Month: December 2011

The Revolutionary Paideia 2011 Person of the Year & December 2011 Person of the Month: Drake

Although many other people were strongly considered for The Revolutionary Paideia 2011 Person of the Year, Drake was finally selected.  With Drake’s recent impressive sales on his sophomore rap album, Take Care, he deserves to be recognized as The Revolutionary Paideia December 2011 Person of the Month.  Drake embodies the “unsettling, unnerving, and unhousing” spirit that found this site.  Drake is a rapper who does not try to fit the traditional rap mold.  He doesn’t try to be a gangsta rapper or act all “hard” just to appease those who expect all men, including male rappers, to be hypermasculine.  You won’t find Drake talking about gangbanging and dope dealing in his art.  What you will hear, however, is a truly one of a kind rapper who is not afraid to challenge the status quo in rap music and in Hip-Hop in general.

Take Care sold over 630,000 copies in the first week it was released (Take Care’s First Week Sells).  The early success of the album is evidence of Drake’s serious commitment to continuing to ameliorate his craft.  Drake is simply not another rapper and Hip-Hop artist—he’s a talent reconceptualizing the way we think about rap music, Hip-Hop, masculinity, success, and much more.  If you’re looking for a positive example in rap music and Hip-Hop, Drake is one of the best examples of rap music and Hip-Hop at their best.

Because Drake has elected to not be a gangsta rapper and be “hard,” he has come under attack from many people.  Even someone who I deeply admire, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, expressed that he hates Drake.  For someone who does not know him personally, that’s certainly too strong of an emotion to have.  Those who claim to be “thugs” find Drake to be too “soft” to be considered a real rapper, and they argue that he is more of a pop singer than a rapper because he sings on some of his rap songs.  Why hate on this man’s ability to sing?  So do you have to be a “thug” to be a real rapper?  Do you have to be gangsta rapper to be a true rapper?  Do you have to have been in jail, sell and use dope, grew up poor, and have lyrics permeated with violence to be a real rapper?  The answer to the three aforementioned questions is no.  Getting that answer across to many people is a difficult task, however.

It is with great pleasure that I name Drake The Revolutionary Paideia 2011 Person of the Year and The Revolutionary Paideia December 2011 Person of the Month.  With so many unsubstantiated attacks on Drake that one can find on the internet, including Twitter and Facebook, it is my hope that this piece will offer a refreshing and positive look into one of the greatest rappers, artists, and Hip-Hop figures to ever live.  These awards given by Revolutionary Paideia are small tokens of love and appreciation for this great man and artist.  Continue to do spectacular things and continue to be who you really are.  Congrats, Drake!

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research Who You’re Dating Before You Commit

Although you don’t want to have a complete fear of commitment, many people need to have a little more caution about who they choose to date.  Many people are just too happy to be intimately involved with someone or to have the appearance being intimately involved with someone that they neglect to do some of the basic research that can be quite helpful in discovering that their “special” woman or man is really not just “special” to them but to others as well.  If you do some asking around about the person you’re involved with, you just may find some valid things about him or her that he or she has not shared with you.  You may even be surprised with what those who hang around you all of the time can reveal to you about who you’re dating.

You have to have a willingness to listen to what people around you may have to say about the person you’re dating.  Of course, there will be many people out there that will simply hate on the person you’re dating, but you can eliminate those folks by asking them to give you proof to verify what they’re saying.  People who really have some knowledge about the person you’re dating can provide you with some proof of what they’re claiming.

In no way does this piece assert that you should become a private investigator or hire one to investigate the person you’re involved with.  This piece does, however, contend that you should ask that person serious questions and ask questions about the person to people who knew him or her before you did.  You just may be amazed at what you find out!

You can make yourself look like a fool when you go around acting and talking like you have the most special person in the world when that’s the same person who has slept with nearly everyone in town, or has slept with whorish people you know you don’t want to come behind.  You don’t have to turn into an interrogator, but it certainly is a wise decision to asking some probing questions before you truly commit yourself to a person.  A person who is truly committed to you will not mind you asking questions about their past and what he or she is doing right now.

If you discover that the person you’re dating has slept with one of your friends, do you really want to continue to be with that person?

Of course, everyone has a past and if you find out aspects about someone’s past that you don’t like, then that’s up to you how you judge that person for what he or she has done in the past.  For example, if you discover that the person you are dating has been really whorish in the past, you may resolve that this is not the person you want to stay committed to or desire to build anything further.  However, if you learn that someone has slept with your friend or associate since you’ve been together, then you need to reassess whether or not you should be with that person, especially if you’ve asked the person you’re dating if he or she has slept with that person before and the response was no.

