“Stay in School.” “An education will serve you well.” These are the words of a Mom, Dad, or Guardian who cares and perhaps, has yet to achieve their dream. Persons who did as is customarily done, echo the same. However, there are hints evident in their faces – ‘what I thought I wanted in my youth I have, but happiness and a sense of fulfillment –these still escape me.’ Our young know it. They see it everywhere they turn. “Stay in school.” “Get an education.” Why,” they ask? What did it do for you? Perhaps the problem is that few adults have successfully answered that question for themselves.

From one generation to the next, we say what was said to us. That paradox is the problem. Do you remember when you were willing to admit that the instruction you received in a classroom is not necessarily an education? You asked yourself might you be happier pursuing a trade or building a business? Do I learn more on the streets? An education? What is it?

Do we know; did we understand when we were young. Perhaps we did, but without the power to make change, we settled into a system, one commonly called going to school. Why did we stay in it? Because that is what people do or did. But today, teens question and we do too. We have waited for so long for that moment when everything clicks. But when will it come – our children ask, when did it come for you?

We strive to thrive. Mostly we just survive, survive the stress that is “get an education”, stay in school, secure a job, and then…Then what?

A “D” or an “A.” A “D” for the death of education. “A” for antithesis of learning. That is what we have today. Might it be because we accepted the simple answers when we were young. Like our parents we sought solace in standards. And now…

We teach to a battery of tests. We seek a road to success. Like our parents did we avoid a more real reflection? Did we take the wrong turn and then just go with the flow, the flow that lead us to follow in the footsteps of generations before us.

Stay in school. Get an education and save. But do not think. Do not question; why are Art classes cut from the curriculum due to costs. Would a trip to the museum, a monument, or time in the library teach? “What is a good education?”

What do we teach when we close neighborhood schools in Black and Brown neighborhoods or how do we teach those who live in underserved communities? Why do we insist that some students must travel for miles just to receive an adequate education and others, those in affluent neighborhoods, need only walk out the front door to find a superior school? Is a person’s living room the source of a learned life?

Does a zip code come with privileges or is it the dollar that decides who will learn and how?

How do children learn? Does memorization maximize the mind? What of cyber classrooms or schools? Can a child relate to a lesson when it is delivered by way of a computer-assisted program or might she better relate to a highly qualified Teacher who asks and answers questions immediately and well, a person who inspires inquiry?

We may never know what works well for those who are locked out of selected enrollment schools. We rarely give our children a chance. We just say, “Stay in school.” But how do the young do that when the doors to our schools are shuttered and the windows are sealed? As long as education is separate and unequal the young and old will question the belief – school is what is best for you.

Through our words we encourage. Through our deeds we succeed; we discourage our young from following our path. Each of us ask, who are we? What are we doing and what does it mean “stay in school” “get an education.”

What have we done to this generation and the next and when will we ever learn?

copyright © 2013. Betsy L. Angert