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March 24, 2008
UPDATE — Adolph Reed, Jr. to speak on “Education and Economics in Petersburg, 1950s to Today”
Adolph Reed, Jr., “the most brilliant voice on race in America today,” will be the chief presenter of the fourth and final public workshop on Petersburg and its relevance to Virginia and American history on March 29, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, at Union Station, 103 River St., Petersburg Sycamore Rouge. The public is welcome free of charge.
The focus of the workshop will be “Education and Economics in Petersburg–1950s to Today.” It is the fourth and final in a series of workshops on the theme of “African Americans in the Context of the Atlantic World–Focus on Petersburg, Virginia,” jointly organized by the Institute for the Study of Race Relations and Department of History and Philosophy of Virginia State University and by Petersburg 2007, the Petersburg Steering Committee for Jamestown 2007.
The program is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities as one of its national “We the People” projects.
Dr. Reed is a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the editor of Race, Politics, and Culture and With Justice for All, and author of The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon, W. E. B. DuBois and American Political Thought, and Stirrings in the Jug. He is a longtime and frequent contributor to The Nation, The Village Voice, The Progressive and other publications. Dr. Reed and several local scholars will discuss the latest research — what we know, and what we don’t yet understand about communities like Petersburg. How do we explain the radical changes of the last sixty years? What is the role desegregation, of white flight, of economic shifts and job losses to the suburbs, of different family patterns and changes in educational cultures?
Petersburg has one of the longest, richest, and most significant communal histories in the Commonwealth. Why is there so little public knowledge about, and attention to, Petersburg? Why has so little been learned from both the successes and failures of Petersburg history? What, in the end, can Petersburg history reveal about what has happened to so many metropolitan centers across the United States over the last fifty years?
The first three workshops dealt with “Slavery and the Emergence of the Atlantic Economy–1619-1865″ (May 16, 2007), “Establishing Black Institutions and Leadership–1776 to Early Twentieth Century” (November 10, 2007), and “War, Reconstruction, and Civil Rights–1861-1960s” (February 2, 2008).
The project will continue and grow beyond the workshops. With generous continued funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, we will continue research and material collection on Petersburg history, and will create, in collaboration with the Petersburg Public Library, a Petersburg Virtual History Center.
For more information, please contact Dr. Dirk Philipsen at dphilips@vsu.edu, or call the Institute for the Study of Race Relations at 804.524.6999.
W.E.B. Dubois was a communist. The Nation sometimes reports on important underreported things, but it is a fringe left newspaper.
I’d be interested in what he has to say, because its about petersburg’s RECENT past, and because as a guy at Penn, he’s probably good at what he does, even if he’s wrong, or partly-wrong.
Why is he more “brilliant on race” than dinesh d’souza?
http://www.dineshdsouza.com/books/endracism-jacket.html
WEB duBois is one of the few communist writers that are still taken seriously. Why? Because the guy was black and he wrote about black problems. Scholars mostly marginalize Booker T. Wahsington because the guy had way too much common sense, and relied less on shaky theories.
Dubois was a communist, as were many blacks of his era who were disenfranchised. Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison both recognized it, and rejected that direction. I believe that Dinesh is a brilliant guy, but when it comes to understanding the Black experience in America, he’s on shaky ground. I don’t know anything about Mr. Reed but I’m willing to listen. As a non-white immigrant growing up in California in 60’s, I have to say that I will be eternally grateful to the black civil rights movements for my own liberation. Without their liberating ideas, that we are humans first, and ethnicities later, I would have been consigned to either cooking or gardening as a profession. Peace out.
“Dubois was a communist, as were many blacks of his era who were disenfranchised.”
A lot of PEOPLE of his era were communist. The ideas were still untested then. Now they have been, and MOST of those thinkers have been forgotten. Except duBois.
“I believe that Dinesh is a brilliant guy, but when it comes to understanding the Black experience in America, hes on shaky ground.”
That’s what makes him MORE qualified. Since he is neither a white of european origin, nor black, he has no skin in the game based on race. As a south asian, with a totally different set of ethnic biases, he can approach the problem with more objectivity.
He also cannot be dismissed as a black chavanist or an uncle-tom.