Again, don’t go to extremes in your attempts to learn more about the person you’re dating, but do some basic research about your mate.  Start with basic questioning.  If you don’t have open and frank communication with your mate, then the relationship is going to end inevitably anyway.

Before you present the person you’re dating to the public as being so “special,” make sure he or she is not also someone else’s intimately “special” person too.

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Own Your Frustrations

Don’t take your frustrations out on others.  If there are specific people causing you to be frustrated, then direct your anger toward those individuals—not everyone else.  You have to learn how to take control of your emotions.  Your emotions are your emotions.  Don’t force everyone around you to have to deal with your problems.  When you’re having an unpleasant day, you shouldn’t try to make everybody else have an unpleasant day.  We can learn a significant amount about ourselves when we begin to think critically about how we handle being frustrated.  Just because you’re frustrated doesn’t give you valid justification to make drastic decisions.  When many people get frustrated, they start to acting like it’s the end of the world.

You have to understand that things are not going to go well for you every day.  If you’re an adult and claim to be mature, then you shouldn’t have to be told that everything is not always going to go well for you.

It’s okay to be frustrated from time to time—being frustrated is a normal part of the human experience.  You shouldn’t be frustrated all of the time, however.  If you’re frustrated all of the time, then you need to seek professional mental health treatment.  People should not shy away from getting mental health treatment.  One of the fundamental purposes of mental health treatment is to empower you with the ability to be in more control of yourself.

Don’t allow a frustrating day to become a serious crisis.  You have to understand that some things will happen and you will need to move on from those things.  Sitting around having a pity party is not going to change anything about your frustrations—it will only make things worse.  It’s very unattractive for you to resort to the most extreme measures when you’re going through frustrating moments.  People will begin to think that it’s best for them to not be around you.  You don’t want people to isolate themselves from you simply because you fly off the handle every time you’re frustrated.

Learn how to handle your problems responsibly.  If you need assistance with conflict resolution, please seek professional assistance.  You may even find it useful to speak with mature and successful people around you who can give you counseling about how to better deal with conflicts in your life.  If you’re always overreacting to problems you have in your life, then there’s something truly wrong with you mentally.  It’s okay to admit that you have mental problems.  By admitting that you have mental problems, you can get the help you need to address those problems.

Again, we all have been frustrated before.  Of course, we all would love to never experience frustration.  However, we know that we can never eliminate experiencing frustration.  How we respond to frustration is much more important than being frustrated.  Acting responsibly and maturely when you’re frustrated can help you to develop into a better person and allow you to discover things about yourself you didn’t even know.

Make every effort to stay in control of your emotions. Stop overacting.  Live responsibly.

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Is It Useful to Get Revenge?

Before you begin to think critically about the question the title poses, let’s suspend our religious beliefs and values for this particular discourse.  Of course, the bible informs us to let God fight our battles.  However, let’s remove ourselves from the teachings of the bible for at least this discourse to explore whether getting revenge is useful.  Even if you have difficulty with temporarily suspending your religious beliefs and values to enter this discourse, you may find that you would arrive at how you feel about revenge without the teachings you have received in your religious sects.  It can be quite beneficial to explore whether or not we gain any true benefits from seeking revenge on those who have wronged us.

Although some may see it as childish for adults to seek revenge, it’s vital to consider that many wars throughout history have been fought to obtain revenge.  Therefore, unless you’re prepared to offer a serious argument for why many wars that have been fought throughout history have been childish, then don’t just call an adult childish for desiring to seek revenge.  While we have to brush many things off of our shoulders in life, considering we cannot fight every battle, there are times when we need to make people pay for the terrible things they’ve done to us.

If someone just walks up and slaps you in the face, do you let him or her get away with this?  If you catch someone in the act of destroying your property, do you simply let him or her get away with this?

Are there times when seeking revenge is justified?

You cannot allow people to do everything to you and not make them suffer some consequences.  While you may have been taught to be the better person and not to try to seek revenge on another person, this teaching can cause you to get trampled on by many people.  If people are out there attacking you, then you need to defend yourself against their attacks.  At some point, you have to respond to serious attacks.  Don’t think constant attacks will not have their impact on you—they will.

When you’re engaged in a battle with someone, use all legal things at your disposal to defeat him or her.  Never come away from a battle talking about what you could have done to win that battle—do it while you’re in the battle.  Don’t feel sorry for those who are out there trying to destroy you.  Do you think they are concerned about you?  Why be concerned about them?

