Peace be unto you who read this missive. This writing is in rétrospective discernement to my past education within Westernized Academia; from ages 5-18 ie 13 years of Western Curriculums, under Western Educators.
With the beginning of my journey in "Public
School", honestly it was confusing, and foriegn, therefore I was uninterested and indifferent about school.
When one takes the time to seek truth outside of the academia of the status quo, the truth is often propagated as being falsehood, because it goes against the status quo., When one studies the
American school system one can see how the process of indoctrination was well laid out by government.
Unlike the generations of antiquity we do not teach children or predicate education on spiritual beliefs, ie the Word of God. This generation is the generation of the separation of church and state.
Within my travels within the Public School System, I received empirical Knowledge of an alternative "school system" called Catholic School. In retrospect, I can see the benefit my mother assumed I would receive from a privatized, Catholic education, based on the status quo and Westernized morals, customs, and values. Nevertheless, a 9 year old " black boy" out of Detroit Public School, who is being spiritually raised by his paternal grandmother in a Southern Baptist Church, and in a single- mother household 4 years removed from divorce, with no interaction with "White people" , Chaldeans, Nuns, Priests, Communion, or Confession, it was clearly Razoon HaElohi on my Walk To Salvation.
4th Grade
Here I Am. 9 years old going to the 4th Grade. I don't understand why I have to leave all my friends back at Golightly? Why do I have to wear a uniform to school, that looks like a Sunday School suit for Church, I thought I only had to dress up on Sundays? Why do I have to go to Church at school? What is Mass? Why doesn't Grandma's Church have Communion is we all believe in Jesus. Why is Jesus white? Why do I have to call this white man "father", but my mother and father are divorced? How is this white lady my teacher and my sister? Why are there only five " black kids" in my class? Why do we, the " black kids" have to sit in the back of the chapel are not allowed to take communion. Does God love Catholics more than Baptists? Does God love White People more than Black People? Is God White?
At 9 years old there are the questions that were surpressed in my soul, drowned in fear of questioning adult decisions, and the ignorance those adult decisions were rooted in. Looking backward in understanding and rebuking depression El HaShem Yeshua HaMeshiach, I can see where I was being molded at such a tender age.
St. Michael's Catholic School graded on a curve, meaning there was no standardized grading scale for mediocrity; like in Public School. To grade on a scale is to grade all students on the percentage scale of the highest percentage ie "The Smart Kid", therefore if one child gets 100% eah child is graded against that 100%. If the highest percentage is 50% then all students are graded against 50%, in each case both being an A. Yes. Grading on a scale can turn a 50% to an A or 85% to a C depending on how well the Teacher is teaching the information, and how well the smartest student is performing in juxtaposition to the academically challenged student. This polarity of information retention, memorization, and test-takiing skills is what creates the scale Needless to say, I went from an A-B student from K-3, and at this point a C-D student with 80% and above on all my work. In my Public School Paradigm I couldn't understand how 80-89% was a C when my whole life up to that point 80-89% is a B. This caused me problems at home and school, because niether my Mother or I knew the school was grading on a curve. I'm sure my mother being 29 years old at the time, figured the most important thing was paying the tuition for checks, balances, and appearances.
St. Michael's Catholic School also offered Cub Scouts after school. I was no stranger to after school programs and ,"latch-key kids" because I had been in after school programs in public school. In retrospect, this may have been the catalyst for changing schools. Golightly was K- 8th, and with the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, the after school program became a breeding ground for bullying and abuse; which I myself had to defend myself from. Nevertheless, the Cub Scouts at St. Michael's was a safe haven I excelled in, but also where I started to learn about racism, classism, and different levels of income, retail, commerce and economics. I noticed that even though I excelled, and got awards, certificates, and patches, my uniform was bare, like a Federal Prison Uniform, because these items had to be purchased from The Boy Scouts of America, it's not free. They didnt care that I excelled. I got teased for being poor and for being the only "Black Boy" in Cub Scouts, and 1 in 5 black students in the 4th Grade. At every attempt to strive to be accepted, or to convince my mother to take Cub Scouts seriously, and not just an " after school program" to babysit me until you get off work at 5pm, it would get worse. Other children's parents would bring home baked items, and top of the line pastries for us, and I always felt like those White and Chaldean parents pitied me, and I felt like a mascot. When it was my mother's turn, she didn't come, and sent me with a couple packs of Oreo Cookies. Yes, all eyes on the "Poor Black Kid With Oreos".
I can honestly say, speaking Truth to Power, the experiences at Catholic School caused me disdain for Religion, School, and Adults, therefore causing me not to trust God, Parents, Teachers, Adults, or Authority.