The “feelings” of the black experience have been exactly one of things that have hurt progress. It has taken a great deal of moral courage within the black community to criticize the culture and the “identity” of being african american, because one is accused of giving ammunition to the klan, or the far right, depending on the politics of your accuser. Free speech is hence very restricted, as is honest-self examination.
“As a non-white immigrant growing up in California in 60s, I have to say that I will be eternally grateful to the black civil rights movements for my own liberation.”
I’m grateful to it too. I’m also grateful to the early feminists, and to ghandi.
As many in the urban league have realized, we’ve, as a country, mostly moved past civil rights (unless you have a greatly expanded view of civil rights) and are now in the realm of economic empowerment for black people — which can only be achieved by the same principles that asians, for example, have proven so good at utilizing in this country. Namely: thrift, self reliance, strong families, PRACTICAL education (no “asian studies,” please)
Welfare and social promotion undermine these values, and perpetuate present problems that many don’t even have the courage to mention in mixed company.
**** Per an email in my inbox this a.m., this event will be at Sycamore Rouge, not Union Station as previously advertised.
I attended the workshop yesterday at SR, the subject of which was announced as ” Education and economics in Petersburg, 1950s to today.” For those of us who are new to the city, it would be very useful to learn facts and about events, and hear various points of view on what happened over the past half-century to bring Petersburg to its current state. The workshop yesterday did nothing of the sort. It was just two hours of musings, emotional testimonials and posturing on a range of topics, a few of which touched upon the current state of public education in Petersburg and none of which I found especially insightful. The workshop was a classic example of “false advertising.” I hope some group does organize a decade-by-decade presentation (1950-2008) to explain what happened in city politics, race relations, government, business and economics, eduction and other areas and what the consequences were.
Did anyone else attend that workshop? What do you think about it?
Great question post #5, and thanks for bringing this thread back to the topic of “Education and Economics in Petersburg, 1950s to Today” and away from further discussion on Dubois, communism, and who is smarter Dubois or Dineshdsouza. That sounds like a topic for another thread.
In post #1 we see: “I’d be interested in what he has to say, because its about petersburg’s RECENT past, and because as a guy at Penn, he’s probably good at what he does, even if he’s wrong, or partly-wrong.” Well, did you go and what do you think?
In post #2 we see: “I don’t know anything about Mr. Reed but I’m willing to listen.” Well, did you listen and what do you think?
I missed the actual event. However the account in Progress Index stated that Prof. Reed mentioned a document called the Kerner Report that examines the cause of the 1967 race riots and the ensuing “white flight” to the suburbs, shifting many urban areas to become predominately black in its populations. “Petersburg was one of the cities listed in that document,” Reed said.
“Along with the shiftinig demographics of the city, the school system began to struggle,” Reed continued. Reed also indicated that as in other jurisdictions in the country, deep conflicts exist between city council and school boards. Is that true here in Petersburg? Can our city council and school board work togetehr for the benefit of the overall city? How do we show examples of progression? SOL scores? New creative ideas? What?
Ivan Tolbert, of The Virginia Parent Information Center says that there is no set solution to what can be done and what parents can use. He was referencing the resources available through the school systems Title I Program. He stated: “There’s an awful lot that can be done that isn’t being done.” Hey, we should take a closer look at that. The money is there. Somebody is going to do something with it, why not those who it is meant to help?
Dr. Dirk Philipsen, one of the founders of the VSU Institute for the Study of Race Relations, stated that “The Problem is that the country does not demand quality education as a civil right.” He makes that statement to support his “Kids are not the problem,” and “Parents are not the problem,” diatribe. Children and parents make up the country my friend. We can’t just pass the buck off to “the country” as though “the country” sits off to the side somewhere ignoring the community.
Many children are spending way to many hours in front of video and electronic violence and trivial pursuits while parents avoid addressing the education system and demanding that it be treated as a fundamental human right. However, on the other hand, there are many parents and children who signed petitions asking our city government (”the country”) to delay just a couple of weeks allocating money to a golf course and let’s take a closer look at priorities in our city. So, I am saying to Dr. Philipsen, the citizens and to myself, the problem can’t be placed on one element of the community. We are all a part of the problem, as we are all a part of the solution. We just have to constantly make choices and decisions, it’s an ongoing process, not a one day, one workshop, one grant solution. It’s ongoing.
If then, 2X plus a cup of coffee equals y, let us continue to come together, 2 or more, and continue to ask the question “Y”… I am confident that it will lead to answers.
