Prometheus 6

Robert Taylor and Booker T.

Lewis Adams, a former slave and successful tradesman, was the founding force behind the establishment of a school at Tuskegee. He made a deal to deliver African-American voters in the 1880 election. In return, the Alabama legislature passed a bill to "establish a Normal School for colored teachers at Tuskegee." He insisted on having an African-American principal and Booker T. Washington was hired.

"The horse enabled the students to start planting cabbages, watermelon, corn, sweet potatoes, and sorghum...All of the industries at Tuskegee have been started in natural and logical order growing out of the needs of a community settlement. We began with farming because we wanted something to eat." Booker T. Washington Up From Slavery

A few years ago, I saw a phenomenal documentary about the Palm Beach philanthropic circuit which exposed the extent to which what we think of as philanthropy is really nothing more than income tax avoidance instantiated as hyper-opulant galas for rich *contributors* - i.e., the rich were entertained, gobbled up, wore, or were gifted with the proceeds of their *donations* This documentary was so unflattering, it's not surprising that a google search turns up nothing remotely like it today.

To this same category of tax evasion by the well-to-do, we should add the inheritance tax, or as the Luntzians put it, the death tax the most conspicuous effect of which over time has been to deprive the well-to-do of their country estates and castles...,

The idea of a kindergarten through sixth grade school is great and would be immensely more beneficial in the long run than a university.

I think so too. It's very possible to create a syllabus that gets kids over that 5th grade hump and still meets all the government requirements. And I think a world-class national K-6 academy would be cheaper to endow than a world-class research university.

Lester said exactly what that pathology is

SEVERAL individuals who aren't even family, with absolutely no corporate ties?

No kinship ties.

wtf was I thinking?

guess black progressives better get over this silly skinfolk/kinfolk superstition and get with the time-tested and proven American success program...,

I, of course, see a natural constituency in Black folk. I think most Black folks do, but I think they prioritize it pretty much the way the mainstream does.

In the spirit of Booker T and RT, do you suppose that our suborned prioritization is rooted in our infantile dependency on the mainstream's infrastructure(s)?

Those who don't cooperatively and collectively do for self may become realistically disinclined to respect, much less love, our collective selves? Booker T would've set the gold standard for collective re-org and redress a damn sight deeper than the primary academy...,

I fully agree with him.

do you suppose that our suborned prioritization is rooted in our infantile dependency on the mainstream's infrastructure(s)?

No, I think our dependency on the mainstream's infrastructure is rooted in our forebearers' immersion in a culture specifically designed to suppress them, until that culture's nature and direction were irrevocably set. I think our prioritization is rooted in the need to stay alive in the culture as it was (and still largely is).

Booker T would've set the gold standard for collective re-org and redress a damn sight deeper than the primary academy...,

Don't confuse a first step with a goal. 

Don't confuse a first step with a goal.

"Children learn more from what you are than from what you teach" has become an aphorism or cornerstone of my belief since I began associating with a fully self-funded, self-determined, all-volunteer black school built from the ground up by black folk - teaching K-12 and adults - math, science, technology.

Culturally, we consider our kids witnessing and undergoing 360 degrees of black DOING in every aspect of the learning center experience even more liberating than the curriculum itself - and that's what resonates with me from the Booker T philosophy...,

Here's another couple of questions:

1.  How many wealthy whites were in a position to create stanford, or schools like it, around the same time period?

a.  Followup---why didn't more Stanfords arise?

2.   What year was the last Stanford-like institution created? 

Of the schools currently residing in the top thirty--when was the last one chartered?

1: Couldn't tell you
1a: Very broad question, too many variables.

I don't know the answers to 2 or 2[a] either. But I do recognize the obstacles to creating a world-class research institution. That supports my preference for a K-6 institution, though it has nothing to do with why I prefer it.

Basically, the best university possible would have to unteach a lot of bad habits and correct a lot of incorrect understandings.I think it would be better to not learn those errors. The correction must come before the college level.

Economically, K-6 is the cheapest level to address it. Because this is a rich nation...if you get kids through the sixth grade sane and curious, the environment is rich enough that they can easily take it from there.

...if you get kids through the sixth grade sane and curious, the environment is rich enough that they can easily take it from there.

ensuring unbridled curiousity and imagination of what is possible is absolutely fundamental. we spend an inordinate amount of time every single week struggling to root out artificial blinders on young minds that simply did not exist in my youth. without fail, one or more of the boys in the comics creation workshop will tell us in no uncertain terms what he cannot possibly do, and beyond that, what a black man cannot possibly do, always having never even tried or having never seen an exemplifying elder. from my limited pedagogical experience, breaking down these cognitive barriers to entry is absolutely imperative.

we spend an inordinate amount of time every single week struggling to root out artificial blinders on young minds that simply did not exist in my youth.