5th Grade
Here I Am. 10 years old going in the 5th grade. Definitely jaded from the 4th Grade. The major difference at Gesu was that it was majority Black, more or less "affluent black". These students parents were first generation college educated,
Jack&Jill types, that wanted a better education for their children. To put it in perspective, the singer Aaliyah (RIP) attended Gesu, her older brother and I were classmates and friends during those years.
Nothing empressed me, or changed my attitude toward school or Catholicism at Gesu, just another place I was calling my teacher
"sister" and wearing a uniform. Hated it.
Jesuit conspiracy theories are conspiracy theories about the members of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the highest military religious order in the Catholic Church. Such theories began appearing as early or late as 1550, just ten years after the founding of the Jesuits, and were often purported by their enemies due to the intellectual and political influence which members of the Society of Jesus exerted.
The earliest recorded Jesuit conspiracy theory is found from Augustinian monk, George Browne, who had exclaimed from the pulpit to a crowd in 1551 the following conspiracy theory:
But there is a new fraternity of late sprung up who call themselves Jesuits, which will deceive many, who are much after the Scribes and Pharisees’ manner. Among the Jews they shall strive to abolish the truth, and shall come very near to do it. For these sorts will turn themselves into several forms; with the Heathen a Heathenist, with the Atheists an Atheist, with the Jews a Jew, with the Reformers a Reformade, purposely to know your intentions, your minds, your hearts, and your inclinations, and thereby bring you at last to be like the fool that "said in his heart there was no God." These shall spread over the whole world, "shall be admitted into the counsels of Princes, and they never the wiser," charming of them, yea, making your Princes reveal their hearts, and the secrets therein, and yet they not perceive it; which will happen from falling from the law of God, by neglect of fulfilling the law of God, and by winking at their sins; yet in the end . . . they shall become odious to all nations: so that at the end they shall be worse than Jews, having no resting place upon earth; and then shall a Jew have more favor than a Jesuit.
Cass Technical High School-9th Grade
Here I Am. 15 years old going to the 10th grade. Retrospectively thinking about this moment, I'm marvel at my journey as such tender ages and experiences that the Holy Spirit allowed me to experience. Indeed this experience was not pleasurable to me at the age of 15 under forced and controlled circumstances and decisions of my parents, however I can now see the value in such an unwanted experience.
To illuminate the genesis of my 10th grade year and to manifest a pristine understanding of this experience I would be remiss if I didn't give a preface of my 9th grade year at Cass Technical High School in Detroit Michigan. It was my 9th grade year that was the catalyst for the decision for me to go to Piney Woods in the 10th grade.
Cass Technical High School in Detroit Michigan, while being a public school; as in the name it is a Technical High School. College Preparatory and also a magnet school, meaning it is not predicated on zip codes or zones of the city. Children, from diverse backgrounds, and households may attend this high school upon taking a entry-level test, and passing the test.
All children in Middle School do not choose to even take this test. Most children are just shuffled through the neighborhood High School within their school zone. The select few children of eighth graders throughout the city of Detroit that do take this test, do so under the order of a counselor at their school, who sees potential in the student. A teacher who sees that a student has the academic acumen and intellect to achieve at a higher level, or as in my case family pride and family expectation. In the city of Detroit high school pride is a thing just like in most cities and states therefore, well alma mater you are educated from can catapult you in a certain circles and statuses within the city, state, and even the nation. What high school you come from also gives an indication of where you live in the city of Detroit. However going to Cass Technical High School was a way in Detroit to even the playing field in regards to education, and social status. Cass Technical High School has historically been known as the cream of the crop of the city of detroit, therefore if you are a graduate of cash Technical High School you are catapulted into social circles that are more elite than those who graduated from other High schools. Cass Technical High School has also historically been known to have the most attractive, well-dressed, and overall affluence so-called blacks in the city, therefore there are some black families who push for their children to go to cash Technical High School for better opportunities as adults, and to forever be known as a Cass Technical High School graduate, and alma mater.
And my family, all three of my aunts graduated from Cass Technical High School. By me being the firstborn male child of my family of course I was spoiled at a young age and always around women; these women being my grandmother's, mother, and aunts.
So actually I went to Cass Technical High School before I even attended High school. My aunt's will always parade me around at Cass, after school and with all of their friends. That was just the family dynamic because they often babysat me or my mother being there elder sister often babysat them. Of course by the time I was graduating from 8th grade it was a no brainer that I must go to
Cass Technical High School.
