I am glad you used an 'elliptical' and not a period in your title. My lived experience as an Incest and domestic violence survivor while CONCURRENTLY matriculating through Chicago ( ILLINOIS) and Paterson ( NEW JERSEY) public schools while a neurotypical, mostly left-handed , right-and-or-left brained learner from September 1963 through June 1977 strongly suggests it is unwise to define competency based on Melanin alone. Honestly, what made the difference in my educational achievements are the following priceless supports:
1. My late Mother, her Baby sister and their birth parents from Greensboro and Bessemer Alabama. Mrs. Sadie Mae Walker Nickerson ( nee Thompson), R.N.- Nurse Manager, ret. (1931-2016) made an agreement to marry and stay married to my father as long as he never cheated on her with another woman and never hit her for any reason at all. In fact, we shared our home with a Tuskegee Institute School of Nursing classmate of my mother's and her daughter as she ( a committed Roman Catholic parishioner) thankfully had escaped from a domestic violence perpetrator. It is also important to note my mother and her classmate were in school at Tuskegee during the infamous 100% USA Goverment designed and funded syphilis experiments. Those vile human experiments ran until 1972, if memory serves. But read Medical Apartheid for the gruesome details and exact timeline.
2.) 99% of the PanAfricanAmerican, European Immigrant, heterosexual, LGBTQIA +, single, married, divorced, and or co-habitating licensed and college educated public school teachers and administrators I can recall by name - with a seminal engaging education-and-pedagogy centered story for each one. Some likely were committed Eugenicists, but I simply was supported at home for how to navigate successfully around that.
3.) My public school experience ( my SAFE PLACE, btw- this made it easy for me to find and embrace my sending and calling to have a fifty year and counting career in Exceptional Student Education) directly contributed to the following:
NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP FINALIST [1977]
RENSSELAER MEDALIST [1977]
US PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR [ in 1977, NJ had 3 of these, a historic first in those days]
BSIE from Northwestern University with a Concentration in (Applied) Organizational Behavior Theory/Systems Theory [1981]
MA in Theology with a Concentration in Pastoral Care and Counseling ( non-ordination track, btw; that makes a HUGE difference to me) [1991]
In conclusion, as I challenge all my engaged team's of students and their families, my prime directive in 2023 and into our future indefinite is to support each client to at least something comparable to my accomplishments to date. " I me and my family village can do it, all Y'all can too. That's why I'm here, ( for whatever time the EUGENICISTS allow me to be here). Now that last parenthetical is documented for your consideration here, at Medium.com. Interested? Then please connect with me on LinkedIn for further conversations.
PS: For reasons unknown to me, I cannot get Paterson NJ Public Schools to release any of my Public School Records. So, I have now asked FERPA @ US D.O.E. to make an official request. A logical series of events in 2023 USA life when over 71 million Eugenicists have busted clean out of "closets across the USA" For the time being, I am ironically less anxious living in an environment when I can choose to go where I am invited, even though it is likely what compelled you to thoughtfully compose your essay. Again, thanks for the ellipticals!- (C) VERNONNICKERSONSCHOOLCOACH 2023. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
