As we take stock of the current state of America’s children and the desperate need to change direction for the future, some ancient wisdom can give us a blueprint for setting sail and getting our children to safe harbor. Everything our nation and all of us need to know about life can be learned from Noah’s Ark according to an anonymous writer.
Lesson One:
Don’t miss the boat. The United States is going to miss the boat to lead and
compete in our globalizing world because we are not preparing the majority of
our children for the future. The
greatest threat to America’s national security comes from no enemy without but
from our failure to invest in and educate all of our nation’s children. Every 11 seconds of the school day a
child drops out. A majority of
children in all racial and income groups and almost 80 percent and more of
Black and Hispanic children in public schools cannot read or do math at grade
level in fourth, eighth, or 12th grade—if they have not already dropped
out. Any nation that is failing to
prepare all of its children for productive work and life needs to correct
course—now. And all of us—parents,
educators, community, religious and political leaders—need to be part of the
solution and not part of the problem. God did not make two classes of children. Every single child needs and deserves a quality education.
Lesson
Two: We are all in the same boat. Many Americans may not like or think they
have any self interest in assuring a fair playing field for other people’s
children—especially poor and minority children, but Black, Hispanic and other
children of color will constitute a majority in 2019. Isn’t it better to have them supporting the Social Security
and Medicare systems and making sure a productive workforce is in place, rather
than for us to be supporting them in costly ineffective prisons? Our states are spending three times
more on average per prisoner than per public school student. I can’t think of a dumber investment
policy. We need a paradigm change
from punishment to prevention and early intervention.
Lesson
Three: Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark. Tomorrow is today and children have
only one childhood. They need to
be healthy now. They need quality
early childhood experiences now. They need first-rate schools with first-rate teachers and stimulating
high quality out of school time programs now. And they need to know that there is a good-paying job after
college in their future. We must
resist our quick fix, quarterly profit driven culture and invest in the future.
Lesson
Four: Don’t listen to the critics and naysayers. Just get on with the job that
needs to be done to educate our children. If you don’t want to be criticized, don’t say anything, do anything, or
be anything. Stand up and fight
for children, all of them.
Lesson
Five: For safety’s sake, travel in pairs. Better still, travel in groups able
to make a ruckus loud enough to be heard. We have got to stop those who are rhetorically hijacking Dr. King’s and
America’s dream but subverting his call to end the poverty, excessive
militarism and excessive individualism that’s killing the dreams and hopes of
millions of children. How can we
justify massive tax giveaways to the richest two percent and continue tax
loopholes for wealthy corporations at a time when 15.5 million children are
languishing in poverty?
Lesson
Six: Remember that the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
We must all use our citizen power, and vote to wrest our ship of state from
that small group of experts and powerful corporate leaders who recklessly
jeopardized all of our lives for personal gain. Use your own power to make a
difference.
Final
Lesson: Build your future, build our children’s future and our nation’s future
on high ground. Let’s leave our nation and world better than we found it—more
just, more hopeful, more peaceful, more productive, and more unified. This may be the first time in our
history when our children and grandchildren will be worse off than their
parents and grandparents. We must
correct course with urgency and do whatever is necessary to get them to safe
harbor.
We have
pushed so many of our children into the tumultuous sea of life in small and
leaky boats without survival gear and compass. I hope God will forgive us and help our children to forgive
us. I hope we will work together
with urgency to build the transforming movement required to give all of our
children the anchors of faith and love, the rudder of hope, the sails of health
and education, and the paddles of family and community, to keep them safe and
strong when life’s sea gets rough.
Marian
Wright Edelman is a lifelong advocate for disadvantaged Americans and is the
President of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF). Under her leadership, CDF has
become the nation's strongest voice for children and families.
