It's odd how when someone returns from jail they return to more fanfare than someone who returns from college. What's up with that? It's odd that if a person goes off to school or takes pride in their education their accomplishments are brushed off with a "oh, this n-gga trying to be smart." What's up with that?
Our school system and community are both jacked.
Before my blogging days I was heavy into working with youth. For ages I worked with young people after school and during the summer. For a while I spent some time in a few inner city middle school classrooms getting young folk ready for high school and college, which included transitions and making decisions that were based on more than what their friends were doing or going. Sometimes that included decision making that wasn't popular among their peers.
I also spent some time working with youth in juvenile detention centers on the weekends.
During this same timeframe, I spent every afternoon running an after school program in suburbia as the director. I saw how differently young folks looked at education in those three settings. And how their parents looked at it. And how people from their surroundings looked at it. Some valued education. Some were just going through the motions.
At the end of every week I was exhausted.
Anyway, recently while cleaning up my music library I stumbled upon this track from TheSeKondElement. The Graduate (off of her The Kommencement LP) made me think about a lot of my experiences with youth. And the conversations we had about education. The Graduate is a powerful cut. I dig it. Join the debate down low in the comment section. In the meantime, hit play, enjoy.
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