Learn More and Earn More

“Learn more and earn more!” ? How many educated housewives, artists, philosophers and teachers are there who make no money? This man was not speaking to an educated elite of privilege. This man was speaking to fifty fifth graders of a low-income neighborhood school. Statistically, their future was not too promising.

He continued shouting, “ I am telling you, it is not a pretty sight to see the face of Yo’ Mama when she visits you in prison and you are wearing an orange jump suit!”. This was a tall slender African American man, dressed elegantly in a dark blue two-piece suit and shiny matching shoes. He had long artistic hands that he gesticulated sparingly along with his harshly direct yet eloquent speech. He knew what he was doing. He knew his target audience.

“How many of you have younger siblings? Come on, raise your hands!” he commanded loudly. “Can they read? Huh? Can they not read? Well, it is your job to make sure they can read! You know why? Because if your siblings can’t read by third grade, they will start building more prisons for your siblings!”

“They” – he never explained who “they” was, but the target audience obviously knew intuitively what this man was talking about. “They” were at the family center across the street, “they” were at school sometimes, “they” patrolled in police cars, “they” were all over hovering by ….

I happened to hear this speech because I was part of a set of parents of students who were by default bystanders of this speech.  Our children were sharing a fifth grade graduation ceremony and the space with the target audience. The neighborhood school building co-houses a so-called magnet program with enriched academics, of which the purpose is to attract students and families from all over the county to add diversity in the form of academic achievement, skin color and socio economics to the neighborhood demographics. In that respect, the magnet is successful – it attracts diversity. Whether it manages to allow organic mixing of the neighborhood students with the magnet students is still a work in progress. Fact is: the principal felt compelled to find a graduation speaker who would talk a slither of hope for opportunity into the neighborhood students’ minds. She didn’t need to worry about a pretty speech that would satisfy the parents of the academically enriched students. She had a more acute message to deliver before everyone ran off for the summer.

“So you don’t want to go to jail and you don’t want your baby siblings go to jail, so make sure you and they can read.” He paced briefly silently across the stage with his head down, as if to recover some energy before turning back to the audience looking them intently in the eyes.

“And you want to make money, don’t you? We all want to make money, right? And how do you make money? Well, stay out of jail first. And then: stay in school! And you know how you earn more money? You stay in school longer!”

“So I want you to repeat after me: Learn more and earn more! Learn more and earn more! Learn more and earn more!”

He didn’t stop until he was satisfied with the power of the chorus.

Later I asked my son who was sitting in the crowd of fifth graders graduating, whether he knew what the speaker was talking about. He shrugged his shoulders and commented, “You know it wasn’t for us, it was for them”.

At only ten, he knew there was a “us” and “them” based on academics and neighborhood status. I just hoped he wasn’t aware of skin color yet. And I also secretly hoped he didn’t grasp the message of the speaker; I hoped for naïve innocence in my ten year old. On the other hand, I cried for the apparent loss of innocence in the target audience. The loss of hope for opportunity.

But maybe the speaker was able to hammer some hope into their heads at this crucial fork in the road: summer. Summer, where the magnet students would be spoon-fed nurturing opportunities and where the neighborhood students would face choices that could alter their lives in bad ways.

Despite the figures of authority in these little people’s lives, such as the Principal who offer love, ideology, idealism, the ultimate choice at that critical moment when they are all alone, will be theirs.

The tall elegant man pleaded one more time, “Repeat after me: learn more and earn more!” Then he raised his voice even more and concluded by making them promise to graduate high school and not join a gang over the summer.

Later that day, as I was still trying to digest the power of his speech, I found out he was a newscast on a prominent TV channel. I spend the rest of the day hoping those kids watch TV, find this elegant man a person to look up to and that his words will reverberate in them throughout the summer - especially in that moment when they stand alone at a big fork in the road.