FOR THE BROTHAS: AN INTRODUCTION

It must have been about 20 years ago when I first began thinking about creating a "Cultural Salon" as a reaction to the mundane social circles In Washington D.C. The richness of intellectual and artistic interchange had died, college friends had moved, the internet had not yet become the phenomenon it now is... I romanticised about the Salons of the mid to late 1800's in Paris, London and Berlin and the cultural dynamo of the Harlem Rennaisance. I was fortunate enough to meet a gentleman, an artist who lived and traveled with James Baldwin... Jimmy he affectionately called him, and he spoke often of their small cottage in southern France and of the many Artists, Poets and Luminaries that dropped in to chat and relax. Well, the impressionists, cubists, modernists, etc. all hung out together famously in those days and shared their ideas with one another creating a creative greenhouse in a world that was rapidly changing. I longed to have lived in those times, to have met Cassat, Rodin, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Baker, Balwin, well I did finally meet Baldwin and others purely for the joy of intellection upon the arts. This was in the late 1980's and by the mid 2000's I happened to run into a friend of mine from Hampton University who had been living in New York since he graduated in the early 90s. Well, I was surprised to hear him comment that in all of the wonder that is New York he never met anyone who ever really had anything interesting to say about art, literature, architecture, science, fashion or anything... I was so surprised to hear this since it had also been my experience. Well here I am in 2011 attempting the Virtual Salon...

Monday, February 21, 2011

TURNING SAWDUST INTO GOLD: The Struglle of Inner City Educators

Sawdust unlike gold is an organic compound, composed of molocules and atoms of many materials, the residual of shaven wood inanimate it has no mind, feelings or thoughts.  Gold is a precious metal a pure element composed of nothing save itself... pure...but dead.. without emotion or any human sensibility.  Students are living, thinking, impressionable humans shaped and defined by their environment they can change, they can grow, they are infinitely more miraculous than wood or gold.  An artisan can craft wood or gold into wonderous things but they can never talk to us or fell our emotions...they will remain cold and unresponsive.  Students can not be carefully shaped through love and education but at some point they will begin to take our teaching and transform them into newer more intricate ideas...  Wood and gold can be subjected to tests that define their strength, purity, weight and value but humans must interpret the data... wood and gold will never have the capacity to analyze or communicate in the sense that we do.   Students can be tested to determine how much knowledg they have retained and how they can manipulate knowledge to solve problems and they can communicate this knowledge in various ways.  A student who reads, writes, thinks and performs on a 5th grade level will read, write and perform on a 5th grade level.  A Student in the 10th grade reading, writing and performing on a 5th grade level will read, write and perform on a 5th grade level...  Teachers are knowledgeable superheroes who fight in the trenches of Americas inner city schools without any support and with sqalid pay.  Of the many miracles they perform daily they cannot turn wood into gold nor can they majically endow a 10th grader reading, writing and performing on a 5th grade level  with 10th grade reading, writing, and performance skills during a semester of 45 minute classes...  Can you?  Can the Principal?  Can the Superintendant? We all know that the answer is NO!  So what is the moral of this story?
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