The title of this article is not original. That is, it is not mine. It belongs to former pediatric neurosurgeon – and Republican candidate for president – Dr. Ben Carson.
Carson appeared on the “Kelly File” (Megyn Kelly, “Fox News”) Thursday night (June 18, 2015) as reported by Barbara Boland in the “Washington Examiner.” Carson took issue with “the gun control message that President Obama delivered Thursday in the wake of the mass shooting at a Charleston, S.C., church.”
“I think we have to start going to the heart of the matter,” said Carson. “The heart of the matter is not guns. The heart of the matter is the heart — the heart and soul of people.”
Our country is due, overdue, a doctor’s visit to check our collective pulse. A health checkup as to the condition of our nation’s heart is in order by everyone, in every organization, at every level.
How can a committee, for example, meet endlessly to discuss mindlessly a topic that – given the exorbitant amount of time spent on it without resolution – demonstrates they really don’t care? They’ve no heart for it.
How can anyone pursue anything without passion – the necessary fuel that lights a necessary fire – and witness the conflagration their ideas and efforts have set ablaze much less kindle even a flicker of a flame? They can’t and they won’t. They’ve no heart for it.
Having a heart – giving a rip – possessing passion that drives action – not only applies everywhere to everyone, it is perhaps especially true with regards education.
Speaking of the heart, an ancient proverb reads, “It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a fool, since he has no heart for learning.”
Book-learnin’ is a matter of the heart.
Even, and maybe especially so, where “paying for tuition” – per the proverb – even for a fool, just isn’t much of an option.
An article out of Pittsburgh this June 19th, illustrates.
Rachel Martin reporting in “Watchdog.org” notes that the McKeesport Area School District is among 11 in Allegheny County classified as high-poverty, and Propel (good name given it gets at the heart of the matter) McKeesport “has even more economically disadvantaged kids than the district at large. But economy and demographics won’t determine anything — not if Principal Lauren DiMartino has anything to do with it.”
According to DiMartino, while “there is no perfect recipe for success, no magic wand,” still that DiMartino’s was “one of six high-poverty schools singled out in a recent report for its success” is attributable to, more than anything else: heart.
DiMartino’s Propel school is going somewhere. And they – being propelled as they are by heart – know what it takes to get there.
“For us, it’s about hard work — the relentless pursuit of success for our kids,” DiMartino said.
Unlike the young man who stopped by recently – as he does occasionally having been there and done that, now and then, here and there without really much to show for it – and asked, spreading his arms wide, ‘how do I look?’
“Great! Where you going?”
“Oh, nowhere I guess.”
Exactly.
Couldn’t agree with you more, and Dr. Carson has a proven track record in improving education for the under-served inner-city schools. His Carson Scholars program is now in its 20th year, that’s says something good about the couple that started it, Drs. Ben and Cindy Carson. Ben has my vote.
Thank you for the great piece. You and Dr. Carson have hit the proverbial “nail on the head.” Education…anything…without heart accomplishes poor results. As a retired high school teacher and counselor, I worked hard with my students to establish their viability and worth…and thus their successful futures. I am in touch with many of them through Facebook now…and I am thrilled to hear their successes and adventures. It broke my heart when I witnessed classrooms filled with students who all started out eager to learn…but who, through lack-of-heart educators…have lost the zest for living and succeeding. I saw my job was to change that…so I did. Nothing is more rewarding than to see the next generation ALIVE and enjoying life! Dr. Carson is the perfect example…I am a HUGE supporter.
Thank you Mitch and Marilyn and especially Marilyn (and Mitch too if you were/are an educator) for your hard-work ethic. You may or may not agree with another article I wrote about education but here’s an excerpt and then a link:
“If you expect high standards and hold to them, children will do better. If you let off on them, they’ll do worse. ‘Too much emphasis is placed on getting the marginal student through school as painlessly as possible.’ There is some question whether most parents want their children educated so much as they want them ‘turned out’. How many parents of today share the educational experience with their children? How many enforce homework discipline? How many visit the schools regularly, talk to the teachers, and know more about how their children do in class than what the report tells them?”
“Schools, Parents Must Get Tougher” – title of a 1972 TNT editorial quoting Mortimer Adler, Ed. Philosopher:
http://thesubtimes.com/2013/12/17/letter-baloney-why-education-is-failing-our-kids/