{"id":919,"date":"2014-02-05T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html"},"modified":"2014-02-05T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T07:00:00","slug":"a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html","title":{"rendered":"A Preemptive Strike Against Functional and Failing Schools: An Exercise in Educational Exploitation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
By Rev. Earle J. Fisher<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
R3 Contributor<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
*This is a response to the planned closing of 13 schools in Memphis, Tennessee by the\u00a0<\/i><\/span>Shelby County School Board.<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
In one of the most thought-provoking and controversial songs released in 2011 was Lupe Fiasco\u2019s \u201cWords I\u2019ve Never Said\u201d.\u00a0 There is a piercing line in the song that speaks to the paradox of local educational institutions today.\u00a0 Lupe said, \u201c\u2026your child\u2019s future was the first to go with budget cuts\u2026 if you think that hurts, then wait, here comes the uppercut\u2026 the school was garbage in the first place\u2026 that\u2019s on the up-and-up!\u201d\u00a0 The lyrical landscape lifted up here describes the complexity of contemporary educational purposes and practices.\u00a0 In our market-driven, consumerized and capitalistic culture, education has become commodified (consider all of the For-Profit Educational Institutions that are popping up and expanding all over the country).\u00a0 This means that education is currently viewed merely as a means to an ends of achieving capital and material goods (not for the development of self-esteem, personal pride and civic responsibility).\u00a0 Under this rubric the function of a school is to prepare one to be an effective earner and spender in a society that is concerned more with profit than it is personhood.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
When these realities prevail we find schools that are clearly missing the mark but still mean something to the personality of a community, even when the community is in decline.\u00a0 As an educator, I understand the value of learning; it is the foundation of liberation and psychological stability.\u00a0 Nevertheless, I sympathize with those who have to make the crucial decisions on whether or not a school is functional or failing (and sometimes both can be true).\u00a0 I would like to see more legislative, fiscal and individual investment in community schools before we commit to detouring our children\u2019s futures.\u00a0 When schools close the moral of the community takes a major hit as well.\u00a0 But dilapidated schools that provide substandard educations do an equal amount of harm to the geographical locations in which they are planted.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
The future of a community lies in the ability of its children to receive adequate and effective educations.\u00a0 But the merger of the schools systems (which I supported and continue to support) has intensified the economic disparity and educational inconsistencies all the more.\u00a0 Equal access and equal opportunity educations are now presumed to be established by funneling children to neighborhoods where they are not looked at as neighbors but as foreigners and intruders.\u00a0 Before we close these schools let us find meaningful methods of reconnecting the school to the neighborhood through partnerships with faith-based organizations, local business and other neighborhood institutions that can equip those who are educators with the necessary tools (and compensation) to make a positive impact on the lives of the students as well as a renewed appreciation for the schools themselves.\u00a0 I do not believe we have sincerely exercised this option\u2026 yet.\u00a0 Therefore, the closing of the schools seems a little premature, preemptive and part of a larger plan of gentrification and exploitation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Follow Earle on Twitter @pastor_earle<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rev. Earle J. Fisher R3 Contributor *This is a response to the planned closing of 13 schools in Memphis, Tennessee by the\u00a0Shelby County School Board.\u00a0 In one of the most thought-provoking and controversial songs released in 2011 was Lupe Fiasco\u2019s \u201cWords I\u2019ve Never Said\u201d.\u00a0 There is a piercing line in the song that speaks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA Preemptive Strike Against Functional and Failing Schools: An Exercise in Educational Exploitation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Rev. Earle J. FisherR3 Contributor*This is a response to the planned closing of 13 schools in Memphis, Tennessee by the Shelby County School\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Preemptive Strike Against Functional and Failing Schools: An Exercise in Educational Exploitation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Rev. Earle J. FisherR3 Contributor*This is a response to the planned closing of 13 schools in Memphis, Tennessee by the Shelby County School\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-05T07:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html\",\"name\":\"A Preemptive Strike Against Functional and Failing Schools: An Exercise in Educational Exploitation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-05T07:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-02-05T07:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\"},\"description\":\"By Rev. Earle J. FisherR3 Contributor*This is a response to the planned closing of 13 schools in Memphis, Tennessee by the Shelby County School\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Preemptive Strike Against Functional and Failing Schools: An Exercise in Educational Exploitation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/\",\"name\":\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\",\"name\":\"Guest Contributor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Contributor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Preemptive Strike Against Functional and Failing Schools: An Exercise in Educational Exploitation","description":"By Rev. Earle J. FisherR3 Contributor*This is a response to the planned closing of 13 schools in Memphis, Tennessee by the Shelby County School","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Preemptive Strike Against Functional and Failing Schools: An Exercise in Educational Exploitation","og_description":"By Rev. Earle J. FisherR3 Contributor*This is a response to the planned closing of 13 schools in Memphis, Tennessee by the Shelby County School","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html","og_site_name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","article_published_time":"2014-02-05T07:00:00+00:00","author":"Guest Contributor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Contributor","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html","name":"A Preemptive Strike Against Functional and Failing Schools: An Exercise in Educational Exploitation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-02-05T07:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-02-05T07:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2"},"description":"By Rev. Earle J. FisherR3 Contributor*This is a response to the planned closing of 13 schools in Memphis, Tennessee by the Shelby County School","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/a-preemptive-strike-against-functional-and-failing-schools-an-exercise-in-educational-exploitation.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Preemptive Strike Against Functional and Failing Schools: An Exercise in Educational Exploitation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/","name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2","name":"Guest Contributor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Contributor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}