“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.” Lyndon Johnson understood that words were not enough to yield change. Words are inspiration, education and guidance to be interpreted by individuals and then used to scaffold change. Individuals inspire families and communities. It is from here that societal change then becomes inevitable. Is there something you would like to change, yet you don’t quite know where to start? The first step is to educate yourselves on the topic to increase the likelihood of success in making a permanent habitual transformation. If you are looking for a cohort to rally with and your dreams envisage equality in education, our hearts are beating to the same drum. This drum is to the heart of a child who is not held back.
Injustice strikes each of us, on countless occasions throughout our lives. Whether it is missing out on that promotion that all indications suggested you would receive, or watching the trio of beautiful women skip the line at a club while you have been shifting your weight patiently for a painstaking 20 minutes. What if those feelings were more than once a month or once a week. What if you could not escape from the injustice? That feeling is with you as you pack your bag for school or you attend a parent-teacher interview. Injustice trudges in your shadows as you stroll down the street. The same street you got frisked on yesterday. Frisked on a weekly basis, not because of what you do, but purely due to the area you live, the color of your skin and what you wear. When individual expression sparks a “stop and frisk”, you know society is heading down a dark and treacherous path that will inevitably see repetition in histories injustice.
Who is No Child Held Back? What is our dream? We are the voice of justice. The chants of equality. The essence of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. Let us respectfully and dutifully pick up from where our forefathers have left us. Together, let’s make our dreams a reality through justice and freedom in education.
As you become familiar with our voice, ask yourself, is your world one of Justice. Is the world of your students one of justice?
Parents; are your children receiving the same educational opportunities as the child two blocks over?
Teachers; are you provided with the necessary resources to engage your students while attempting to adhere to the curriculums that you are mandated to teach. Is it just, that competencies end up being a reflection of individual teachers, not the environment in which they are teaching.
Kids; Is it just that your dreams are filled with theater, melodies, and instruments, yet your school offers no arts programs. Is it just that you are being taught in a language that you don’t speak at home and you are forced to assimilate rather than integrate into your school and social networks.
Children, parents, and educators are being disadvantaged with our education system on a daily basis. This is impacting on lifelong educational and societal regression. Incarceration is what parents face if they refuse to send their child to a failing school and lack the financial independence to pursue alternate options. Children born to socioeconomically disadvantaged areas have greater chance of imprisonment than going to college.
Teachers are expected to meet standards when they are teaching to 3 different reading levels across four languages. A student in grade 6, who reads at a 2nd-grade level has almost no chances of catching up.
Is it reasonable that a single mum be expected to hold a financially viable job when faced with barriers such as snow days, child sickness and school holidays? A two-parent household should not be the reason child goes to college. Is it just that the little boy who dreams of being a pilot never gets asked what he wants to be when he grows up? The world is full of little boys and girls who’s dreams are never talked about amidst the expectation that they will complete school and contribute to society in a way our system deems respectable.
I ask again, are our current education standards, infrastructure and approaches Just? How do we gain educational justice? We start to talk, we start to ask questions and we equip ourselves with the right questions to be asking our schools, our teachers, our principles and our government. We hold ourselves accountable. We become the change!
No Child Held Back provides frameworks for dissolving the walls that have become taller and thicker with the cement of educational injustice. Let’s enlighten to begin to evolve mindsets. Let’s inspire to motivate the pursuit of educational freedom. Let us stand together to redistribute the power and infrastructure back to parents, educators and children.
Educational injustice is unacceptable, yet as society we have been accepting. Why? Do we not know any better? The indignation of injustice has, at some time or another been presented to us by media, by friends, by family and by life, yet how do we overcome these societal norms of injustice?
No Child Held Back is a portal and community who stands united. With one voice, we begin as a whisper then strengthen to become a hurricane. A tornado of change. Let’s be the perfect storm in this imperfect world. Let’s not hold our children back. No Child Held Back is an avenue for sharing stories. Let’s inspire each of us to do better, not just for ourselves but for our children and our future. Share you stories with us team management tools. Allow No Child Held Back to be the compass that aids in navigating the school hallways, parent-teacher interviews and community meetings so that your children do not become another victim in the current system.
Please contact us for further information on how to make the change, so our children begin to realize that dreams can become a reality, not just a bedtime story.
