Probably The Biggest “Little” Step You Will Take in Your Academic Journey.

The following is my written address in the programs for my upcoming "Moving Up" ceremony for my kindergartners. I intentionally worded the message in a way that lets the parents and the children know that while the little graduation like ceremony is nice and cute, it is a far cry from the end. I have to say that because too many of our parents come to the moving up ceremony with balloons and other trinkets and in an extreme celebratory mode when in actuality it really is only kindergarten. What I am really trying to get at is the work has just begun and I need the same amount of energy that was expended to purchase balloons and new clothing and to yell and scream "OOH My Ba-Baaaayyyy" when it comes time for homework and study in the upcoming years. The same amount of energy for attending PTA/PTO meetings, report card nights, school board meetings, making sure the child is reading and everything else that goes into making a successful student. So indeed congratulations to my kindergartners who are moving to first grade, however, everyone must know that the work has just begun. 

Moving from kindergarten to first grade will probably be the biggest “little” step you will take in your academic journey. I say this because in the grand scheme of your educational career, it is a tiny step; however, unless you were a preschooler, it is your first step in the right direction.  We pause to celebrate this first step with you because we want to make sure that you know that you must take this same type of step at least three more times with pauses at eighth grade, high school, and then college. We also hope that you will pursue additional degrees participating in this process yet another time.  Some may be saying that it is too early to talk about a kindergartner obtaining his or her doctorate degree, and I say to you that I disagree. It is never too early to chart the course. To our kindergarten parents, congratulations, but you have a long way to go in making sure that this is repeated at a minimum of three more times. To our kindergartners, congratulations as you enter the first grade. Don’t ever lose your love for going to school. As your principal, I wish you nothing but the best and I look forward to seeing you in September in grade one.

Something to critically think about. I welcome your commentary and you are invited to follow The Critical Thinker on Twitter @thinkcritical01. 

Show Them All The Beauty They Possess Inside

12/3/87-5/7/13

"Show them all the beauty they possess inside" is a line from the song "The Greatest Love of All" written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed originally recorded by George Benson and later popularized by the late Whitney Houston. I vividly remember accompanying on the piano many high school and Hal Jackson's Talented Teen talent show contestants who chose this song as his/her competition piece in the late 70's and early 80's and by now I am sure most if not all have heard one rendition or another of the inspirational ballad.

10/24/95-5/21/13

If you are an educator reading this post, I believe you will particularly relate to it and even if you are not an educator it ought to resonate with you as well.  The impetus for this post is the worst nightmare for those of us who are in education. We as educators work with thousands of children over the course of a career and it is always our hope that these children will one day become productive members of society. It is our hope that we can learn of, read about, or have a child who has made a success of him/herself come back and visit us letting us know how they have fared in life. To that point, as a school principal myself,  to this day I still keep in touch with my second grade teacher, Mrs. Elma Royster and many others such as Fran Kubian, Marilyn DiMartino, and Peter Nelson who impacted my life as a student and as a person. Mrs. Royster was present at my fiftieth birthday party last August proudly letting everyone know that she had taught me as a second grader.  

Then there is the other end of the spectrum which is what this post is about and that is when we as educators learn of the premature deaths of students we have taught or have had in our midst for a period of time. During the last three weeks I learned of the deaths of two students who were in my care at one point in time or another in their academic careers. One I learned of from a text message from my current vice principal and the other I learned of when scrolling through the obituary section of the local funeral home to learn about the arrangements of the first one. My heart was saddened because I knew both children so well. Both would light up when they saw me around town yelling "Hey, Mr. Medley," as they both had moved along to other schools or had graduated high school altogether. I was saddened even more when I learned that one death was by suicide and the other's cause of death is still pending. 

That's when the song "The Greatest Love of All" came to me and that line about "showing them the beauty they possess inside" leaped out at me. Suicide and a pending cause of death at such young ages................  We are losing too many of our young people; too many of our children. Are we as adults showing these children all the beauty they possess inside? Are we giving them that sense of pride to make it easier?  Children do not ask to come here and in far too many cases we as adults become and are their biggest problem. Too many children have to become adults before their time because of what they are born into. Too many children have to struggle with adult issues as children because of the irresponsibility of the adults who created them and abdicated their parental responsibilities in the delivery room. Too many of our children are angry and don't know what to do with that anger, so they take it out on themselves and others even to the point of suicide or homicide. 

So after reading this post, go out and find a young person and make it your business to help him/her understand the beauty that he/she possesses inside. Do not rest or quit until you have helped him/her to gain that sense of pride to make it easier in order for you to hear his/her laughter and allow it to remind you of how it used to be. If we do that, maybe, just maybe that child will make it to have a fiftieth birthday party to invite us to. Something to critically think about. As always I welcome your commentary in the comment section of the blog and you are invited to follow The Critical Thinker on Twitter @thinkcritical01.

