Today in Chicago there will be a parade. This is possibly the most important parade of the year.
Today is Bud Billiken Parade Day! Students and their families will be attending or watching this vital celebration of education on the television. It is an inspiring thing, a parade to celebrate the start of the school year. It should be a celebration that extends to the whole of the nation.
More vital to the quality of life that almost every other factor, education is often the most degraded part of life. Students are pulled away from their books by the siren song of entertainment. The US is the most entertained and least informed nation on the planet. We are also ranking at a consistent level compared to other nations in math, science, reading comprehension and language arts. The reason for this is obvious. Children see that society values entertainment more than it values learning.
Social studies and history? We act as if we don't need to know anything about it, except that there are two parties and each are spewing vitriol at the other, so as to make laws that favor the rich over the voiceless poor.
Gone are the days when science education was emphasized because the country needed engineers and scientists to get the US to the moon and beyond. Gone are the days when every graduate of high school knew chemistry, physics, algebra, geometry. Forgotten are the reading lists that were about 200 books long, each part of the required reading for graduation from high school.
What is now obvious is that children, particularly in inner-city and other underfunded schools drop out at an appalling rate of more than 50 percent. That fact alone is the reason for Bud Billiken.
The parade is designed to give students a moral and enthusiasm boost just before the school year begins.
Bud Billiken has been around for 81 successful years, and is the oldest parade for African American students. A Billiken is a sort of good luck charm, created in the early 20th Century and was probably named after William Howard Taft, the then sitting President. Billiken is a rollypoly sort of fellow, and is the mascot of several schools. He is a symbol of pride for the African American community, and his parade is designed to convey pride in learning.
In an age when it is not 'cool' to be found with your nose in a book, children need inspiring images and reinforcement that learning is, in fact, the coolest thing they have going.
Every day, as I go out for a walk, I ask school age children what they have learned today. I encourage each child to learn something new every single day. During the school year, I also encourage them to learn one new thing in every subject they are studying. When I see them on the following day, I ask what it was that they learned the prior day.
And I listen closely to what they tell me. If I am speaking to a small child, I stoop down to be at their level. And I listen. I ask followup questions. The answers are both charming and inspiring to me.
Everyone should be encouraged to learn new things every day. From the smallest child to the oldest adult, every day is a new discovery, filled with possible opportunity to learn. Each new thing learned builds self esteem. Each new accomplishment builds pride. Children that learn and have fun doing it, that know learning is cool, are less likely to drop out of high school.
One parade is not going to do it. Make every day a parade day and before the march to the schoolhouse begins, encourage your favorite students to learn. Every day. In school and out, assigned by a school teacher or not, make sure that learning occurs.
It might start with a parade on the street, and it can continue with a parade of books, a parade of days where assignments are done with confidence and encouragement. Become a teacher to your child and the children around you. Encourage them to read, to learn math, to know how to reason. Seize every day as a Billiken Day, filled with inspiration and good luck, which is 99 percent preparation, will follow as surely as a new school year follows summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment