Monday, December 7, 2009

The Problem with Ivy Leagues & Think Tanks

Intellects, particularly those at Ivy Leagues and other Think Tanks, always over analyze and attempt reduce a system to a singular device, when in fact it is the system that produces the desired result. The Harlem Zone is just what it declares in its name: a Zone. It is not a trick or a device. It is a systems approach that is a systematic engagement of its residents, and particularly its children on all fronts consistently. I first learned of Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Zone three and a half years ago when CBS first reported about his “experiment”. I knew then that his passion alone would get positive results for he demands of himself and of parents, educators, donors, and community members--earnest dedication and accountability. Now, more than three years later, Anderson Cooper returns to the Harlem Zone to follow up on the story originally reported by the late Ed Bradley and reports remarkable success in closing the academic disparity between blacks and whites.

Instead of accepting the success for what it is, the intellectuals and think tanks are as usual, looking for the magic bullet, the “pill” as Harvard’s Fryer calls it, which is generating all the success. It is blatantly obvious that in any and all dealings with human behavior, and that is indeed the crux of educational success and failure, there is no one device or method of instruction that works successfully for all or some may argue even for one. Conversely, it is an all hands on deck approach that is proving to be the success behind the Harlem Zone as is the case with any other successful educational institution. There is in place a system of motivation, support, intervention, discipline, and accountability, which like our government of checks and balances, acts to keep each part of the human behavior and institutional engine working to support each other and the whole of the mission and objective.

This is the very manifestation of the African Proverb “it takes a village” in action. There is no single person or single method of instruction that can uplift ignorance. Just as history has demonstrated there is no single person or method of battle that has lifted a nation to eternal dominance. Human behavior is dynamic and therefore influencing human behavior, particularly the speed and level at which one learns, must also be dynamic. The static approaches commonly and currently in use, fail to meet the needs of a constantly evolving and technologically engaged people.

The systems approach and the advocacy for its implementation is nothing new. Accountability has become the mantra of the last four presidential administrations and yet, no enforcement or means of measuring accountability standards has been devised or implemented within any system or institution run by the bureaucracy. Excuses for failure to achieve have become the new normal. Meanwhile, children of poverty and of color, continue to be the biggest victims of the excuse game. Everyone is afraid to set the standards high in fear of emotionally damaging children when in reality the greatest emotional and intellectual damage is done by standards that are so low that children are manipulated into believing they are successes when actually they are failures. In public health, experts have long demanded the implementation of a systems approach which would correct fragmented delivery systems and employ checks and balances to improve and streamline quality of care. Yet, the selfishness, greed, and power tripping of each entity involved have muddled the sounds of those demands and resulted in the hodgepodge of care that lacks continuity, accountability, and delivers inequitable care to hundreds of millions. The same can be said for education. Too many hands in the cookie jar and too many control freaks have wreaked havoc on our most valuable assets, our children.

So while you Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford intellectuals and government and private think tanks meet and discuss ad nauseum, our children are slipping further and further into the abysmal cycle of ignorance which begets poverty and crime (you know more fodder for your analyses). Stop talking and analyzing and accept the dynamic which is and reject perpetual attempts to find and categorize the device that is not.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Gap

The other day, I exchanged some jeans at Old Navy and upon entering the store the alarms went off as they had when I exited the store on the day of original purchase. The original purchase day, one of the employees very politely assisted me in attempting to disarm the tags and apologized for the inconvenience. Essentially the same thing happened the other day when I exited the same old navy the second time with the new pairs of jeans, children in tow. the sales girl waved it off and said don't worry about it. So off to the Gap Kids we go. Well upon entering the Gap Kids the alarms went off because both stores are owned by the Gap and use the same theft deterrent system. I told the clerk it kept happening at with the Old Navy purchases and proceeded to get assistance for the item for which I had come. They didn't have it so we left only to have the alarms go off again. the young man whom had assisted me was like don't worry and asked the twit who appeared to be training him if they could deactivate it in their store. She said I don't know and asked him to check my bag & emphatically said check the receipt. both were white. The young man was obviously uncomfortable with it because hell, he saw just as she did that the alarm had gone off when I walked in. I repeated that this had been a problem three times already at Old Navy and that the mechanism will not deactivate. Now, my experiences could easily tell me that she did that because I'm a person of color; my experiences could also say she was just doing her job of inventory control or plain being a bitch. Either way, the way she handled the situation was unprofessional and demeaning. Why couldn't she have handled it the same way the old navy employee, whom prior to the alarm going off, had not had any interaction with me whatsoever. Why couldn't she have been polite and said maam do you mind if we check your receipt. hell, the store is little and I had been with an associate the entire time.

I share this with you because A) it pissed me off; I was with my children for crying out loud in a suit (not that this precludes theft, but it certainly abates suspicion among most) B) just to offer some perspective (I'm sure someone white has had similar or nearly identical encounters, but their experiences, cultural and social, likely led them to different reactions.) While I would like people to always act in a fair and just manner, this is not always the case. I employ the ideology of giving everyone the benefit of the doubt in most circumstances, but there are moments in which that ideology is inappropriate and makes more a fool of me than a principled person. Nevertheless, I being of conscious body and mind, do not take that as representation of the Gap and certainly not of all caucasians. She is as I said before, the one twit who acted unprofessionally and could in effect be labeled as a racist or a bigot from one unfortunate decision had she encountered someone bitter. I'll just call her stupid.