Servant Promotes Academic Excellence

Near the turn of the century, I went into the Department of Motor Vehicles and requested a vanity license plate.  “Be careful what you ask for,” the saying goes, “you might just get it!”

About the same time, my interest in public education outcomes for black males hit a peak.  Our son was about to enter his junior year of high school.  We received a newsletter from the National Ventures Scholar program in New York City.  It urged Jason II to sign up for Advanced Placement classes during his junior year.

The guidance counselor at his school warned us that the AP English class might adversely affect his grade-point-average and his chances for Bright Futures Scholarship eligibility.  Jason had only demonstrated “B” work in his previous two years of high school honors English. 

Jason’s efforts in AP English, AP US History, and Chemistry Honors that year were good enough to make him a competitive Early Decision Applicant to his dream school, New York University–before the end of his first semester as a high school senior.

Something else happened along his journey.  His class cohort started with 145 black males during his freshman year at an A-rated high school in Hillsborough County.  The Class of 2001 yearbook only shows 22 black male noses in the senior section. 

I observed a black male going through high school.  At the end of his first semester, he was not one of the eight who had a 3.0 or better grade-point average.  At his high school graduation, though, he was the only one who looked like him among the 160 honors graduates.

A sobering lesson resulting from this observation.  The individual minority student who works hard and demonstrates Academic Excellence can bypass other students and participate in America’s exceptional postsecondary opportunities. 

I have a master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in National Security Affairs.  My career as an Army officer helped me develop the credentials to protect and defend our national interests.  A key threat to our nation is the lack of confidence in public education.    

There are ample critics who can document the failures of public education for whole groups of students.   In this environment, I prefer to seek out areas and people who can move public education forward at the individual student level.  At some point, the changes in public education are likely to come through the efforts of a surge force of private citizens spending time with individual students during daylight hours.

Individual students have the potential to overcome the challenges that consume whole groups of students.  Yet some of these students fail to achieve their potential  simply because of a minimum community-based interest in their demonstrated Academic Excellence.   Other students who excel have lessons to share with members of the community who can pass them on to yet other students.

The Servant Blog seeks, more than anything, to contribute to the effort to identify youthful professors who can school us on what works to help those behind them succeed.  There may be little interest in this effort initially.  Conventional wisdom says just keep blaming the education and juvenile justice systems, teachers, parents, and students.    Over time, however, more may get sick of the negative and engage those gifts right under our noses who can positively impact this national treasure we call public education.