Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 17, 1979, edition 1 / Page 2
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mm t coimhij Without Discipline There’s No Learning by Hoyle H. Martin, Sr. Poet Editorial Writer Much has been written about the plight of many schools where the business of learning or transmitting knowledge has fallen in second or third place to rowdiness, letting students “do their own thing,” out right violence, the maiming of - teachers and the intimidation. oir school administrators. Undoc#(ed-t ■ ly, parental indifference, teacher apathy and student uncertainty are ' contributing factors to the spreading abandonment of the learning process. It is for these reasons that we are shocked to read published reports alleging that teachers of the Street Academy have publicly criticized the administrative leadership of Bob Davis because he is a disciplina rian, who, among other things, requires male students to remove their hats when in a classroom and not wear their hair in plaits. Davis, in his first year as principal of the 160-student Street Academy, says, “Our major concern is to rehabilitate youngsters to the point they’d stay out of prison and make something of their lives.” Yet, Davis’ critics contend his policies and programs are too strict. It appears difficult enough for JHr. Davis to have 160 students who can’t adjust to a regular classroom sett ing, but to have a faculty that has forgotten a basic management rule, can’t adjust to change, and are apparently opposed to accepting the true challenge of the students, then problems will exist. We believe, first, when you work under a man you should be loyal to him. Disagree with him in private ; blit ih the public be supportive or get 1'transferred' or quit. Secondly, teachers or any other employee, need to be aware of the fact that new leadership means pew ways of doing things. Subordinates worthy of their hire should* accept such changes gracefully and perform the tasks required cheerfully. Thirdly, the teachers at the Street Academy should stop attacking the adminis trator and focus on the real problem ~ the maladjustments of their students. If their energies move in this direction their students might begin becoming the citizens they need to be. Teachers, let’s stop being cry babies and get on with the business of helping to educate our youth. To truly do this however, you’ll need to support your Principal, Bob Davis, so he can fully support you. Without this team effort another generation of American youth will be lost. This we cannot afford. You can help to avoid it - won’t you? w as scared straight lYematurdy Judged? scared straight, the Academy • Award-winning documentary Juve nile Awareness Program that was shown on WSOC-TV (Channel 9) last week after some hesitation, has belatedly come under criticism and created controversy. The controversy has arisen from what appears to be the rather simplistic end to the T.V. show when the youth involved seemed to be suddenly, and without a doubt, convinced that they’d go *‘straight* * * after the Rahway experience. Only •„ one of 14 in the group was alleged to have run a*tah of -HA*-law to days after their involvement in the pro gram. However, a Rutgers Univer sity study shows that when 35 youthful offenders not in the Rah way program were compared with 46 who participated six months earlier, the participants reportedly had committed four times as many crimes as did the non-participating group. “Scared Straight” shows a real life situation in which juvenile * offenders are taken into Rahway Prison to be told by inmates in the most vicious, descriptive, candid, raw language way of the horrors - homosexual abuse, beatings, stab bings, killings - of a maximum security prison facility. The pro gram, conducted by the 80-member “Lifers Group” of inmates, uses terror and intimidation to scare youth offenders away from crime. Those in N.C. who favor the scared straight” approach to help ing solve the youthful offender problems, including Gov. Jim Hunt, contend it’s a quick solution; it’s a cost-free program; shock treatment will undoubtedly save some youth; and convicted criminals in a position trying to help others may also contribute to their own rehabilita tion. Those who oppose the “scared straight” method, including Amos Reed, Secretary of the N.C. Depart ment of Corrections, argue that it’s the latest in a long line of instant solttCtons 4**-fc*tC0fti,»]ex social problem, it’s an untested theory, it’s cruel to expose youth to such abusive coarse language and, in the words of one T.V. viewer, “was a distorted and hyperbolic portrait of prison life ” While both viewpoints have some merit, they each reflect a premature judgment because the problem is complex and one T.V. showing of a controversial issue presented in a historically controversial way (brutal language) hardly sets a climate in which objective opinions can be offered. In that context, it was in poor taste for both Gov. Hunt and Secretary of Corrections Reed to have expressed such clear-cut opinions so soon after the T.V. program even if they’d had prior knowledge because most T.V. viewers were totally unfamiliar with the "Scared” program. ARE WE GOING TO SIT ON OUR LANDS AND LET BLACK COMMUNITIES 'RUMBLE AROUND US? GRASS ROOTS COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS MUST lMERGE TO FORGE A UNITED EFFORT AGAINST CRIME,NARCOTICS TRAFFICKING SLIGHT,AND DECAY^ | The Mack Community Can And Must Do The Job New Job Initiative '] Lacks Real Partnership ur. Demeiey u. Burrell Special to the Post White unemployment is on the rise again. Black unem ployment continues its double digit status. So official Wash ington is again looking for new ways to create jobs. Unfortu nately, when most people talk about creating jobs, minority institutions are not involved in the discussion. This is evident in government’s new private sector jobs program. The thrust of this program is to find jobs for the disadvantag ed in the private sector. To make it work, government is prepared to provide $400 million to “encourage" the business community to hire more people. i program is anouier wrinkle in the CETA program (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act). It would establish private industry councils, made up mainly of local business and labor leaders, to secure more priv ate sector jobs for the unem ployed poor and to ensure greater private sector involve ment in all aspects of local