Late Night Snack

This will be a bunch of randomness that will help me later on so bare with me. I feel it can be of some importance. My late night snack for tonight. As I spend some much needed quality time with my niece Calysa, an astonishing idea pops in the relm of delusional images floating in my mind fighting to gain understanding. Ever since birth I have always been there for her, despite the restless efforts of her good haired, smooth talking father. I promised myself that I would be sure that she becomes better than me. At the time of her birth I was in the young stages of my metamorphasis, so the impact I had on her was like the impact my parents had on me, minus the belt. I was eager to teach, teach someone what I have gained in my long late night sessions of meditation. Alas, God sent me something, someone that I could use as an example later that shows off the positive effect that someone can  have on a childs life. This gift came as a blessing to not only my sister, but me as well. A vow was made early on that I would see that the first offspring of a Gibson would have it better than I had; even if it was not of my own.

At a young age I was forced into questioning why things were because of the often confusion that remained presently in our household. Excellance was all we knew. Even though it was frequently seen by my father and later adapted into my own lifestyle, it was the want of reading to gain more that developed from the late night reading sessions that was held with my mother. Indeed, it was my father who pointed me in the direction that my curiousity was already wandering, but it was the effort my mother kept to always read me something that later fueled me. This lasted until the itch for reading on my own arrived. What I am getting at is that because of the continuous efforts sought out by my parents, I was able to develop a feeling to put forth an effort to achieve a higher literacy. Flash to present day. Now nine years later from my nieces birth, the hard efforts I bestowed are now prevalent. She is the top of her class, and has been since stepping foot into the then Youngstown school system, now Columbus. It is not all off my doing, but I do believe some credit should be given. What was done on my parents, sisters, and my behalf is what is scarcely seen in homes across the nation today,and that is efforts pushed towards excellance. It sounds so easy, and that is because it is. It is seen all through time from the pervious minded slaves that with the determination in their heart sought out literacy, to the abolishioners that escaped fighting hard for equality. Once educated it was of known ritual for the same information to be passed on to the less fortunate, he then telling another and so on. There already was a bar set for excellence; an already set criteria to breed it. To bad you had to lack pigmentation in order to receive such right to the heirachy of the almighty excellence throne.

Playing up late with my neice helped me realize an ongoing problem that we, collectively, fail to take notice as a nation. Education should be the key. The problem is that they are too many people that do not see the momentous strides made by African-Americans as being of  some importance to the American race. They exclude the efforts, and success that was accomplished by many of African-American decent. Because my parents passed on the philosophy of education to my siblings and I, I was able to kick in the necessary gears needed to ensure my success later in life. What bothers me is even at my current grade level that I was in, I still felt this same way. That our school systems were holding back from teaching us more, and more of what we actually needed to know. My niece is very much so used in many of my observations. Sort of like my life long project. The name Michael does seem fit. But back to the topic at hand. For the lack of information that I was receiving in school, I sought out to learn more. This is a drive that is often seen in the lives of children that, A) know of their past and the efforts taken to reach such points, or B) experienced some sort of push towards higher learning in the home. My niece allowed me to see something so simple, so clear, yet blinding like a ray of light catching the retina. It is time we take it back a few decades. Back to when literacy was of the upmost importance in this nation. White kids wanted to strive to maintain their dominance over blacks, and Black kids wanted to strive to just be considered in the conversation of coming close to being white; the then thought supreme race. The conscientious efforts to achieve excellence was on both mindsets even then, yet they allowed race to keep them devided, and devided on the power they could have achieved together. Although this has gotten me off on a tagent or two, a serious point is being made. Our country is the way it is because of the lack of responsiblity we choose not to take for our own faults. Our nation will continue to fail to improve unless some sort of strenuous action is strongly considered and sought out. Before I jump back on my point, it bothers me that our school systems today lack proper information on the history of African-Americans. The programs, the strides, the sweat, the tears, the long fought journey towards excellence that accrued daily in the communities of Blacks, should in some way be of some importance, and should show of some value to the American people. If one race, if one living organism, was able to overcome such a devastating time period of being suppressed, then surely it should be used as the blueprint to overcome any situation. Is it not taught by coaches around the globe of someone that was able to do it better before them the main thesis of making their athletes better? Does a long jumper not model his or her jumping style after greats such as Bob Beamon and Carl Lewis? Now, back onto that. My drive and determination to educate myself came from the narritves that I would so interestingly read, that told of situations I could relate to. Those I could not understand helped provide wisdom to those I did. Teach all races about African-Americans, and I can guarantee excellence will be the focal point of discussion.

In teaching my niece it also allowed me to get a first person glance at how a living organism evolves as a result of the direct effects placed upon it by its environment. Take for instance the lessons learned by a dog; not associating humans as dogs, but the characteristics of adaption to ones environment. You get the dog as a pup, training it not to urinate in the house. With many efforts, the pup still persists to go wherever he so chooses. Reading of a known method proved to work, you give the dog a treat every time you take him for a walk, but only after he uses the bathroom. Only after a few times will the dog associate using the bathroom outside as being good and will result in a treat thereafter. Letting the dog know that he was wrong, and assure him that a treat will not be given for such behavior will promote it to decrease the times of allowing it to happen. Problem solved, the pup, now a few years old, knows to notify you when a restroom break is needed. For he knows upon arrival back a treat will be his reward. This is the system. We teach our kids only what we want them to know, but not what they need to know. If we can put more effort into providing our kids with the necessary knowledge that will cause them to not only want to continue the push towards excellence, but also want to improve on the efforts put forth to help assist. Kids are like guinea pigs; they know not, therefore they perceive not. We control the future through our kids of tomorrow. The kids will only know what we teach them. So why is it that we decline on teaching our kids that are of the third grade level that of which a fifth grader is learning? Are we afraid they will understand it? A child perceives what is thought to be understood. If all that is taught is excellence, will the child not learn excellence? I can prove this to work in my niece, who is lucky enough to have someone who cares about her education, and future. If you need more proof I would advise you to take a trip to your local library and look up two cultures, African-American and the Chinese; two nationalities that fought through adversity, and continued to stride for excellence. The irony of a satisfying late night snack.