Two-time presidential candidate and world renowned social justice activist Rev. Jesse Jackson came to Emory Feb. 7 to deliver the inaugural address for a new program to help economically disadvantaged children in urban areas envision brighter futures for themselves.
The program, known as the Center for Urban Learning/Teaching and Urban Research in Education (CULTURES), was conceived and initiated by Jacqueline Jordan Irvine, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Urban Education in the Division of Educational Studies. CULTURES will consist of 40 hours of professional development work for urban teachers to provide them with the skills they need to help their students find paths to success.
"CULTURES was established as a response to demographic challenges presented by increasingly culturally diverse public schools," said Irvine. "The overall goal of CULTURES is to create a professional development center that will assist elementary and middle school teachers to work effectively with culturally diverse students and enhance the quality of teaching and learning in urban schools. The specific goals of CULTURES are to help teachers become culturally responsive, reflective educators, active community members, effective change agents and specialists in their teaching fields. The 40 hours of professional development will connect teachers' classroom experiences with current research and knowledge and also will include teacher visits to students' homes, churches and cultural centers."
Prior to Jackson's address, Irvine shared the story of how a 9-year-old black child named Darius inspired the idea for CULTURES. Several years ago, after attending services at an inner-city church, Irvine discovered that her car wouldn't start. While waiting for the tow truck to come, she was approached by Darius, who wanted to help out by breaking into her car. After she convinced the child that such action wasn't necessary, Irvine began to ask him the standard questions that adults ask children, including "what do you want to be when you grow up?" "I don't wanna be nothin'," was the child's reply. Irvine persisted, asking the boy to close his eyes and try to see himself as anything in the world he wanted to be. After about 15 seconds, she asked Darius what he saw. He answered, "Lady, I don't see nothin'" and rode away on his bicycle.
"Sometimes we forget that many children don't see `nothin' ' when we ask them to envision their future," Irvine said. "Emory can offer a means to reverse the cycle of failure for youngsters whose only dream is to survive through tomorrow."
Several times during Jackson's address to a packed house at Glenn Memorial Auditorium, he praised Irvine and the vast potential represented by CULTURES. He consistently emphasized his belief that if education is truly the best path out of poverty and hopelessness, then Emory has a golden opportunity to become a national leader in helping urban children.
"Teaching teachers to teach in a multicultural and diverse city is so much the right thing to do," Jackson said. "You can't put people in a multicultural setting without teaching them multicultural living. During a time of so much demagoguery and polarization in high places, it's good to see something like this happening at Emory."
Jackson lamented the status of prisons as "urban America's number one growth industry." He pointed out the irony that while most urban children grow up in neighborhoods with no organized recreational activity, no adult supervision and no day care facilities, if they survive long enough, they can go to their local jail, where they will be provided with a climate-controlled environment, organized recreation and balanced meals.
"There is something morally bankrupt that in the greatest of nations, young people have more life options in jails than in their neighborhoods," Jackson said.
Warning of an increasingly bitter "war" on black urban children, Jackson listed several prominent figures whom he said have helped to intensify that war recently: House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has proposed sweeping changes in America's welfare system; author Charles Murray, whose book The Bell Curve has been accused of labeling African-Americans as genetically inferior; and the president of Rutgers University, who, according to Jackson, recently said that blacks don't perform well on standardized tests because of genetic inferiority.
"Our kids are hurting," Jackson said. "We need teachers of extraordinary character, who are teaching not for a living but for life, teachers who are teaching because they can't help but teach."
Through his social justice organization The Rainbow Coalition, whose executive director is Irvine's sister Angela Jordan Davis, Jackson is working to form joint venture programs between parents and teachers and between preachers and judges to "reclaim" urban youth from the cycle of poverty and violence prevalent in so many urban areas.
In the parent-teacher arena, Jackson laid out a five-step course of action that he strongly encouraged all urban parents to follow: 1) take you child to school; 2) meet your child's teacher; 3) exchange telephone numbers with the teacher; 4) turn off your television set for at least three hours every evening; and 5) pick up your child's report card every nine weeks.
For CULTURES and programs like it to work, Jackson said, "Teachers must compensate, parents must cooperate and youth must have a sense of responsibility."
--Dan Treadaway