It Takes A Village To Raise A Child In Urban America!

It takes A Village To Raise A Child In Urban America!
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It takes a village to raise a child! Over the many years there has been much conversation concerning the solutions to low-performing school districts in America without completely analyzing the problem as a global village. A sound educational system needs 100 hundred percent of the village to be active stakeholders to bring the school district up to past standards of excellence. Some of these stakeholders include the Superintendent, President of the School Board, School District Board Members, Teachers, Aides, Civic & Community Leaders, Parent and Students and all other personal that currently work within the school district.

Thomas-El, Salome a Principal Philadelphia stated it best in his award winning book “The Immortality of Influence” that “All stakeholders in the system must give back what was given to them as they interact with students enrolled in the school they are currently working in on a daily basis.

Today almost every youth enrolled in a public educational system in America are afforded the opportunity to get a great education, but they must show up ready, willing and able to put in the work that it takes to succeed. I believe the parent is the first teacher and the home is the first classroom. So I beg to ask the question is the Village doing all it can to raise the standards of education in our global villages across urban America?

The school Administrators are not in the classroom teaching daily, so we need to explore the problems of educational excellence by monitoring teacher performance and looking into models in classrooms where success in schools. Some teachers are able to motivate students to achieve in spite of being in a school districts that seem to have overall poor performance.

Small indicators can be the start to turning a whole district around and getting schools on track to superior performance. Schools need to invest in extracurricular activities to stimulate our children, as it is a well know fact that achievement in one area often leads to increased self esteem and positive results in other areas.

I started off with “It takes a village to raise a child” and I stand by this concept because as I look back at my life I know it is only by the grace of God and support of the village the I have been able to become the person I am today.

Phil Andrews is the President of the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. an affiliate of the US Black Chambers, Inc. and Past President of the 100 Black Men of Long Island. Mr. Andrews is also the President of the Black Public Relations Society-New York an affiliate chapter of the National Black Public Relations Society. Mr. Andrews has appeared on WABC Here and Now and NBC’s Positively Black. Mr. Andrews is a Black Enterprise BE Modern Man.

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