Advocate, The (Stamford-Norwalk, CT)

November 14, 2008
Section: Local OpEd

Education As A Civil Right

   By Eric J. Cooper

Urgency of Now    

I was a young boy when, with the Peekskill, N.Y., Unitarian church, my parents, friends and congregation organized a bus trip to the March on Washington, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was Aug. 28, 1963.

My memories are as vivid today as they were on that day of hope and simmering emotions.

As we traveled through Maryland, I noticed with growing discomfort the water fountains, restaurants and restrooms labeled "for whites" and "for coloreds." Though our bus was filled with both "majority" and "minority" Americans, we who were black had to learn to curtail our impulses to drink, eat or refresh where we pleased. We also had to increasingly steel ourselves against the hardened stares of whites as we moved deeper into the South. It was quite a different experience for those who were born in the North.

But just as surely, I will never forget the thousands and thousands of African Americans in Washington, D.C., who waved white handkerchiefs from their homes, apartments and streets that day in the joy our arrival portended. It was an uplifting experience, framed by the deep hope of a nation that was moving forward to address the challenge of racism.

It was as if each person who waved a handkerchief felt Dr. King's "fierce urgency of now" - the need to change policies that segregated and isolated all too many Americans, denying them the promise of America - "until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." That day, Dr. King used these words of the biblical prophet Amos, which many feel have been unjustly neglected amid the eloquence of the "I Have A Dream" section of Dr. King's speech. He often thundered that black civil rights devotees would not be satisfied until "police brutality, disenfranchisement, lodging discrimination, black ghettoization and attacks on black self-esteem were abolished."

Dr. King transformed this country and, by extension and example, the world - more, arguably, than any other American. His words and actions led the civil rights movement, which in turn gave freedom and well-earned rights to women and gays in America. These subsequently led to China's Tiananmen Square and the end of apartheid in South Africa, among other events.

New face:  

It is through this light of history that I reflect on the election of Barack Hussein Obama as president of the United States. During the presidential campaign against U.S. Sen. John McCain, U.S. Sen. Obama often would use Dr. King's "fierce urgency of now" to remind listeners of the need for urgent change in America. This often was derided and misunderstood by critics who lacked W.E.B. Du Bois' insight that an African American "ever feels his two-ness - an American, a Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings."

I have become an adult, educator and a parent. But that African-American boy who experienced the sting of segregation and prejudice in 1963 still is within me. And I see today, from both vantage points, as a time to celebrate the promise that another African American - President-elect Obama - provides this nation and the world.

His is a face of a changing America, from a majority-white country to, as soon as 2042, a majority-minority country. Increasingly, our country will imitate the face of the world's population: white, black, Asian, Native American and Hispanic. And I hope President-elect Obama will soon lead a nation that also reflects a common and equal opportunity - providing a pathway to success for anyone who chooses it.

Equal Opportunity:  

Yet huge gaps continue to challenge our nation. Too many people of color are in prison, on parole or caught up in the court system. Too many Americans are out of work or school and out of hope. And unless America improves the performance of its public schools, too many Americans will continue to be denied our country's promise of equal opportunity.

Two achievement gaps demand attention if schoolchildren of color and those challenged by poverty are to improve their life trajectories. One is the gap between a student's academic performance and his or her potential. The second is the gap between achievement of individual students and that of students when measured by race and ethnicity.

Don't misunderstand the point. We should expect a distribution of performance, with some students assessed as "higher or lower" than others when measured against a standard. The new administration must develop effective policy, advocacy and practice within that context. Education must launch each student's life fairly, with the potential for each to apply him or herself in service of a dream. Personalities, preferences, minds, effort - all of these vary in the development of every person. But given fair opportunity, that distribution should not be correlated with race, class or gender.

Values:  

A lot of educational policy today is "data driven." I think policy should be driven by values and vision, and informed by data. For example, the policy that America "doesn't give up on people" isn't data driven; it's a statement of values. Policy should begin with values that become a vision of how the world should be, with data to shape the task. I believe that virtually no child is so compromised by his or her family or community circumstances as to preclude success in school.

As America's new president takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, let it be a new beginning for our nation. Stimulus packages may need to be focused on the immediacy of the financial and economic downturn. But if sustained growth is to lead to prosperity for all Americans, we will need every student to be educated to the limits of his or her God-given potential. That requires a renewed and strategic focus on education reform to nurture and guide the 3.5 million teachers who provide the opportunity for learning in the 21st century.

Thomas Hobbes, writing in "The Leviathan" (1651), said it so well: "A Free-Man, is he, that in those things, which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to what he has a will to."

Stamford resident Eric J. Cooper is president of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education.

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