Jonathan Kozol and a number of researchers have documented the plight of urban American school children. Many of these children are of color and mostly African-American. In Savage Inequalities, (1993) Kozol describes young African-Americans "who have no feeling of belonging to America." The public schools, supposedly the children's first formal state-sponsored indoctrination into becoming productive citizens - doctors, lawyers, teachers, poets, musicians, and in general, the labor force - have produced, and continue to produce graduates many of whom cannot read their diplomas because they "tuned the schools out." Some "talking heads" in the media  and  conservative politicians have described these young people as "obsolete and dangerous to society." Yet others have branded them "generation X" implying that these youngsters lack self-identity and "pride in America." The end result is that the United States of America has found a way to profit on the "miseducation" of these youngsters in the construction of more prisons than schools. 

The "most industrialized country in the world" does not have the highest literacy rate in the world. Instead, the U.S has the highest percentage of incacerated citizens with young African American males leading the stats. It is reported that within the last twenty years, spending on primary education rose only 33.4% while spending on incaceration rose 571.4%! The number of prison population rose 400% while high school graduation fell 2.7%. 

At Woodlawn, we believe we can do better in educating our children. We believe that a truly educated African American should not only know the "core curriculum," but must also have a clear understanding of self as a human being as manifested in the Ma'atian virtues. This person must fully understand and appreciate his/her ancestors' contributions to the world's civilization and cultures. Such a person will also subscribe to the Nguzo Saba, Odu Ifa, SBA and all other concepts that go to make life a fulfilling experience. This must not be construed to mean the exclusion of enlightened Western (Eurocentric) education but rather, an important addition to the global knowledge base. As Kwame Nkrumah noted: 
"We have made our contribution to the fund of human knowledge by extending the frontiers of art, culture and spiritual values."

This places a great responsibility on educators of African-American children for, teachers who have "no sense of chronology, no sense of where African people are in the world, and no sense of African culture will be limited in their ability to understand their students. Such teachers see the history of the students in mere episodic terms and are unable to place students in proper context. This results in varying degrees of alienation of students from school experiences, the impairment of communication, a reduction in motivation and effort, and low achievement." 

Our goal at Woodlawn is to change course by making our teachers, students and parents conscious of the problem in order to effectively combat it. In other words, in order to change our present condition as a people, we must decolonize our minds. To reach our fullest potential mentally, physically and spiritually, as African people, we must wake up and take on the lifetime responsibility to unlearn and critically examine what we know. As Ayi Kwei Armah rightly put it, "...whoever wants to be a healer must first take leave of the world he's grown up in before his mind is freed  for learning." We at Woodlawn Community School, believing that education is about truth, intend to do just that. Hotep!