When The Abnormal Has Become Normal and the Normal has become Abnormal

I open this post with a chilling account taken directly from CBS News to illustrate how the "abnormal" has become "normal" and what used to be normal is now seen as abnormal.  Normal things such as values, respect, decency, honor, and good will that are now seen as abnormal while killing, urinating in public, bullying, disrespect,  and indecency are the "norm."  We even had a television show titled "The New Normal."  Let's take a look at the real "new normal" in our lives in 2013 according to CBS News. 

"Elliot Morales began his downfall early Saturday by urinating on the wall outside an upscale restaurant just a few blocks away from the Stonewall Inn, the site of 1969 riots that helped give rise to the modern gay-rights movement when patrons at a gay bar reacted to police harassment. 

Fifteen minutes later, Morales stands accused of shooting and killing Harlem resident Marc Carson, who did not know the alleged gunman and was walking around Greenwich Village in New York City with a companion. Police have called the act a hate crime, and it highlights a stunning rise in bias-based attacks in a city known for its diversity and progressiveness on gay issues. 

After going to the bathroom in public, Morales, 33, then went inside the restaurant and asked if someone was going to call the police about him. Police said Morales told both the bartender and the manager, "if you do call the police, I'll shoot you" and opened his sweatshirt to reveal a shoulder holster with a revolver and made anti-gay remarks, police said. Out on the street minutes later, the gunman and two others approached a 32-year-old identified by police as Harlem resident Marc Carson, and a companion. One of the three men yelled out a gay slur and asked, "What are you, gay wrestlers?" according to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. 

The two men stopped, turned and, according to Kelly, said to the group taunting them, "What did you say?" - then kept walking.

• Police call fatal NYC shooting a hate crime

"There were no words that would aggravate the situation spoken by the victims here," the commissioner said. "This fully looks to be a hate crime, a bias crime."
Two of the men kept following the victim and his companion, Kelly said, adding that witnesses saw the pair approach from behind while repeating anti-gay slurs.The gunman asked the men if they were together and when he got an affirmative answer, Kelly said, "we believe that the perpetrator says to the victim, 'Do you want to die here?'"That's when suspect produced the revolver and fired one shot into Carson's cheek, Kelly said." 

How much do you want to bet that Mr. Morales and his attorneys will do everything humanly possible to keep Mr. Morales alive even though he has just taken the life of Mr. Carson. Just watch how Mr. Morales fights to keep his life even though he has taken the life of another. What kind of mind or what kind of thinking must be going on in one to be able to take a gun and shoot at point-blank range in the face of a stranger who has done nothing to you?  What kind of people have we raised? I ask this question because I am willing to bet that this aberrant behavior did not start with Mr. Morales as an adult man. Based on what I experience and see every day, this started when he was a child, likely a toddler.

We are now living in a time where no one feels he or she has to respect anyone or anything. A life means nothing, except for when you're trying to save your own after taking someone else's. Take a couple of seconds and reread the opening line of the CBS account  where Mr. Morales urinates on the side of the wall of an upscale restaurant. I've actually seen people urinate on the side of a church. There was a time when if you did not respect any building, you respected the church. We are in the new normal.

In the new norm accounts such as these no longer even gets a head turn. Sadly we have become so accustomed to killing and shooting that it doesn't even phase us anymore. We are in the new norm. Look again in the account above and read where Mr. Morales goes inside of the bar threatening to shoot the bartender and the manager if they call the police on him for urinating outside. We are in the new norm.

I see the new norm every day as parents come in defending the blatantly wrong behavior of  children as young as six and then blaming their behavior on everyone else and everything else except the fact that the child had refused to listen to authority or instructions to begin with. I see the new norm every day as aberrant behavior is celebrated. I see the new normal all around me as pants that are designed to be worn up over the hip bone with a belt are worn hanging at the thighs exposing the better part of underwear. I see the new norm everyday as caps that are designed to be worn bill/visor front are worn flipped around, upside down and all around and those same caps not being taken off when the male wearer enters a building. I see the new norm every day as children curse out adults where in many instances the adults are their parents (the same ones who will defend their horrific behavior).

I will wager that Mr. Morales was one of the children who misbehaved as a child in school and had a parent come in and defend his wrong behavior and now look where it has lead. His urinating in public, threatening to kill anyone who may call the police on him and ultimately killing an innocent person walking along the street minding his own business.

From where I sit, the new normal is not a good thing and sadly the new normal is only getting worse. I welcome your commentary as always in the comment section of the blog and you are invited to follow me on Twitter @thinkcritical01.

