Saving the minds and lives of our children

“Kids don’t fail. Teachers fail, and school systems fail. The people who teach children that they are failures, they are the problem.” Marva Collins
My primary aim in the classroom is to help my people survive and to re-awaken the African mind. Marcus Garvey taught us that “there is no height to which we cannot climb by using the active intelligence of our minds. Today, that active intelligence still remains dormant and suppressed.
Being blessed to experience the emergence of my 60th rotation around the sun has given me a biological edge in my classroom. Many educators have earned academic degrees within their educational careers, and the accomplishment must be applauded. But, you simply “cannot learn experience.” It takes years to experience, read, study, and research knowledge and information to solely educate your mind and soul to help draw out (reduce) the innate power within our beautiful children.
Dr. Wade Nobles has taught us that “American education for Black people has been for the most part training designed to reinforce our dehumanization and ultimately to disconnect us from the power of the African spirit (Mind).”
Dr. Carter G. Woodson (Father of Black History Month) taught us that the American educational process crushes 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 other people.”
The children who have fallen prey to this massive mis-education are now adults who have been brainwashed by this educational system.
Many of these adults are teachers and parents who have control of classrooms and their households across the country.
Unfortunately, we as Black parents and educators have not joined hands and hearts to create a unified, disciplined force to teach African culture and, in most cases, have actually worked against our race, consciously or subconsciously.
Dr. Richard King, a brilliant Black scientist and author, informs us that “most Black people are dead today because we don’t have control of our minds. We don’t know how our minds operate, and so we would rather have our slave master think for us. Many Black people are so mentally dead that we are actually anti-intellectual, afraid to read, afraid to materialize our own dreams and institutions.”
Sister and brothers, I believe that if your children don’t see you reading and quietly enjoying a great book on a continuous basis, they will ‘never’ develop a love for reading.
We must also come to the realization that there are certain books and authors that will never be approved and circulated within the schooling system. There are certain books that you must read and seek out for yourself to help awaken the Black mind.
Dr. Richard King explains, in one of his most powerful books, ‘African Origins of Biological Psychiatry’ that the hallmark of humanity was the mind. The mind stores the ability to think, observe, measure, theorize, and communicate with nature. He goes on to inform us that “the Black mind was indeed the reservoir of millions of years of African experience in science, medicine, art, religion, architecture, psychology and culture.
Sisters and brothers, never forget that our blood, our DNA, carries all the experiences, triumphs, victories, challenges, tragedies, and accomplishments of our ancestors. Tapping into this Infinite Genetic Memory Bank that profusely runs throughout our African bloodline is the key to re-awakening our Black minds.
Our traditional African educational system reproduced and refined the mental and ethical traits that signified the distinct qualities of Black students, which in turn defined their purpose and maximized their potential. It was only when Black students used both the left and right cerebral hemispheres of the brain that they experienced absolute inner power.
Many Black educators deliberately ignore or just simply refuse to gravitate towards the amazing books written by our great Black Psychologist, the late Dr. Amos Wilson. Dr. Wilson taught us that “Black children in schools are discriminated against and discouraged from using the left side of their brains. The left side is responsible for analytical thinking, mathematics, problem-solving, logic, and understanding. Blacks in America are continually rewarded for using the right side of the brain, which is the artistic side. Black children in the hands of European teachers (and unconscious Black teachers) are encouraged to participate in and pursue activities and careers in singing, dancing, music, and sports. In (k-8), the severity and damage of Black inferiority has already been set in the minds. Grades (9-12) reinforce the brain damage and inferiority– thus the slave mentality is successful.”
Many Black teachers have accepted and go along with the program of maintaining the components and ideologies of white supremacy, or they will simply be dismissed. Children that have been through the process of the (12) year American educational program, in most cases, end up proudly working for their master and most often turn their backs to the needs and interests of the Black community, a community in which they were born and raised, only returning to attend church or go to the salon or barbershop.
Another concern is allowing our children to be taught by other people who don’t look like us; we are the only people who allow this to happen. In the American schooling system, there are over 3.7 million white teachers, 270,000 Black teachers, and 85,000 Latino teachers. Today, white women continue to have a major impact and influence on the minds of our children as they (consciously or subliminally) plant seeds of inferiority. The quality of controlled and uninterrupted daily time that white women spend with Black students can actually surpass the daily time of a working Black mother.
White women cannot effectively teach Black children the superior effects of melanin, the laws of Maat, the importance of attending HBCUs, the Nguzu Saba, Ancient African Civilizations, Race First ideology, the functions of the brain, the importance of the Black family, uplifting and healing the Black community and steps to create and maintain generational wealth.
Khabyr Hadas is a teacher, a student of Pan-African Nationalism, and the author of Oneness of the Blacks and Afrikan Struggle Inherited.
khabyrhadas@gmail.com