Attending a myriad of schools from kindergarten to the 8th grade, and Cass Technical High School being a magnet school it was to my surprise that in 9th grade my popularity sword due to the amount of people I knew from all of the previous schools. And juxtapose to this new paradigm of being a freshman upper classmen females also took to me for being so short and really not looking like I belonged in high school therefore my nickname became "little brother", and many treated me as such.
Needless to say, I was on cloud nine not in the reality of caring about grades or academics. My focus became about socializing, fashion, and girls. By cash Technical High School being located close to downtown Detroit, by second semester I was skipping school going downtown and hanging out. The grade point average to stay in cash Technical High School attendance is 2.0 GPA must be maintained throughout the whole time and that is still looked at at Cass tech as mediocre. By the end of my freshman year my grade point average was exactly that a 2.0. this did not please my mother at all, I wasn't kicked out or removed academically my mother pulled me out of cash Technical High School because I did not meet her standard of what I should be doing in high school. And in her mind she felt like if I went back, for the 10th grade I would wind up kicked out of there anyway. In retrospect I can see where it was a trying time, because my mother was pregnant with my little sister and also having complications at the time. So the decision was made for me to attend a boarding school that was "all black" for troubled or wayward youth, named
Piney Woods Country Life School located in Piney Woods, Mississippi.
Piney Woods, Mississippi was the furthest thing from Detroit Michigan, and boarding school was the furthest thing from Public High School.
Yes, Piney Woods Country Life School was not just a high school either the grade levels went from 7th grade to 12th grade. However the experience I would like into that of a historically black college and university I.e HBCU. Many students who graduate from Piney Woods Country Life School, I believe at that time 98% went on to attend HBCU. Retrospectively, one of my finest memories there was the amount of foreign exchange students that attended from Ethiopia, and the Ethiopians were the ones who were more friendly to me. There were only two people there from Detroit Michigan and one of the females I knew cuz her mother was the one who referenced the school to my mother. The more positive experience was meeting people from all over the nation that look like me but all had different and diverse backgrounds, upbringing, slang, style, overall lifestyle. The athletic program, and the band were a major thing at this high school, because it was highly touted by HBCU, therefore the atmosphere was one of black Southern pride, so as a northerner I didn't like it. A Piney Woods Country Life School this was the first time my experience gang culture from all over the nation. At this school is where I learned about bloods, crips, vice lords, gangster disciples, four corner hustlers, Latin Kings, etc. Even though the school required uniforms, and work-study programs to where every student had a job drugs and gangs still made it on to the campus just like any other school. Because I did not want to be there and I felt like I was just shipped away for no reason I refuse to do any school work. I was only there for the first semester and all I did really was live there and socialize, because my only goal was to get back to Detroit Michigan and go back to Cass Technical High School. Selfishly and immaturely I did not care about the tuition that was being paid for me to go there because it wasn't my choice to go there. Logically to me and my immature mind and hurt heart I chose to get straight F's to get kicked out on purpose in order to go back home. The living conditions there I now know we're basically like any other college, military, or prison living situation. I was able to receive letters from home, care packages, and call my parents and family collect just like jail. Therefore, I did not want to be there. The dormitories were not unisex like college however, and the open showers we're not private just like jail.
Upon returning home my family had mixed feelings about my return home, because my father's side didn't want me to go, and somewhat blamed my stepfather, as did I, however I returned home to a little sister being born. At this point education started to become slightly more important not for the right reasons I would say. The importance of education for me now at this point was just to go to college and make sure I never return home to be put under anyone else's control after 18.
1st Grade - Golightly K-8 Detroit, Michigan
2nd Grade - Golightly K-8 Detroit, Michigan
3rd Grade - Golightly K-8 Detroit, Michigan
4th Grade - St. Michaels Catholic School Oakland County, Michigan
5th Grade - Gesu Middle School RIP Aaliyah Detroit, Michigan
6th Grade - Cooke Elementary School Detroit, Michigan
7th Grade - Murphy Middle School Detroit, Michigan
7th Grade - Ludington Middle School Detroit, Michigan
8th Grade- Ludington Middle School Detroit, Michigan
9th Grade - Cass Technical High School Detroit, Michigan
10th Grade- Piney Woods Country Life School- Piney Woods Mississippi
11th Grade - Mumford High School Detroit, Michigan
12th Grade - Mumford High School Detroit, Michigan
Malak Halakyesha-Shalich Palach
Biyad HaDhevet-Maqrat Azracha
Maqrattii Azracha-Tamiyim
Beyt Yisrael
Memlaka HaShemayim
Baruch HaShem. Amen.
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