employment and training activities. As a condition for funding, the councils must review and approve all funding plans and proposals. They will have broad responsibility and great flexibility in the implementa tion of this program. The theory behind this initiative is the bureaucratic red tape has crippled previous job pro grams and discouraged pri vate sector participation. Currently, the government estimates that 4 out of every S jobs in the labor market are created through the private sector. The general aim of this program is sound. Just how it will be implemented is a source ot great concern. We are told that the success of this program requires a “partner ship” with the private sector. But that could be a code word. In the past, private sector has meant the white folks. There is no explicit language con cerning the minority private sector.. AMt, since the target group of unemployed is basi cally Black and other minority citizens, special attention must be given to minority firms and other minority insti tutions who can increase their employment potential through active participation. On the job training activities are spe cifically covered under this new program. If the partnership concept is to work, maximum participa tion by the minority private sector is essential. Otherwise, white people will get the jobs and the money to provide them. This is unacceptable. We are tired of having people take the legitimate interests of Black America and transform them into a funding rationale for white organizations. And that could very easily happen with the private sector job program. The National Alliance of Business (NAB), not just a white business group, but one tied primarily to big business, is trying to position itself as the primary organization to put Blacks and other minori ties back to work. In effect, NAB becomes the proxy for Black organizations and Black institutions. That’s the last thing we need! The minority private sector | can produce jobs. It produces jobs today; and it can produce more with additional re sources. The question is not | whether additional resources 1 are available. The question is will the existing resources be shared with us? If they are not, the rhetoric of partner ship will continue to be hollow, phony and contradictory. Most minority firms are loca ted in areas where the pro gram is most likely to be established. Thus minority business participation pro vides credibility to the pro gram. Not too incidentally, such participation would strengthen minority firms and provide the impetus for expan sion. This is not to suggest that NAB has no role to play in the jobs program. It is to suggest, however, that NAB should not have a unilateral role to the exclusion of other existing structures. Minority institutions must become full partners in any new partnership arrangement with government In the private sector jobs program, the minority private sector must play a visible and con structive role in creating jobs. And it must get its equitable share of the resources. Other wise, we will be frozen out of yet another opportunity to expand institutional capacity in the minority community. Capacity building Is the key. If partnership is the answer, we had better get down to the business of making sure that the minority private sector is a full and equal partner. 1 |====?By VERNON E. JORDAN. TO BE EQUAL How Many Doctors Do We Need? One of the most curious concepts to come along in quite a while is the growing notion that America has too many doctors. Just try telling that to minorities and the poor, who frequently live in rural areas or urban neighborhoods that have no doctors at all. It’s the old story of looking at gross figures. The annual output of new doctors has doubled in the past two decades. But that doesn’t mean they practice where the people who need their skills live. Nor does it mean they are in specialties most needed by the average health consumer. Still, the so-called doctor shortage is an excuse for support for cutting federal aid to medical schools. It’s even being used as a rationale for opposing a national health insurance plan. It is argued that the more doctors there are, uie more people will use them, and the more inflationary will health costs become. Strange. At the same time, we’re told that the law of supply and demand has not been repealed. The more there is available of a good or service, the lower its price is likely to become. But that doesn’t hold true for health care. Why? The answer is that organized medicine operates like an internal OPEC monopoly, freed from the normal constraints of the marketplace. Fee-for-service medicine keeps health care costs high, as does the cost-plus insurance system. It’s hard to understand the argument that it’s bad if people use physician’s services more often. If more people use more doctors, that obviously means they need those doctors and the health care they provide. Whenever sales of some consumer item increase we never say that’s bad. We recognize that people want more of that item and business takes steps to supply it. But why then do we say that items in human services, like health care, should be carefully rationed and kept limited? ’ Those limits are today imposed by excessive costs. If you can afford to pay a doctor you use his services, if you can’t, you don’t. Poor people covered by Medicare and Medicaid programs have some access to health care since the guvciwuciu wm pay lor u. And there’s been a rise in health services utilization since those programs were started. ^That*i good, it means-more people are getting better health care. But millions of others are not. They don’t have access to doctors. The financial structure of medical professions is such that esoteric specialties drain oiff many who in former years might have been general practi tioners and family physicians. The result is that some areas and people are not served at all, some are underserved and relatively few have full access to the health care they need. So long as the nation's ghettos and barrios are virtually without health practi tioners, so long as many public hospitals would stop dead in their tracks without foreign trained , physicians, and so long as medical professionals are maldistributed, America doesn’t have too many doctors. It’s troubling that calls for limiting the numbers of doctors come just as blacks and other minorities are gaining a tenuous toehold in medical schools. Even with the rise in minority medical