I recently read Markowitz and Rosner’s Children, Race, and Power.  This book is a recount of Dr.’s Kenneth and Mamie Clark Northside Center in Harlem in the late 1940’s.   Their journey while valiant was met with much heartbreak. Fast forward 70 years and it doesn’t appear that much has changed.  Dollars continue to be wasted, and the contentment with the status quo and lack of outcomes seems a close resemblance to today.  We can say we have the best intentions and well-meaning hearts, but somewhere along the way, what really matters – the children – falls dim.

The sound of children and their teachers muted by the chaos and confusion created from those sitting at the proverbial table who have had their passions and commitment displaced by the complacency and tiredness of efforts and organizations that end up like the ground beef you see at the supermarket, 73% lean and 27% fat.

If you ask me, and you didn’t, temporary stop gaps and initiatives that are dependent on and change with the current leadership or administration is not leadership at all, and actually is the epitome of inequity in education.  (For the record, this article is not a stab at current administration. The system was broken before President Trump got there and has been broken for a very long time.) Before we look for inequity in the classroom, let’s look for inequity in our system. 

We tend to celebrate the small strides (don’t get me wrong we should celebrate any success), patting ourselves on the back, while wrestling through the sludge of bureaucracy and call it acceptable. We can do better; we have to do better.  We should purpose everyday to damn the fear that tells us that we may have to give up something or that we may have to come out of our comfort zone so that someone else can see their way forward. 

While we have those at the top chest pumping over a meager advance, even more sadly, we have leaders of organizations created for the sole purpose of alleviating poverty that have given themselves over to the belief that those in poverty are destined to a lesser fate in life.  They have succumbed to an apathetic, learned ideology and mindset that doesn’t alleviate poverty, but rather perpetuates it.   This fate ideology is the one that Drs. Kenneth and Mamie gave their lives to displace.

I end with a question. What can you do today to honor the lives and work of Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark? One idea may be to read the book about their lives, you can find it on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Childre...2C+Race%2C+and+Power.  Let’s work together to create a new read.

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Dr. Ivy Bonk is Educational Psychologist/Consultant with IMAGINAL Education Group, Founder/President of ReThink Learning, Inc.