Every child is a sponge seeking knowledge, whether that is in a classroom or not. “You’re expected to come to work with an unbiased mind and teach a classroom full of sponges because children are just sponges. SO that in itself is an issue,” said Heather Lee, 30 year old member of Durham. The Kettering Foundation held a public forum, on Thursday, Nov 13, at the Mission Post at 318 Blackwell Street, with 10 members of the Durham community to discuss solutions to the current problems in education and how it affects children diversely. As members of the Durham community, attendees of the discussion soaked up years of experience that surfaced during the dialogue.
Heather Lee, (far left) and Victor Bynum (far right) listen to Courtney Smith as she explains why the education system is causing problems within the community. (Staff photo by Sarah DeWeese)
“This is an opportunity for everyone to voice their opinions, because again, this is who you are and where you come from and what your value system is, based on what you’ve experienced,” said Candace Rashada. Rashada, member of the Kettering Foundation, briefly explained the purpose of the forum and what would be discussed over the course of the evening.
The Kettering Foundation was created “to sponsor and carry out scientific research for the benefit of humanity,” in 1927 by Charles F. Kettering according to the Kettering foundation’s website. Rashada explained the different studies that the Kettering Foundation conducted that led to the discussion about education for the night.
“Here’s the background,” Rashada explained, “in 2012, a social studies research council recorded that 5.8 million Americans between the ages of 16 to 24 were neither working nor in school with an estimated cost to the public in terms of social services, crime control and lost taxes at 97.3 billion dollars.”
With such a significant drain on local economies, the Kettering Foundation thought it would be beneficial to hold “deliberative dialogues,” concerning the connection between loss of interest in education and low employment rates.
Rashada explained the purpose of these deliberative dialogues. “The backdrop of democracy requires the participation of all of its citizens for their financial, social and civic participation. Young people who are disconnected represent a threat to the well-being of their communities.”
The 10 Durham community members came together to actively participate in the discussion in about education in the hopes of improving the community.
After the Kettering Foundation looked into the issues in education, they discovered three recurring policy solutions that they then opened up to the public for the sake of discussion. The following options were then written neatly on the board, to guide the forum.
Option 1: More Education choices. Not just traditional high school and college.
Option 2: Hold young people, caregivers, systems and institutions more accountable for their actions and destiny.
Option 3: More community-based organizations and local officials to take a part in developing pathways for young people.
Mya Hunter, Nadiah Porter, and Candace Rashada (from left to right) laugh during the introductions made before discussion. (Staff photo by Sarah DeWeese)
Christopher Rivers, who runs a company as the youngest black general contractor in North Carolina, began the debate by addressing media influences.
“I want to start off with option one by saying something that I guess is a little bit controversial,” Rivers began. “The first problem with framing education is how we define it. Education, unfortunately, amongst young people, does not only exist in the classroom. Education can be defined by that which we mentally persuade someone to do an action. Unfortunately for most young people who are at an impressionable age, that’s television. That’s media. So where a lot of us, get our education from, regardless of the classroom, is from over the TV.”
Rivers continued to discuss the influence of media in terms of perpetuating stereotypes.
“There is a very new discussion about changing the person’s mindset or about changing a person’s motivation and the outcome of education. We’re now talking about having certain controls on media that portrays a certain ideology that then is, you know, is inserted into a person that perpetuates that among schools and so on and so forth.”
Media is flooding into schools through laptops and mobile devices as well as television sets at home. But Rivers addressed the access to information in terms of placing responsibility firmly on the students, which fell under option two.
“When I look at the problems of education I look at the problems of people. You can learn what everyone learned. So it’s not the fact that the information was too hard but it’s the fact that a lot of us don’t have a certain mentality and a certain approach to life. And because those basic skills aren’t being… I mean we don’t have the father to teach us and we don’t have the mother to do certain things so we don’t get those life skills that we need that are critical in being successful in education and in any other type of career.”
The skills that Rivers went on to discuss were resilience, discipline and goal setting.
“Resilience. When you go into the military, I went to the military academy, when you go into the military, they train you to fail. Okay? Because that’s a part of life. So when people say, ‘Hey, I’m getting the best of this particular education plan because I was so scared of failing and I didn’t want it not to pan out.’ That’s a part of life! And if you don’t know how to fail you don’t know how to live. Why don’t we have action-based things in education that then set us up to deal with what life is really gonna be like?
Christopher Rivers, Louis O Craft, and Umar Muhammad (left to right) listen in varying degrees of agreement to Smith’s stance on education needs. (Staff photo by Sarah DeWeese)
Courtney Smith, 25 years old and seeking a degree in social work, brought up the point that goal setting in Durham is easier said than done.
“I come from a privileged background. Coming back to Durham I’m around people not from that,” said Smith. “Living day to day life worrying about putting food on the table, or worrying about my kid coming home safe from school, I see that as a barrier to setting long-term goals. My opinion would be to go, why don’t people who come from these privileged backgrounds, instead of turning our backs on the communities like we have been doing, come back into the community?”
Mya Hunter, age 23 and member of Spirit House, then addressed the issue with the skill of resilience.
“People my age have nothing but resilience but don’t know what that word means,” said Hunter. “And I say that because we wake up every day knowing that teachers don’t like us. That even if we advance our writing, it’s wrong. So we are constantly being told that we aren’t as resilient even if it isn’t spoken out loud, it is done through actions.”
Heather Lee, resident of Durham for the past 15 years and member of Spirit House, then expanded on the idea of learning skills in addition to traditional forms of education.
“I do agree with what he was saying about other things being included, like life skills,” said Lee. “And it’s not just measuring education in the sense of high school, college and there is a specific staple that there are life skills that a lot of us learn that have nothing to do with what, you know, what’s learned in the classroom that do add to our lives.”
The panel of of community members went on to discuss where the burden of responsibility rests when it comes to education reform. No true conclusion was arrived at, due to time restrictions of the forum, but Lee made a good point that coincided with a few other voices about what is best in terms of bettering yourself and your future.
Lee said, “There is a lot of stuff you can teach yourself outside of school. There are the same books at the library and there is a lot that people know that haven’t gone to college.”
Even though many more factors play into an individual’s success, the issue will be discussed further at the next deliberative dialogue. The Kettering Foundation is working on plans for the follow-up discussion sometime next year.