The Failing American educational system By Dr. Delano Muhammad
There are many Black educators who are trying to save the falling and failing American educational system. With the recent shootings of students throughout the country, the mass shootings on college campuses, the students, teachers, administrators are attempting to find new ways to protect this failing system. As a public school educator in Alabama since 2004, many of my former students have succumbed to gun violence. In fact, just over this past Christian Thanksgiving break, one of my students accidentally shot himself while playing with a gun. The violence among the students and the frustrations of all community stakeholders (teachers, parents, administrators and community leaders) are disheartened and all want answers. Fortunately, the answer is present, but may not be the one that many will accept. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s in his monumental book, The Fall of America (1972), provided the answer to the crisis facing the American educational system in Chapter 21 entitled “The Destruction of America’s Education.” He writes that “Education is a guide for the people to keep and maintain a civilized life. It is education that civilizes us…” He said that “the students no longer want old world guidance. It is a new world that they want. But in their mind destruction of the old world they don't know how to prepare for a new world civilization...They do not have guidance for a new civilization, and in their madness, they refuse to hear a teacher teaching of an educational system of a better civilization…the civilization of the Black man…Allah has come take over and to guide another people into setting up a better educational system for the people of whom He Himself is the Head. And we all get guidance from Him.” (pp. 92-93) So, “what the solution again, Mr. Muhammad to the educational crisis?” He answers, “The destruction of America’s educational system is the best thing that Allah (God) could do to get rid of that which you depend on for guidance. America’s educational system has never benefited you and me, only to keep us slaves to the white man. We, the Black people, want an educational system that will bring us into unity as a man before Allah. We want an educational system that we can read in the light of the ancient and modern history. We want an educational system that will guide us through tomorrow–not an educational system that is dying today. (p. 97) In closing, the best example of an educational system that is thriving is what he produced in the Muhammad University of Islam. Allah (God) and Truth is at the center of the educational system. There is no violence in our schools. The students are taught the knowledge of God, self and others. The students are separated based upon sex. There is drill, mastery of all of the disciplines, and many of the children graduate from high school early and are prepared for college and beyond. They are not taught to get a job, but to make one for themselves. So, unite with a man who has a proven track record of reforming and transforming the lives of men, women, and children the world over.