The Petersburg public school system is academically bankrupt and needs to be shut down permanently in order to save the city’s children.
Money is not the issue. We have a school administration that has plenty of money to pay top administrators bloated salaries but can’t seem to find the funds to pay for toilet paper, toilet seats, or hand soap for the students. We have an administration that lied about enrollment for years, inflating it to collect more government money than they were entitled to, and in spite of this fact, they still get more $ per pupil than the surrounding jurisdictions with the sorriest educational results in the entire commonwealth.
To suggest that the unacceptable educational results in the Petersburg public schools are a result of conflict between the city council and the school board is a mischaracterization. IMHO, the relationship between council and the school board is way cozy, so close that there is no accountability whatsoever. Almost without exception, our local politicians rose from the school board or were/are school system employees before going on council, becoming sheriff, etc. Perhaps, the most egregious example of this symbiotic relationship between our school system and our city government is our madam mayor. She ran the math dept at the high school for over 30 years with the result that her students scored the lowest in the entire state on the SOL for a number of years in succession. As a reward for such an ongoing failure at her teaching job, the voters reelected her year after year and council made her mayor on account of her long tenure. The mayor is a living example of a person rising to the level of their incompetence!
No, I did not go.
What I found offensive was not so much that they weren’t going to talk about disouza (liberals at instututions with achievement records like VSU HATE disouza, as do the liberal elite) It was that the guy was being billed as the “most brilliant” guy when it comes to racial thought. Not an area where I’d like to be called brilliant (I’d prefer electical engineering or law or something), but also not an area where it is easy to quantify “most brilliant,” because most people are EXTREMELY biased in their viewpoints.
“Dr. Dirk Philipsen, one of the founders of the VSU Institute for the Study of Race Relations, stated that “The Problem is that the country does not demand quality education as a civil right.” He makes that statement to support his “Kids are not the problem,” and “Parents are not the problem,” diatribe. Children and parents make up the country my friend. We can’t just pass the buck off to “the country” as though “the country” sits off to the side somewhere ignoring the community.
Many children are spending way to many hours in front of video and electronic violence and trivial pursuits while parents avoid addressing the education system and demanding that it be treated as a fundamental human right. However, on the other hand, there are many parents and children who signed petitions asking our city government (”the country”) to delay just a couple of weeks allocating money to a golf course and let’s take a closer look at priorities in our city. So, I am saying to Dr. Philipsen, the citizens and to myself, the problem can’t be placed on one element of the community. We are all a part of the problem, as we are all a part of the solution. We just have to constantly make choices and decisions, it’s an ongoing process, not a one day, one workshop, one grant solution. It’s ongoing.”
I’m glad you point this out. I think with all the complaining about a insufficient amount of funds from the outside being poured into [petersburg's] schools, I think one first has to make perfectly clear WHAT is lacking in the schools as a result of “funds being held back.”
First off, the textbook industry is filled with scamsters. You don’t need new textbooks every 6 months, or even fifteen years for elementary subjects. The texbooks I learned math from are now thirty years old. I knew way more math in highschool than most of petersburg’s kids (if the numbers are to be believed), so — should they be trying to track down my 30-some-odd-year-old math textbooks? It really doesn’t matter. I had no access to computers as a child. And in high school you only used computers in learning how to PROGRAM them, not to learn math or history from them.
The truth is, you put me in a classroom with the children of a bunch of children whose parents are asian and arab immigrants, I could teach them all the math they need to know to ACE the SOL’s with just some paper, pencils and a chalkboard. But I can’t do the same trick with african american students FROM AN AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY.
I’ve tried.
Maybe one’s theory is that there are not enough/ not good-enough teachers in [petersburg] because there is not enough money to pay them. That’s a better theory, but believe me there are a LOT of teachers that graduate wanting to change the world. They want to go straight to where kids are the most ignorant, the most economically or historically disadvantaged and change the world. They didn’t get into teaching to get rich. What they usually find is a racially charged atmosphere where they are seen as a threat to the local political educational establishment, resented by indigenous teachers and [VSU] grads, not respected by the students because they do not abide by the same culutral expectations, and not backed up by parents that want their kids to actually do the things they need to do to learn.
Most teachers leave a school for reasons other than pay.
