WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING OF EDUCATION
By Dr. Conrad W. Worrill
(February 8, 2012)
We must stop the “Miseducation” of
our youth. We must help our youth to redefine the reality of the institutions
that affect us. The political behavior of a certain sector of Africans in
America leadership in the educational arena should cause us to ask the
question, “What is the real meaning of education?”
Education is the process of
instilling the values of a society, group, nation, race, or ethnic group. It is
the method by which people are taught the relationship to their families,
communities, nation, race, and the world. Further, education defines the
function of society and strives to help one become an active participant in the
growth and development of a given society, nation, race, and ethnic group. It
is in this context that we understand that education is an
important process in helping a people acquire power for the perpetuation
of their interests.
It should be obvious by now that most
African children in America who attend the public schools of America are not
receiving an education. At best it can be called training. That is, learning
the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic. In many instances, this
kind of training is occurring on a very minimal basis with African children in
America.
It is important that we consult one
of our great educators, Carter G. Woodson, in helping sum up this awesome
problem of education that keeps Africans in America in a constant state of
mental captivity. Brother Woodson stated in his great book, published in 1933, The
Miseducation of the Negro, that, “The same educational process which
inspires and stimulates the oppressor with the thought that he is everything
and has accomplished everything worthwhile, depresses and crushes at the same
time the spark of genius in the Negro by making him feel that his race does not
amount to much and never will measure up to the standards of others.” Woodson
made it clear that Africans in America educated in this manner is a hopeless
liability to the race. This is still at the heart of our educational problem
today.
Therefore, our task becomes one of
the continued struggles to re-conceptualize the mission of education for our
people. This re-conceptualization must be based on the premise that Woodson set
forth when he said, “The race will free itself from exploiters just as soon as
it decides to do so. No one else can accomplish this task for the race. It must
plan and do for itself.” We will never acquire real power if this does not
happen.
Essentially, our mission should be
that of establishing our own educational agenda that is based on creating a new
educational ethos. The present ethos instills in African children in America
the idea that if you go to school and get an education you will get a job. We
should know by now that there is not necessarily a correlation between going to
school and getting a job. It definitely has nothing to do with the upliftment
of our race.
The task of re-conceptualizing a new
educational ethos is to understand that the mission of our education should be
to make a whole people again as the Reparations Movement is demanding. Making
us whole again is a process that defines education in the context of our own
political, economic, cultural, and spiritual needs.
This new educational ethos must rest
on the idea that the group interests of our race are more important than those
of any individual. Dr. Anderson Thompson calls this the “African Principle.” In
other words, the only way we will become liberated and independent is through
group thinking and group actionC not as individuals. We must work to achieve the greatest
good for the greatest number.
Succinctly stated, our purpose for
becoming educated should be one of helping to build a movement to liberate us
from the oppression of white supremacy and racism so that we can build a new
social, political, cultural, economic, and spiritual order for ourselves as we
struggle to link up with African people around the world.
This kind of education must facilitate
the re-stimulation of the extended African in American family foundation as we
struggle to become an economically self-sufficient people who produce, process,
distribute, wholesale and retail like everyone else in the world.
Finally, this new educational ethos
must instill in us the spirit of producing, the spirit of building, and the
spirit of controlling what we create. Anything short of this will merely mimic
the education of our oppressors and we will continue to be their subjects, to
do and be whatever they choose.
Conrad Worrill
National Chairman
National Black United Front (NBUF)
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