The backbone of the United States of America is made up of interlocking parts, needful of being identified and protected, strengthened and cherished. The traditional family unit is one of these spinal parts, as are patriotic men and women whom value and invest heart, mind and body towards the protection of American freedoms and liberties. Both of these, the family and those who are upholders of the principles of true freedom and liberty, we would think, have no real present threats. After all, one need only look down most Main Streets in middle-class to affluent American towns to find the same picture repeated over and over again, like a Norman Rockwell painting that never loses its varnish. Dads, Moms and their kids can be seen out in the community sport fields, cafés, sidewalks and parks in timeless motion year after year in what seems to be relative paradise. Their is peace through strength. Police officer men and women, firefighters, and paramedics patrol ceaselessly in service and protection, ever ready to be there for us, to keep the peace through the strength we put in them-which is us. These work day and night signaling a line of defense against immediate dangers and providing continuity to the order of life.
Yet let’s descend beyond the idealized Norman Rockwell painting and further down the economic ladder. Far beyond the upper and middle-classes and straight into the housing projects and low-income neighborhoods of America. This is no longer a pretty painting. These are not roads anyone would like to venture through, much less look to imagine. The mulberry tree does not grow here. Garbage may line the curbs. The housing is close to one another so that there is no space left in between. Fathers are more prevalently absent. The parks are not garden landscapes that invite the weary eye and the tired heart to rest. This reality is filled with strong lines, shadows, boundaries, toil, hope, adversity, hopelessness, ignorance, wit, creativity, darkness, peacefulness, and heartache all stacked up, all on top of one another. A mass of electrified emotion and energy in urban dwellings of red block cinder; an endlessness of locked economic oppression. This will continue age after age…unless…
unless some start caring enough
without stopping…
like spiritual soldiers
harmless as doves
clever as snakes
patient like the Lord
endowed with peculiar peace
refusing to be set aside
ready to serve selflessly
shining brighter and brighter
as if they were the very children of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth Himself
From where does the economic oppression arise? Is it not the fault of the individuals living in the housing projects for not studying enough in grade school? Is it not their fault that they did not follow their dreams with greater determination and passion? Is it not so that there have been stories of those who have broken free from such dire living systems and become ‘success stories,’ hence, others simply must seek to break through ‘onward and upward?’
A Better Perspective for The Educational System in the United States of America
How we educate our children and to what purpose means everything, herein is the nerve, the very crux and pivoting point on which the trajectory of the United States of America can gather its second wind. We must heed this call of change from the ground because we are failing majestically as a whole.
The proof is in the pudding.
Our labor force, though complex and versatile on an individual level, retains a homogenous aspect to it that flies on largely segmented social-economic boundaries, like a economic caste system. This can all be changed through a different kind of educational system. One that turns the tables on the current value-purpose learning goal format to create a different kind of labor force. One that shapes hearts and minds to become individual builders of community through the advent of proficiency in business skills that support people to pursue versatility in multiple vocations as self-employed job creators.A value-purpose system that begins in grade school, teaching the importance of self-reliance and public speaking, along with business-savvy, and civic duty. May it be that through such a construct, empathy is allowed to scale not just along community-building projects, but through the re-creation of the national economy. Public speaking develops confidence, articulation, thought process coherency, critical thinking, and executive function. Moreover, public speaking is a primer of the up-keeping of democratic principles that directly buttress the refreshing of freedom and liberty through the thoughtful attention to seeking out unfairness and raising awareness through the practice of scaled intellectual conversation that leads to local and national community awareness.
The traditional family unit itself AND the nation is newly upheld through the re-creation of this kind of value-purpose educational system. Likewise, the systemic economic oppression found in low-income households is kept in place through through the maintenance of an educational system that simply focuses on passing children through grade levels to have basic academic understandings without the ingrained ability to market their passions and wherewithal. As it be, the family system in the United State of America is in need of support through this educational solution that directly empowers people to have the dexterity to market their subject skills within the business market place. Truly, this path is not for all, yet instilling civic duty, business acumen, public speaking, and en educational experience that has directed the heart and mind to seek out taking care of one another is in line with the biblical commandment to love one another. An idea which shares relevancy with every major religion and belief system. Public schools have largely operated over the last century with the mindset of a creating academic knowledge, without connecting such knowledge-base to ‘marketable know-how’ application. Our labor force gets narrowly channelled into showcasing individuals who have mastery in one to two major skills at the most, whereas we are in need of creating intellectual powerhouses that can readily become self-employed, job creators. In such a system, men and women become empowered from the inside out from an early age. Their hearts and mind are compassed around caring and seeing community on the local and national level as an extension of their own families. America needs this kind of spirit to surmount the onslaught of family-breaking forces. The rise of everyday individuals in assuming the power they innately have already to be such intellectual powerhouses and harmless, yet savvy sentinels of democracy, justice, fairness, and altruistic love that says, “here I am;” can softly disrupt the current social-economic system that runs the U.S. To create such a gentle army of determined hearts and minds is to embark on an adventure where we already know the end, for we become the storytellers fulfilling a vision of love that stands resolute amidst indifference—each of us being as little lights lighting up the darkness of apathy, serving not just the building and strengthening of communities, but being outstanding examples in our own families on what it means to be one nation under God.
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