Tonight I attended an awesome finale for the Freedom School.
The school is an outreach program of the Kwanzaa Community Church in North
Minneapolis and targets neighborhood kids who are at risk for failing in school
and finding the other troubles that surrounds them.
Tonight’s program featured singing, stepping, dancing,
drumming and drama and I must say the show was excellent. There were strong themes of personal
empowerment and the need to take control of your own education. The kids were great and it was clear that
their teachers did an amazing job with them this summer.
An explicit message relayed through the drama was the idea
that the schools are under serving the black community. Gross disparities in
graduation, suspension and imprisonment rates were cited. A second group was named as under serving the
kids but with far more nuance and care.
The care and tact was needed because the group named was watching the performance.
The group implicitly named as under serving these kids was their family,
friends and community.
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