Why Social Consciousness Must Be A Part Of The Church

This post was prompted by a combination of observations and reflective thoughts over the last couple of weeks. The reflective piece was actually prompted by an article titled Governor Christie Warned About Visiting Church Location appearing in NJ Pulse, a local newspaper seeking statewide coverage. Within the article an unnamed source made the following commentary: 

"St. Luke's is not a church. It's a political arena to satisfy their (St. Luke's officials) lust for power in the Democratic Party, which I happen to be of."  

As I write this post as a member of St. Luke Baptist Church since birth, I do not write it from a defensive standpoint because I do not have to defend such statements as St. Luke's eighty-six year history in the city of Paterson, NJ and the world speaks for itself. The bulk of her life was pastored by the Rev. Dr. Albert M. Tyler (62 years) and for the last sixteen years has been shepherded by Rev. Kenneth D.R. Clayton. The narrow mindedness of the commentary, however, did make me think in terms of how the many roles of the church are misunderstood.

The church MUST have a social consciousness. We must go beyond the walls of our individual sanctuaries and denominations and address the issues of human beings.Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of this in his speech delivered exactly one year to the date in 1967 prior to his assassination in 1968, titled "Beyond Vietnam"  This address was delivered to the Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam, at Riverside Church in New York City. An excerpt from the speech appears below: 

The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on. 

Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement, and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

In 2007, NPR as a part of a special series called Religion in Black America included a segment  on Social Consciousness in the Black Church and also expounded upon through interviews with pastors their thoughts on the role of the church.  Show host FARAI CHIDEYA asserts that from the sanctuary to the soup kitchen, religion and civic responsibilities have always been closely linked. An excerpt from Pastor John Hunter of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles during the interview is as follows:

Pastor HUNTER: Absolutely. We believe that our theology is one that, not only ministers to the soul, but to the entire person. Thus, we have a housing for over 3,000 families, economic development, incubator business programs, micro loan programs, all kinds of economic development vehicles that encourage thrift, economic development entrepreneurship, employment, the whole array of needs that low income families face.

So as I walked through St. Luke Baptist Church this morning observing our "Jewels" ministry, a ministry targeting our young girls, and thought about our "Boys Bootcamp," and I spoke with one of the members of the church who was cooking a dinner to be delivered from St. Luke to a prison ministry service this afternoon and as I reflected on all of the ways that St. Luke Baptist Church has helped and continues to help the city of Paterson; the state of New Jersey; the United States of America and the world; I thought back to that statement in that little newspaper made by that narrow minded unnamed source that said "St. Luke is not a church." St. Luke is indeed a church and social consciousness is and has always been a part of her fabric. She has always been about social consciousness from the days of Rev. Tyler providing hot chocolate to the students at Public School Number Six in the 30's to hosting Governor Chris Christie in 2013. St. Luke has always ministered to the "entire person" that  Pastor Hunter refers to in his NPR interview.

There is too much pain, poverty and brokenness for the church not to be socially conscious. The Church is not and ought not just be about "jumpin' and hollin' " as my mother can say. We must be about economics. We must be about politics. We must be about poverty and homelessness. We must be about social consciousness. I welcome your thoughts in the comment section of this blog and you are invited to follow me on Twitter @thinkcritical01.

 

I Have Yet To Figure Out This Sexiest Woman/Man In The WORLD Thing

Mila Kunis

I have yet to understand this "Sexiest Woman/Man Alive" thing in magazines and tabloids.  Sexiest Alive according to who????? I did a tiny bit of research and found that there are approximately 3,301,112,087 on the planet and someone is able to boil that number down to one? I am always amazed when I am in the check-out line at most stores and see the various magazine and tabloid headlines (When Jennifer Aniston is not on the cover and sometimes even when she is) and it reads the whatever category "alive." Usually somewhere in the year the "sexiest,"  "most beautiful,"  "most handsome," etc. etc. appears on the covers of various meaningless reading material displayed in the racks. I guess it's that time because I seem to be seeing it more and more of late. Now don't get me wrong, as a strong proponent of reading, I'll even take folks reading that dribble if it means they are reading, however, just critically think about that for a minute. A panel working for or with one of these magazine/tabloid companies are able to select the "sexiest,"  "most beautiful,"  "most handsome," etc. etc. out of 3,301,112,087 (with the number being a little bit higher for men) and call him/her the "sexiest,"  "most beautiful,"  "most handsome," etc. etc. in THE WORLD???  THE WORLD!!! I ask you............ Yes, this blog is designed to encourage you to think about stupid stuff like this that you might just gloss over or take for granted otherwise. The Critical Thinker is designed to bring things like this to your attention in order for you to stop and pause and see just how silly some things are. It is designed to take us off of autopilot and think. Something to critically think about. I welcome your thoughts and you are invited to follow me on Twitter @thinkcritical01. 

"He Did It."