There may come a time when you have to get revenge on a family member or close friend.  You have to be willing to make a family member or close friend who has intentionally sought to harm you pay for intentional wrongs.  Don’t concern yourself with taking it easy on a family member or close friend who has not demonstrated a true concern for you through their words and/or actions.  Would a true close friend or family member intentionally and maliciously attempt to hurt you?  If the answer is yes, then you have to be willing to show him or her that you’re not going to sit around and allow him or her to destroy you.  Fight back!

Some people think everything is okay when they are doing the attacking, but they really think you have done them viciously wrong when you strike back at them.  When some people are out there doing and saying horrible things about you, they need to think more deeply about what power, talents, influence, and etc. you possess before they intentionally do and say things to hurt you.

If you feel the need to get revenge on someone, don’t let anyone deter you—go for it!

Do you think it’s useful to get revenge on someone who has wronged you?

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Don’t Get Erased—You’re Not Irreplaceable

Many people think that they’re irreplaceable.  Please think again.  There’s nothing that’s so special about you that cannot replaced.  When people start to demonstrate to you that they believe that you cannot make it without them, then you need to show them that you can.  You will find out that you don’t need those people in your life who feel that you’re nothing without them.  Who are they to think this in the first place?  People can think that they’re so much better than you, but you have to let them know that they’re thinking far too highly of themselves.  You can communicate just how much you’re not dependent on the people in your live who feel like you cannot make it without out them by severing all connections and communication with them.  Then they will have an opportunity to understand how they can be replaced.

It’s excessive hubris that causes people to consider themselves as irreplaceable.

When you erase those folks who act like they’re irreplaceable from your life, they will start to see just how valuable you’re to them.  Unfortunately, it could be too late for them to have a chance to have you to once again become a part of their lives again.  It can be quite challenging to get someone to become a part of your life again once they have made a firm commitment to erase you from his or her life.  Therefore, don’t allow your thinking, words, and actions to put you in a position where someone you really love feels compelled to erase you from his or her life.

You can also fool yourself into believing that people are not important in your life.  You can pretend like people don’t offer you many physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits.  When people become fed up with you not valuing them and taking advantage of them, they will inevitably break all ties to you.  In the end, you will have to determine whether your excessive pride was more important than what you lost in those people.

No man or woman is an island.  Therefore, we all need people in our lives to help us and care for us.  Don’t ever develop a mindset where you feel like you can make it solely on your own—you will fail miserably.  You may think that you can be happy all by yourself because of your wealth, achievements, degrees, and etc., but none of those things you can truly enjoy all by yourself.  Ultimately, you’re going to want to share the value of those aforementioned things with at least one special person.

If you have special people in your life who have really proved to you that they love you, then you need to let them know you truly appreciate them.  Don’t walk around trying to prove to them that you don’t need them—prove to them that you love them and appreciate them.  Why are you walking around trying to prove to someone who truly loves you that you don’t need him or her, especially when the person has not given you any reason to need to prove this?

You need to know that people can replace you.  They can find another person to be that person you are to them.  You’re not so great that your replacement is difficult to find.  In fact, your replacement may already be someone a person has in his or her life.

Get real—you’re not irreplaceable!

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Open Letter to School Administrators

Dear School Administrators:

When you’re observing and evaluating teachers in their classroom, it’s vital that they have all of the information about what you expect from them before you enter their classrooms.  If you haven’t done a good job of providing them with feedback, then you cannot expect them to be the type of teachers you consider to be effective teachers.  When you’re observing and evaluating teachers, they need direct instruction about what you expect from them in the classroom.  How can teachers do the jobs you expect for them to do when they never receive specific training on what you expect from them?

When you expect teachers to follow guidelines for a standards-based classroom, you cannot simply give them a standards-based classroom checklist and leave them to interpret the standards-based classroom checklist and expect them to be ready for you to come in and observe and evaluate their performance in the classroom. How silly is that?  When you do this, it seems like you are setting the teachers up for failure—either intentionally or unintentionally.

Be fair to teachers and give them all of the information, training, materials, equipment, and etc. they need to be effective teachers.  Before you begin grading teachers and asking them to grade themselves, how about you grade yourselves first.  When you begin to engage in critically assessing yourselves first, then you may discover just why your teachers are not performing to a level that meets your expectations.

