, being in love, being a teacher and a high school Principal. I want to talk about the emotion a Principal feels when seeing students graduate and go to college that would not have made it without his input and interventions. 

Many years ago I learned that writing was therapeutic. It is also cheaper than a psychologist. And so, I have decided to write. I will write about all of these things and the many other issues both real and imagined by our relentless information industry.

To Tell The Truth… this life that I have lived is the reason why, if I should die tonight, I would have no regrets.