Parents from good school districts actually DO want kids in poorly performing districts to get a good education, but when asked to PAY the bill, they are rightly MORE concerned with how the money will be spent than they are even in their own districts.
They are mad enough about waste in thier own districts, but when THIER money is to be spent to help other kids (who will be competeing with thiers for slots in college/jobs) they are even less tolerant of waste.
Using richmond as an example, it is very clear that WAY TOO MUCH money goes into adminstrative crap, that there are way too many people that are professional adminstrators, enlarging their offices/power at the expense of teachers and children’s educuation. This is seen in urban districts all over the country. In a small town school, financed directly by the parents of the children, the administrators are DIRECTLY responsible to the parents. If they are either wasting money or failing to educate — they are held accountable. Fast.
In places like petersburg, interested parties resent like mad outside influence into their district, until it is time to ask for more hand-outs. They’ll take the money, thank you (”you owe it to us”), but won’t take any responsiblity along with it.
That is the first not entirely irrational perception that the people like this Penn professor say aren’t doing enough have. The second one is: “even if we buy them the textbook that was written in 2007, give them the teacher that was educated at Yale (not in “protest studies,” but in chemistry) — the teacher will be speaking to deaf ears.”
The kids will follow the desire of children everywhere to do whatever it is that THEY want to do, but the administration, and the parents will not back-up the teacher who tries to severely discipline the child who tries to ignore, threaten, or disrupt the teacher’s lesson plan by calling grandma .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/02/AR2008020201897.html
That teacher would better utilized teaching MY child, the parents of the successful district think.
ANYBODY who REALLY cares about petersburg’s children, and not their own resentments or ambition, needs to learn as much as poosible about Michelle Rhee
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/education/20face.html?ex=1339992000&en=2fa3ab2f837819c1&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
(I mean read this article and anything else you can find about her)
and the lessons that she brings to all who care about children in dysfunctional school districts, and put aside all the racial racist crap about whether the kids can achieve or which outsiders should be blamed if they don’t.
Look at the challenges she has faced in her goals to educate african american kids, and learn that some of the toughest challenges have come from the adminstrators and teachers — and really virtually none have come from a lack of money thrown at the problem.
Mr. White,
I have to respectively disagree with you.
There are many good students in peterburg’s schools.
Where will they go if the school system is shut down?
Worse is the word “permenantly.”
Are you TRYING to be controversial?
Are you suggesting we be annexed by chesterfield county? I haven’t heard that they wanted us. That also isn’t what I have heard from colonial heights…
Perhaps you mean that petersburg should be abandoned, and then a big wall built around the town.
Where am I to live?
Certainly petersburg’s public schools accomplish SOMETHING. I have met councilman Moore’s kids. They seemed smart and well-adjusted, in spite of the system, and thier classmates. I’m sure there are many others.
But I’d want to see their SAT scores if I were a college
I can’t put my fingers on the figures at the moment but I seem to remember that the per pupil spending in the PPS was so high that it was conceivable to just shut the school system down and pay for private school for every student in the city.
IF that is true or even nearly true then we do have some type of a problem.
I, for one, would love to see an audit of not only the PPS but the city as a whole.
Speaking of audits…. when does the efficiency review get reported???
And I think parental responsibility cannot be waved away as though not an important determinant of a child’s influences and direction in life.
Where I grew up, many a parent would ground their child for bringing home a sub-standard grade on their report card. And in case the parents were not able to set or enforce such standards, the schools did so themselves: if a child did not earn at least Cs across the board, that child was benched from participation in extracurricular activities until the next grading period. I believe the policy was called “no pay, no play.”
As to education being a civil right, as someone who has spent most of their life in the education arena in one way or another, I have observed that quality education is readily available to those who seek to avail themselves of the opportunities before them.
Efficiency review — good question!
Thank you for the info about Michelle Rhee. I am looking forward to reading her work.
Let’s ask City Attorney Dawson about the efficiency review. I believe it was his office that got it started.
Anybody that can turn around students who had been scoring in the 13 percentile to scoring at grade level with many now scoring in the 90 percentile must be doing something right. The article on Michelle Rhee that you shared was excellent but lacked any “how” she did it.
Thanks again for the information on Rhee. It will be interesting to look at how she did what she did.
Agreed — really good articles Shawn.
CSdude — go here to learn the latest on the efficiency review.