2023 24 Black Pages FINAL 2 - Flipbook - Page 120
The Way Forward To The Beloved Community In
The Macon Middle Georgia Community
Solutions to the African Education Achievement Gap and Black On Black Crime
by: Thomas Duval D.D.S., M.P.H.
for self-affirmation and inspiration. Otherwise, as described by many authors, AA students, especially the
boys, are completely turned off from school by the fourth grade. They are simply not motivated to want to learn.
If there is no motivation, there is no substantive learning.
Macon, Georgia has the envious capacity to achieve the
Beloved Community as described by Dr. Martin Luther
King. To achieve the Beloved Community all
marginalized groups must have their objective factual
story presented, told and explained to themselves and the
majority group in a respectful, peaceful, non-threatening
environment. One of the greatest resources to accomplish
this goal is our local library. The Washington Memorial
Library is a wonderful resource for our Native American
and African American history. Our community is a
filming industry location site; we have a local film
festival, creative writing education, and film technology
education available at the college and technical school
levels.
An example of a local engaging community reading
activity is the Macon Middle Georgia African American
Coloring Book. The book has coloring outline sketches
of local iconic historic leaders with first person scripts
that can be read and video recorded in front of a green
screen. The coloring book includes examples of
Milestone style prep questions. The scripts can be the
resource document to develop music hip-hop or rap
videos. The colored iconic leaders sketches can be rigged
to become avatars for cartoon and graphic movie
animation. These avatars can be exported as JPEG files to become graphic novels. A simple coloring sheet
with a sketch on the front and a first person script on the back can be used for coloring contests. These
culturally relevant activities can be integrated with in school and after school activities. For example public
school sight words can be used in sentences to describe the life of a local iconic leader depicted on a coloring
sheet.
If Macon Middle Georgia focuses its philanthropy, community and education resources on developing state
proficiency exam reading skill set activities that tell our complete local stories; we can create a culture of
academic achievement in public schools, and have a safe, economically viable, proud, and friendly community.
By using local and state history and culture to develop Milestone Prep reading at grade-level lesson plans which
include engaging culturally relevant activities, we can demonstrate to the entire state how to solve the education
and academic gaps that plague our community. We could have educators, government, and community leaders
flying into the Soulful Heart of Georgia to attend seminars on achieving the Beloved Community and become
the beacon of light and hope for Macon, Middle Georgia, and be the template for the great state of Georgia and
the entire nation. So people get ready a movement train is coming to create the Beloved Community. You don’t
need no ticket, it’s time for all of us to just get on board!
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