Welcome back to Houston newsmakers and my very special guest dr. Ruth
Simmons, former Prairie View A & M president and now president
the president’s distinguished fellow at Rice University politics
seem to have been playing in in large role in influencing education
these days locally nationally, your
thoughts about efforts across the country. We’re seeing now that are actually working to
help cut back black history, education in
schools in general.
Well, what I would say khambrel is owing to
my age. I’ve been here before.
I grew up in a time
when
African-Americans
were suppressed in their ability
to
Value themselves,
to talk about their
history
and so forth. I remember as a child
Bull
Connor
and George Wallace
blocking the schoolhouse door.
Those are those memories are
firmly imprinted on my mind and
the first
Thing that I thought about
when I began to hear about these efforts was,
we’re going back to those times.
And
and then the
next question is, well, what do we do about?
You know, I’m so proud of the fact that although I
grew up in that era, I learned over time,
to
be more open-minded to hear controversial
things to respond,
to a difference of opinion in a way
that was
more
More
thoughtful
than emotional.
And so, what I’m trying to be with regard to these new efforts is to be
more thoughtful than emotional.
So, when it comes to being thoughtful, the first
issue is
universities are about truth-telling
and promoting facts,
not foolishness.
And so a, we have an obligation as universities
to defend the ability
of Scholars and others
to speak
the truth about what is occurred
in the past.
If we don’t do that, we become subservient to lies
and who can trust any institution
that is subservient to lies.
I wouldn’t.
And so, our very survival is University’s. Depends
on our ability to support the objective
presentation
of facts.
And one of the most important aspects of that is, is
the
work
Counting of our history.
You know it’s
it’s very telling to me
that this is occurring at this moment in time. Why
is it occurring in this moment in time
probably because some gains that have been made
as a consequence of this truth-telling
are offensive to some because truth isn’t always
pretty.
It isn’t always something that has to make us feel good all the
time,
but it’s something that we need to know.
Order
to improve our lives.
I have heard yesterday that the foundation of the American
democracy is education. I believe that,
but it’s not false education.
It’s not education at the hands of the state
dictating what people can and cannot know
we become
we become like China,
we become like other countries, where the state
is able to command what you know and
what you do. Speaking of that generally
politics and education in Texas. The Texas Education Agency is now
thinking about taking over HISD,
something that’s that
sap happened. Several years ago,
your alma mater was involved in that wheatley’s
performance was not.
So they talked about taking over,
you wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post a few years ago.
I’ll talk about that in a second but
you said my earliest months of Life
were spent in a cotton sack dragged Along by my parents as
they pick cotton in the field of a large East, Texas Plantation
where
they toiled a sheriff.
Carpenter the 1940s.
You left that environment and you went to Houston your ultimate with
the weekly High School. Yes. Now you see the efforts by the
state to try to take over HISD, because of a lot of different things,
you’re in, your,
what are you thinking? When you hear that happening about what’s going on in
the state?
Well,
first of all,
I Would Not For a Moment,
suggest that people who want better schools are
bad people,
okay?
But
the question is, what is
What is a better school?
Non-experts reaching into the school’s
trying to determine what to do?
That’s very flawed and that’s the problem. We have
at University. Level people who don’t, who are not Educators,
who are not
Scholars
reaching into universities and telling us what we should do.
And so, that’s a formula for disaster.
So, I guess
I would say schools,
do need to improve, always,
but people miss the boat.
Look at a place like Wheatley and say
it needs to be taken over
to what end?
I just met the
the
valedictorian
this year for Wheatley.
And I look at her and I think yeah, that’s me, that’s
me when I was graduating from weekly
and what would people have said, at the time
when I was graduating from Wheatley, all she doesn’t stand a chance.
Oh poor.
Girl, she’s going to be working as a maid
just like everybody else.
Else. That’s what they would have said about me.
So
the the misinterpretation of what the school
environment can do for a child
and what it takes in order to produce someone open
to learning
and open to achievement. That’s
something that policymakers often. Don’t get
dr. Simmons, thank you.
We’re going to continue this conversation.
This is the very special newsmakers and they’re going to be very special newsmakers extra
because
we’re going to be, by the way this is you can find it on newsmakers extra on cliff.
To use in.com. We’re going to be joined