I can imagine. But don't think those blinders didn't exist because you didn't get caught.

from my limited pedagogical experience, breaking down these cognitive barriers to entry is absolutely imperative.

Yup. If possible you want to get them before those barriers set soundly...best would be to catch them before the barriers go up and guide them past that point.

Capital formation is more important than education. It's all about finding ways to aggregate in a black business class. I don't think there is any way to speed it up, but there will be a solid generation out there soon enough.

I don't think there is any way to speed it up, but there will be a solid generation out there soon enough.

That being the case, I turn from capital formation, which we cannot influence, to education...with a particular eye for Carter G. Woodson's concerns.

Have you never visited a Hebrew School?

Capital formation is more important than education.

Sorry but history shows that to be jarringly untrue. In all things frivolous we see unity, in all things serious, utter fragmentation. Acculturation occurring in a context of untainted interpersonal communion is a necessary prerequisite for the formation of black-partisan social capital.

Afrostacratic skinfolk have demonstrated more than enough psycho-social pathology to warrant strong scepticism concerning their capacity for noblesse oblige...,

Not that aggregating in a Black business class is a bad thing...if that's your direction, I truly hope you succeed...but how is that different than the various "Buy Black" proposals the never quite worked out?

Capital formation is not more or less important than education. What is truly important is that we avoid the imposition or creation of false dichotomies which, invariably, lead to a dialetical process that hinders rather than spurs critical community development.

We should develop a collective mind set that encourages both spheres of activity. I am in wholehearted agreement with P6's idea of a K through 6 school and it would be great if we could find ways to encourage wealthy blacks to contribute to such a project.

Black entrepreneurs, on the other hand, don't care and don't need for me to cosign for their ventures. They are going to explore commercial opportunities whether I agree with the aims of their businesses or not. That's okay too. Capital formation can take place outside the province of buy black campaigns. Look, for example, at the money being raised by predominantly black churches that is subsequently used to build mega-churces instead of being channeled to create banks and credit unions.

Contribute, hell.

Invest. Make it a private school chain, business plan is to expand into the markets made available by public school failure.

But they have to have their head on right...that the business is to keep the schools running.

Yes, indeedy! We should stop arguing about the efficacy and sanctity of the public school system and spend our time trying to figure out how to educate our children. A large part of our difficulty in this area stems from the fact that too many of us believe that we need to carry water for other people and groups, e.g., teachers' unions and Republicans trying to siphon off black votes, instead of carrying water for our children.

That problem was solved 33 years ago..., and has been continuously refined and enlarged ever since. The DLC now serves in excess of 1000 students/year. The challenge today is one of growing and replicating this model in other black communities across the U.S.

I regret writing this and will not respond any further but if the problem was actually solved 33 years ago, then why are still experiencing divisions over the questions? The DLC is one of many appropriate solutions to the problem.

Because the vast majority of people would much rather talk about the questions than actually roll up their sleeves and engage directly with the children to do the Work of strengthening their minds and future prospects.

People have a wicked imaginal proclivity for confusing talk with action. The DLC is a one-of-a-kind solution reality.

The DLC suppliments the local school system, which is good. I would like to see an arts-directed institute with similar focus.

My preference is still to get them before the damage is done. 

We welcome the arts at DLC, though the numerate potters will tend to focus on numeracy as the primary thrust, my own specific area of focus is dependant upon the arts - or at least on creative cultural production.

I teach comics creation with Anthony Jappa. Actually, Jappa teaches comics creation and I provide the enabling technology to facilitate this effort. It's a collaboration and still very much work in progress. We're still developing the curriculum but the response has been overwhelmingly positive from the kids we've been working with. The center is setting up an Internet Radio Studio, {think podcast production} largely in response to what we've unleashed with this effort. Every child is given a leveling open-source creation toolkit - which becomes the technology blue pill, because if you're familiar with the load on this disk, you know it's capable of enabling some very non-toy Work, on old x-86 boxes that are otherwise effectively doorstops.

Drawing, writing, digitizing, and the Open Source rabbit-hole all in one fell swoop, and lest you underestimate the aim of this program, think Wu Tang multimedia type structured narratives. Not simply the comic books from back in our day. We're using creativity as the carrot to take these kids as far down the technology rabbit hole as possible and they're absolutely eating it up.

Think Hero's Journey.

In the whole journey, the hero goes down the rabbit hole, but he comes back.

We now return you to consciously addressable levels of discussion.