I'm not one who's prone to overstating my posistions, so keep that in mind when I say that a seige cloaked in compassion has befallen the most vulnerable citizens of this nation... Our children. And what does our government think is the solution to our woeful education system? The same solution they have tried for years....MORE MONEY! However, we've seen that more money is simply NOT the solution. The United States has gone from spending under $400 per student in 1962 to close to $13,000 per student today ($2000/student in 1962 to $13,000/student today when adjusted for inflation)...and yet, when judged against other countries around the world (all of whom spend less on education), America falls well short....ranking 9th in science and 10th in math. The fact is that money is not the problem...the problem is the breakdown of the family unit, bad teachers, and greedy unions...to name a few. However, the point of this blog is not to talk about the solutions to our education system...that will come later. This blog's purpose is to shed light on what a disservice we are doing to our children. A good education is the greatest gift to give a child...our founding fathers knew this...as did many other great Americans thoughout history. And I would argue that none knew it more than a man I have long admired, Frederick Douglass.
The Eduation of Frederick Douglass:
How a boy born into slavery unlocked his shackles with the key of education and rose to greatness on the promise of America
The son of a slave woman, Frederick Douglass was born in February of 1818 on Maryland's eastern shore. He spent his early years with his grandparents and with an aunt, seeing his mother only four or five times before her death when he was seven. During this time he was exposed to the degradations of slavery, witnessing firsthand brutal whippings and spending much time cold and hungry. When he was eight he was sent to Baltimore to live with a ship carpenter named Hugh Auld. There he learned to read and first heard the words abolition and abolitionists. "Going to live at Baltimore," Douglass would later say, "laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity." When Douglass was about six years old, his grandmother walked with him the twelve miles from his childhood cabin to the Wye House plantation where he would begin work as a slave.
Because Frederick had a natural charm that many people found engaging, he was chosen to be the companion of Daniel Lloyd, the youngest son of the plantation's owner. Frederick's chief friend and protector was Lucretia Auld, Aaron Anthony's daughter, who was recently married to a ship's captain named Thomas Auld. One day in 1826 Lucretia told Frederick that he was being sent to live with her brother-in-law, Hugh Auld, who managed a ship building firm in Baltimore, Maryland. She told him that if he scrubbed himself clean, she would give him a pair of pants to wear to Baltimore. Frederick was elated at this chance to escape the life of a field hand. He cleaned himself up and received his first pair of pants. Within three days he was on his way to Baltimore.
It was here, under the instruction of Mrs. Auld that young Frederick first learned the alphabet. However it did not last long, for when Mr. Auld discovered these lessons he strictly forbade it in words that left a profound impression on young Frederick "He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right". Even at this young age, he knew that while knowledge and learning of the world around him could bring him great unhappiness, it could also give him great power over his enslavers who preferred their chattel to remain ignorant and unthinking. Frederick earnestly set forth a plan to continue to learn to read and write on the sly, aided by the white children he met on the streets and among the shipyards and docks.
Frederick Douglass first encountered The Columbian Orator, a book which left an everlasting impression on him, around the age of twelve, just after he learned to read. As Douglass became educated in the rudimentary skills of literacy, he also became educated about the injustice of slavery. Of all the pieces in The Columbian Orator, Douglass focused on the master-slave dialogue and the speech on behalf of Catholic Emancipation. These pieces helped Douglass to articulate why slavery was wrong, both philosophically and politically, as he emerged as the greatest African-American leader and orator of the nineteenth century. The Columbian Orator, then, becomes a symbol not only of human rights, but also of the power of eloquence and articulation. To some extent, Douglass saw his own life’s work as an attempt to replicate The Columbian Orator.
Frederick also began reading local newspapers and began to learn about abolitionists. Not quite 13 years old but enlightened with new ideas that both tormented and inspired him. Frederick began to detest slavery. His dreams of emancipation were encouraged by the example of other blacks in Baltimore, most of whom were free. But new laws passed by southern state legislators made it increasingly difficult for owners to free their slaves.
By Douglass’ teenage years, the seed of education had blossomed into a tree of knowledge which the young man would use to combat the ignorance of the horrors of slavery for the better part of the 19th century. At a young age, he understood the power of awareness and the endowment that came with his extensive comprehension of the issues of the time. An understanding that is unfortunately lost on most of today’s younger generation, and worse, not available to far too many of our nation’s children. With a failing public school system and the deteriorating family in America, most of our would-be future leaders and champions of democracy are left adrift without a strong foundation of American principles. I wonder what Mr. Douglass would say about President Obama’s failure to lead on the issue of school choice in America… I wonder what Mr. Douglass would think about the millions of inner city children (many of which are minorities) that are stuck in sub par public institutions while better schools are only miles away… I wonder what Mr. Douglass would have done if he had been given this choice for his own children… Actually, in retrospect, I don’t have to wonder. I know what Mr. Douglass would have done…and I think you do too.
Frederick Douglass Acomplishments
- Leader of the abolitionist movement and accomplished orator
- Appointed to the commission for possible annexation of the Dominican Republic by President Grant in 1871.*
- Appointed as US Marshall by President Hayes in 1877*
- Made Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia by President Garfield in 1881*
- Appoint US Minister and Consul of General Republic to Haiti in 1889*
- Recieved a delegate vote at the 1890 Republican National Convention for nomination as candiate for the Rupublican Party for President of the United States.*
*All firsts for an African American
“Without education he lives within the narrow, dark and grimy walls of ignorance. … Education, on the other hand, means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free. To deny education to any people is one of the greatest crimes against human nature. It is easy to deny them the means of freedom and the rightful pursuit of happiness and to defeat the very end of their being.” -Frederick Douglass 1894
No comments:
Post a Comment