What do I tell my son?: How schools should respond to Zimmerman verdict

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It’s a sad statement, but urban youth must be taught civics lessons drenched in units on the criminal justice system. Children should not have to know what stand your ground means, but the people pursuing them do.

The Zimmerman decision forces parents and teachers to teach how to interface with people who deem themselves authorities.  Again, children should not have to burden themselves with such specific knowledge until graduate school, but children must be able to survive until then.

But urban youth are not the only ones who need to ask themselves, “How does it feel to be a problem.”  Those who exercise privileges that are indeed lethal must be positioned for change. Curriculums should not be so individualistic that they disarm the considerations of our neighbors’ social and emotional well-being. For communities to thrive, people in privileged positions need to hear and see statuses other than their own.We are accountable to each other. To this end, individual student data must be measured against community outcomes.

Critics of Du Bois thought that he sought some kind of unreasoned revenge. However, like several oppressed people before him, Du Bois learned that if there is any type revenge to be exhibited, peace is the greatest variety. While others expected unbridled anger, Du Bois returned with peaceful intellect. Du Bois’ work revealed that the highest forms of peace, happiness, or harmony must come through rigorous, demanding self-critique.

Student expectations

Students need debate clubs, units that facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and demanding language arts programs.  Also, students must know the expectations of what it means to be a good lawyer, law maker and civic leader.  Schools must provide learning goals to meet the need.

It’s easy to abdicate responsibility and say the proverbial the problem starts at home and to sleep in the comfort of denial that dismisses the truth that everyone can impact the life of another, positively or negatively. ‘How does it feel to be a problem?’ also acknowledges one’s personal contribution to the social conditions around us. Everyone can contribute material and more importantly emotional resources towards a solution to the problems of race, class, and gender.

In the struggle for freedom and equality, education becomes a preeminent virtue and higher order virtue because it symbolized the critical self-questioning that is required for survival. Education rises above economics, wealth, and political power because if we do not think critically, we cannot spend responsibly or legislate ethically. Education is the foundation for social uplift.

If schools do not respond to Trayvon Martin’s death, then they become the problem that assumes it’s a solution.

Andre Perry, Ph.D. (Twitter: @andreperryedu) is the Founding Dean of Urban Education at Davenport University. He’s also the author of The Garden Path: The Miseducation of a City.