school enrollments, blacks are only about two percent of America’s doctors. And while the total number of places in medical schools is increas ing, the number of blacks admitted is shrinking. ! integration And Education: 25 Years After Brown by Bayard Rustin Special to the Post As we mark the 25th anni , versary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, it is im portant to remember the revo lutionary quality of the , Court’s judgment By deci sively repudiating the archaic , “separate but equal’’ doctrine. Brown shook the legal and moral foundations of the entire racial caste system in America. Moreover, It initiated a creative and long , overdue discussion about the very concept of quality, most importantly the concept of equality of educational oppor | tunity. Today, after twenty-five i years of sometimes bitter debate, the concept of equal educational opportunity still remains controversial and confusing as school boards and communities continue to wrestle with the slippery prob lem of racial imbalances; des pite good intentions and many valiant desegregation plans, think it is quite fair to con clude that educational in equality has not yet disap^ peared. and that American society has not even settled on a clear, widely-accepted, workable definition of what equality of educational oppor Bayard Rustin tunity really means ' These two conclusions, however, do not warrant undue pessimism or charges of ill will and total failure. They are, I think, candid and simple statements of fact. To illustrate the persistence of educational inequality, I think it is worth noting some recent developments in several of the school districts originally involved in the Brown case In Topeka, for instance, arbitrary racial segregation has disappeared, yet rhcial imbalances still exist, and charges of racial discrimination frequently arise Developments in two other Brown districts - New Castle County, Delaware and Clarendon County, South Carolina - are also cause for serious concern, since they serve as graphic examples of two relatively new and inter related problems: the drama tic reemergence of de facto segregation as the result of urban-suburban population shifts, and the vexing pheno menon known as “white flight While desegregation expe riences in the Brown districts have been rather disappoint ing, overall trends in school integration and black educa tional advancement are generally more encouraging. The folfowing (Joints, I think, deserve special note: white opposition to integrated schools has dropped consider ably; the black-white gap in achievement shows hopeful signs of disappearing; black drop-out rates, once enor mously higher than white rates, have fallen; and the proportion of black youngsters attending college has risen tremendously. Taken together, these con tradictory indications remind us again that desegregation is a complex process that must adapt to changing economic and political circumstances Consequently, our efforts toward tun desegregation need a broader focus. As I see it, we need this new focus for two reasons: first, unless we begin to think of educational quality in a more socially comprehensive and class oriented manner, we will be continually distracted by an on-going racial “numbers game" which will divert us from our real goal, quality education for all. And second, if the drive toward educa tional equality continues to be mistakenly perceived as a racial matter, we risk losing the political and community support which are absolutely essential for the success of any desegregation program, and for the continued survival of any integrated public school system. In concrete terms, then, I ■ ▼ T A JSL am suggesting mat we Degin to look more closely at pro posals and ideas like a major equality-oriented restructur ing of school finances, a more rational and regionalized ap proach to drawing school dis trict lines, greater use of magnet schools, and a more careful and more future oriented approarf to educa tional planning/ Strikers Fan Through Streets continued from page l Washington, D.6. upheld earlier rulings finding the company guilty of "serious and pervasive unfair labor practices. ” The ruling upheld the union's unfair labor practice strike from November 17,1976 to February 22, 1977, and ordered the company to rehire all 130 strikers to their pre vious jobs with pay from the end of the strike to the date of their reinstatement According to Coutlakis, the new ruling orders 5 more days of back pay to the workers because "the company had no intention of rehiring them." While most Of the strikers were eventually rehired, not all returned to their same jobs The union estimates the company owes its workers •500,000, and that is why they are striking again. Company spokesman God frey Bennett, Vice President of Harris Teeter, said the supermarket chain will appeal the NI.RB decision to a higher court. “We feel the decision was wrong," said Bennett. "So far all rulings have been from the NLRB, but taking it to a higher court will put it in another environment." Unfair labor practice charges were also filed last week against Harris Tee^r by the N.C. State Buildii^ and Construction Trades Gtancil President Charles' Dover claims union contractors are being denied the <pportunity to bid on Harris Teeter's new wareho^* In Indian Trail. "The*"* denying people • the righ.to work and make a living fo^thrtr families Jwt because th% belong to a union,” said ‘over, whose organization repents 35,000 skilled trade worps across the state. 1 THE CHARLOTTE POST “THE PEOPLES NEWSPAPER” * Established 1918 Published Every Thursday By The Charlotte Post Publishing Co., Inc. 1524 West Blvd.-Charlotte. N.C 28208 Telephones (704) 376-0496-376-0497 _ Circulation, 9,915 60 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE BILL JOHNSON .VEditor Publisher BERNARD REEVES...General Manager I SHIRLEY HARVEY...Advertising Director 1 — - Second Class Postage No. 965500 Paid At Charlotte, N C under the Act of March 3.1878 I Member National Newspaper Publishers Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photos is 5 p m. Monday All photos and copy submitted becomes the property of the POST, and will not be returned National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc 45 W 5th Suite 1403 2400 S. 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The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 17, 1979, edition 1
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