I came across this little cartoon from a friend's Tumblr page and had a very good laugh. While laughing though, it also came to me how sad a statement this funny little cartoon is making.  It is also an example of the perceptiveness of the artist who has captured life in 2013. No one wants to be accountable for anything. Everyone wants to do whatever he or she wants, but no one wants to be accountable for the dirty deeds.  For those of us who work with children, we see this often, however, the really sad part is, we have adults who use this same tactic. "That's my story and I am sticking with it." Deny, Deny, Deny. We used to say, "You lying and you know you lying,"  and that is clearly the case with the blue crayon. He/she is lying and he/she knows he/she is lying.  

Now it does not take a critical thinker to see that there is no way the red crayon could have done it because all of the graffiti is blue. The only way the red crayon could have done it is if he/she had lifted the blue crayon up and scribbled him/her against his/her wishes, which would still be a stretch. Clearly the blue crayon, like many of us has not learned to connect his/her actions with his/her consequences and chooses to blame everyone else for his/her actions. Look at the expressions on each face. The blue crayon is boldly asserting that the red crayon did it, with the red crayon looking as if to say, "What are you talking about?"  What could get even crazier if we use our imaginations is the red crayon willing to be the fall guy or fall girl knowing full well that he/she did not do anything.

This seemingly cute cartoon says a lot about how far we are willing to go to shift responsibility to someone else and off of ourselves. It says a lot about how we react when we are caught. Have you ever considered how a murderer in most cases fight tooth and nail to save his/her own life even when he/she has taken the life of another?  How about the parent(s) who refuses to believe that their "baby" is ever wrong? Oh and of course who can forget, "She took my man" or "He took my woman," as if the other party had no say so whatsoever. They were just taken like a Barbie or a G.I. Joe doll and lastly the O.J. Simpson case.................  In the words of Bill Cosby, "Come On People,"  we must be more accountable for our actions even when we are wrong. Man or Woman up and admit when you are wrong, make the necessary corrections and move forward. But no, like the little blue crayon we will boldly assert with all the evidence pointing to us, that someone who could not have possibly done it, did it.  I welcome your response in the commentary section and I invite you to follow me on Twitter @thinkcritical01.

I Need You - You Need Me

Welcome to another edition of  The Critical Thinker. I haven't had a lot to post about lately, but I felt like posting today. Yes, there was the Boston Bombings and a host of other things to write about, but I know whatever there is to be said about the bombing has been said.

I am posting on a somewhat lighter note today, yet an important topic that I believe I may have shared with this audience some years ago. The post came to my mind as I am currently being inconvenienced (notice I said inconvenienced and not suffering) by an ingrown hair bump on my right hand pointer or index finger. It sits right on the top of my finger, right before the finger joint. Believe it or not this tiny nodule, bump, wart or whatever you would like to call it, is throwing my entire finger off (even typing this entry has been interesting).

While it is not horridly painful, it can be felt every time my finger hits or rubs up against something and it has made the bending of my finger a task; a painful task. Have you had a paper cut or stubbed your toe?  Yes, it is that kind of annoyance. It made me think (this is The Critical Thinker) that every and I do mean every body part plays an important role in the success of the entire body. There is not one part of the body that is not vital. When everything is functioning well and as a team, the individual parts are not noticed; but let one part become infected, or injured and you know that body part is there. Even the tiniest part.  In fact, it seems that the infected or injured part becomes a magnet for constantly being touched or knocked up against, etc. etc. Constantly shouting "HELLO, I'M HERE."  You won't believe how many times this little bump has hit up against some of the craziest places sending a signal to my brain that it is there. This is a great metaphor for teamwork and for life.

Every job function and every human being is important. Don't believe me? Get a paper cut and see how important your fingers and your skin are. I close with this very familiar fable about the body parts who all wanted to be boss. I think you will get the message. As for me, right now this little bump on the top of my finger is sitting in the driver's seat.

THE BRAIN SAID : Since I control everything and do all the work I should be boss.
THE FEET SAID: Since I carry man where he wants to go and get him to do what the Brain wants, I should be boss.
THE HANDS SAID: Since I must do all the work and earn all the money to keep all the rest of you going, I should be boss.
THE EYES SAID: Since I must look out for all of you and tell you where danger lurks, I should be boss.
And so it went with the Heart, the Ears, and the Lungs.
Finally the Anus spoke up and demanded that he be boss. All the other parts laughed and laughed at the idea of an Anus being boss.
The Anus was so angered that he blocked himself off and refused to function. Soon the Brain was feverish, the Eyes crossed and ached, the Feet were too weak to walk, the Hands hung limply at his side, the Heart and Lungs struggled to keep going.
All pleaded with the Brain to relent and let the Anus be boss, and so Brain recognized the importance of the Anus and they all worked together.
MORAL: Every part of the body is equally important. 

I invite your commentary in the comment section of the blog and you are invited to follow me on Twitter @Thinkcritical01.