Although it is vital for students to perform well on standardized tests, you have to place a stronger emphasis on giving teachers credit for the ways they motivate students to learn.  Many students would care less about a standardized test if they didn’t have teachers who are motivating them to care about the standardized test they have to take.  When people run into your offices telling you about what a teacher is doing and not doing, begin to question the value and credibility of person who is telling you something a teacher does or does not do that doesn’t have an impact on student motivation and student academic achievement.

Some of you need to stop hiding behind your desks and computers and address the teachers you truly have problems with, instead of sending out emails addressed to everyone, making it appear like you’re having problems with a great number of teachers when it’s really just several teachers.

Many teachers are doing a great job and really care about their students.  Be sure that you’re not doing things that will cause those teachers to leave the profession or your school.  You don’t want the good or great teachers to leave your school while the ones who are just there to get a check remain.  When you try to communicate to your teachers that you appreciate the job that they are doing, be sure that your words and actions evince that you truly mean what you’re attempting to communicate.

We all want the best for all of our students.  Therefore, since you’re the leaders of our schools, then make sure you’re doing all you can to empower your teachers to be the best they can be.

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Revolutionary Paideia November 2011 Person of the Month: Melvin Parker, III

Each month, Revolutionary Paideia selects an individual who embodies the “unsettling, unnerving, and unhousing” spirit that founded this site.  In order to be selected to be a Person of the Month or Person of the Year by Revolutionary Paideia, an individual, widely known or little known, has to have and/or is making a significant contribution to humankind.  Although Revolutionary Paideia has selected well-known individuals for the Person of the Month and Person of the Year, a solemn commitment is made to honoring people who do extraordinary things but receive little to no acclaim.  The person who has been selected for the Revolutionary Paideia November 2011 Person of the Month is Melvin Parker, III.

Melvin Parker, III is a Georgia educator and counselor who works at Alcovy High School in Covington, Georgia.  Melvin has been an educator and counselor for over five years at Alcovy High School.  Mr. Parker has a serious interest in ameliorating the educational experiences and outcomes of all students, especially disadvantaged Black male students.  Extensive empirical research has evinced that Black male students at all levels of the educational pipeline academically underperform all of their peers.

From Mr. Parker’s interactions with students considered “at-risk,” and who were constantly being referred to him by administrators to develop plan of actions because of disciplinary problems, he developed an idea to construct The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Club at Alcovy High School.  The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Club is an organization focused on improving the behavior, academic achievement, social skills, life skills, professionalism, and potential for career success of “at-risk” male students at Alcovy High School.  Many Black male students are a part of The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Club.  The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Club is in its second year of existence.  This organization is an important intervention in helping at-risk male students move from a path that can lead them into serious trouble to a pipeline of career success.  Melvin is excited about the early success of the organization and looks forward to the future growth of the organization.  He has thoroughly enjoyed making a notable difference in the lives of the students he leads in this organization.

Through The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Club, Mr. Parker is able to afford these young Black males an opportunity to listen to various motivational speakers, participate in sundry educational projects, go on engaging field trips, receive individual and group assistance with academic work, and much more.  On Wednesdays, students who are members of The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Club have to wear dress shirts, dress pants, and ties to school for the entire school day.  This is vital in their understanding of professionalism and in their efforts to enter the workforce or college prepared to be young professionals.

Mr. Parker’s true commitment to improving the educational experiences and outcomes of Black male students throughout the educational pipeline is also reflected in his doctoral work at Northcentral University.  Melvin is a doctoral student in Northcentral University’s doctoral degree program in Exceptional Children (Special Education).  The focus of Mr. Parker’s doctoral dissertation is to find ways to better identify and serve Black male college student-athletes who have learning disabilities.  Melvin has exposed a significant gap in the published research with his work in this area of research.  His research will prove to enhance the educational experiences and outcomes of Black male college student-athletes.  At Alcovy High School, he serves as Assistant Head Track & Field Coach.  His coaching experience is, of course, giving him valuable insights for his doctoral dissertation work.

Melvin earned his master’s degree from Troy University in Post-Secondary Education with a concentration in Psychology.  He graduated with honors from Troy University with an undergraduate degree in Psychology.  Mr. Parker volunteers actively for various charitable organizations and causes.

It is with great pleasure to name a deserving man like Melvin Parker, III as The Revolutionary Paideia November 2011 Person of the Month.  Melvin, continue to do the awesome work you’re doing, and Revolutionary Paideia wants you to know that the things you’re doing are not going unnoticed. Congratulations, Melvin Parker, III!

Dr. Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison