You don't teach it in the Dick and Jane reader, but it is taught in the Dick and Jane reader, and that white teachers are going to have to deal with white people on this issue.

Senator, young brilliant white students come into the black community to teach because they are scared to deal with their own people and it's easier to deal with black people, so they come in as missionaries to save us, because they will get killed if they attempt to save their own.

I don't know whether or not you know what happens to people like Dr. Coffin when the white community withdraws its support, but there is a fear there for the lives of your family, because you live in the midst of this community and bombs can be thrown at your house and your children can be hurt.

And so the white teachers have to deal with this phenomenon in the white community. I think that is the most difficult thing for a white teacher to do, and I think that it's crucial.

Senator MONDALE. Thank you very much. I appreciate your most useful statement and your very candid answers.

The committee is in recess, to reconvene at 10 a.m., on Thursday in room G308, of the New Senate Office Building.

(Whereupon, at 12 noon, the Select Committee was recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., on July 29, 1971, in room G308 of the New Senate Office Building.

URBAN EDUCATION

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1971

U.S. SENATE

SELECT COMMITTEE ON

EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY,

Washington, D.C.

The Select Committee met at 10:24 a.m., pursuant to call, in room G308, of the New Senate Office Building, the Honorable Walter F. Mondale, chairman of the committee, presiding.

Present: Senator Mondale.

Staff members present: William C. Smith, staff director and general counsel; and Donald S. Harris, professional staff.

Senator MONDALE. Would Mr. Brown and the other members of the panel please come to the witness table?

This morning we continue our hearings on the community school movement, and we will hear a panel of witnesses from the Morgan Community School in Washington, D.C., including Mr. Robert Brown, chairman of the board. Mr. Brown, will you introduce the other members of the panel?

Mr. BROWN. Right. The other members of the panel are Mrs. Jean Holiday, who is a parent, and president of the Parent Advisory Committee; Mr. John Anthony, principal of the school; Mrs. Arlene Young, assistant principal and teacher at the school; and Mrs. Louise Baxter, who is a member of PAC and a parent.

STATEMENT OF MR. ROBERT BROWN, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, MORGAN COMMUNITY SCHOOL, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Mr. BROWN. The purposeful and dismal failure of the educational system throughout our country to adequately educate black people calls for and demands relevant and constructive change for the black community. For generations, the black community has prescribed and subscribed to the notion that educational inequities in our country would soon be eliminated. The end result is that our people have been living in a world of unknown mythology which is far beyond the tentacles of superstition.

The framework for public education in America from its beginning divided its people by setting up a so-called "Separate but Equal System of Education" which was doomed to failure. Perhaps if we could relive and truly dedicate ourselves to the democratic principles of oneness and togetherness, the problems which confront us now could justly be avoided.

(5891)

Unfortunately, we cannot relive the past, and if we could, the degree of racism would make it mose difficult to truly accomplish what our country should really be about.

A school system which handicaps some of its people-blacks in particular for life, is not worthy of public support. Education of black people has been, to a great extent, meaningless imitation. Blacks are acutely aware of what others have done through positive inspiration; they also know that these inspirations and opportunities have not been equated for them.

Our interpretation of community control is, ideally, that it is a community controlled school which would be operated by the community with the larger system providing the moneys and other supportive services as requested by the school.

COMMUNAL REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL BOARD

The community controlled school must be governed by an elected board of local community people. The board must be responsible for staff, curriclum, and school utilization. The size and makeup of the board must be decided upon by the community, but it must be as representative of the area the school serves as possible.

The school must be responsible and responsive to the needs and desires of the community in the educational program carried out and in other services and facilities offered. It must take both its form and substance from the needs of children attending it and others using it.

The community controlled school should be a center in the community. It should provide educational, enrichment, remedial recreational programs for everyone in the community. It should be the gathering place for people to meet and discuss things important to them. It should provide space for other community services and be a place through which assistance, advice, and referrals to other services can be given.

INTERACTION OF SCHOOL BOARD AND COMMUNITY

The community controlled school should affect the community and the community in turn should affect the school. The school should be in a sense a small community within itself.

What black people want is to control their own institutions, rather than having institutions-controlled by others-control them.

We want to devise a curriculum which is relevant and meaningful to us as a people; we want our children to be able to identify themselves in our society and in our own way in order for blacks to possess pride and dignity.

We want to teach our children love for and respect for their fellow man, be he white, red, yellow, or black. Since this has not been accomplished by the educational system, we can no longer afford the luxury of sitting idly by while our children stagnate in the midst of bureaucratic irresponsiveness. We want education to produce individuals capable of making their own decisions and thinking for themselves, not robots who conform to whatever is the norm at that time.

If blacks are to become a part of the mainstream in our country, we must be active participants in the decisionmaking process, for without that right, we will continue to be parasitic in all of our endeavors.

Therefore, one solution to the problems confronting black people throughout this country is effective community control of the one institution which greatly affects the lives and future of our children— education.

SUCCESS OF COMMUNITY CONTROL

After having just completed our fourth year of community control, we are delighted to emphatically state that we have seen much progress in many facets of our educational program.

Parents and community members and other interested persons are free to come into the school and visit classes, volunteer their services and/or state their grievances without having to make appointments.

They are treated with respect and allowed to carry themselves with dignity. The school now welcomes them and their children as they are, always respecting their values, rather than imposing ours upon them.

The atmosphere is such that our children have developed a keen interest in and love for the school. With the dedication and commitment of the school personnel, the children know that they are loved and wanted. In fact, one comment regularly made by our numerous visitors-for example, Mrs. Martha Mitchell, wife of the Attorney General

Senator MONDALE. Did she visit or call?

Mr. BROWN. She visited-is that they have never seen children so happy to be in school.

Consequently, this positive image has helped to create within our children a spirit of brotherhood which is certainly needed in these ill days of divisiveness and insecurity.

In spite of the many obstacles placed in our path-for example, recent inaccurate news accounts written by racists whose sole purpose is to discredit black people by making malicious and nonsupportable accusations-the tireless efforts of the people involved in our program have attested to the worth, the relevance, and the need for community control. Although some would like to kill our spirit, this type of debasement serves to encourage us to strive even harder to prove that black people can control their own destinies.

The seed of community control is one which we know will grow like the vines of the sweet smelling honeysuckle.

In conclusion, community control is the most viable, innovative, exciting and lasting solution to the black's most pressing problemthe education of his greatest assets-his children.

Senator MONDALE. Thank you very much, Mr. Brown. In what order would you wish the others to make their statements or observations?

Let's start with the principal, Mr. Anthony. He might comment and then we'll proceed in whatever order you wish.

STATEMENT OF JOHN ANTHONY, PRINCIPAL, MORGAN
COMMUNITY SCHOOL WASHINGTON, D.C.

Mr. ANTHOST. Basically. I think that this whole concept of community control is certainly a very positive one. I think it's a solution to many of the problems confronting black communities throughout

the coming.

XEGATIVE BASIS OF INTEGRATION

I feel that this whole thing about integration, the blacks rationale for integration, dealth primarily with the understanding that, because of the inefficiencies, because of the school systems that did not give them the kind of equal opportunities, which had different curricula for black whools than for white schools. I think initially that blacks said, by having their children to go to a white school, that this really helped them. I think that was their rationale.

I think that what has happened is that, because of the many crises in schools where we have many blacks and whites going to school together, have really come about because what the blacks had thought. did not exist there, and I think what blacks really want today is quality education for their children, be it in a white neighborhood or in the black neighborhood.

I think what they are saying is, we want quality education for our children.

Not only that, I think the parents in particular are immensely concerned with people respecting them, and especially the school personnel respecting them as parents. After all, the children belong to them.

We have found at Morgan that the parents are welcome, they come into the school any time they get ready, they don't have to come to the office. We don't even encourage them to come to the office. They go directly to the classrooms. They come in and help with the lunch program. They come in and hold classes when teachers have to go to workshops.

And as a result of that, we have found that it has made a tremendous impact on, I guess, a rekindling of some kind of faith in the educational system.

Senator MONDALE. Mr. Anthony, how long have you been associated with Morgan?

Mr. ANTHONY. Three years.

Senator MONDALE. Three years. And where did you teach before? Mr. ANTHONY. I taught school in Florida, and also I taught school in Germany.

Senator MONDALE. In Florida, were you teaching in segregated schools?

Mr. ANTHONY. Yes; in segregated schools, and then I did some teaching in an integrated school.

Senator MONDALE. Where did you take your academic training? Mr. ANTHONY. I have a bachelor's degree from Paine College, in Augusta, Ga., and a masters from Columbia University, and further studies at Harvard.