Volume 11, No. 5 November 29, 2006 In This Issue The Truth Editorial Page 2 My View Jack Ford Page 3 Toledo Ice Iced? Page 4 Ebony Fashion Fair Page 5 United Way’s African American Initiative Page 6 November Is National Adoption Month Cover Story Page 7 The Links’ Emerald Ball Page 9 More Hollywood Fear and Loathing Page 11 Detroit’s CornerBoy Films Page 11 Jay Z’s Back! Minister’s Take BlackMarketPlace Page 14 Classifieds Page 15 MaryMary andand MarissaMarissa RobertsRoberts “God has blessed me to do this. I have prayed for a home to work with teenage girls. God has a big plan for this house and for my work with girls.” Page 2 The Sojourner’s Truth November 29, 2006 This Strikes Us … Community Calendar A Sojourner’s Truth Editorial November 30 It’s time for Toledo residents to start an earnest conversation about education. • Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce: Networking opportunity to meet Debrah As odd as it may seem in a town in which topics such as the school board and its level Harleston and George Robinson; 5:30 to 7:30 pm: 419-243-8191 of dysfunction, who’s who in the school district administration, the result of Ohio State achievement and proficiency tests and the progress of the school building program are all December 1 the rage in our daily conversations and local media accounts, we never, ever hold discussions about education. • “Tribute to Rosa:” Warren AME Church; Celebration of the spirit and legacy of Rosa Particularly disturbing is the fact that our so-called watchdog groups – the critics of the Parks; 7 to 8:30 pm school district and of those at the helm of the district – fail to make even the slightest effort • World AIDS Day: Fredrick Douglass Center; 9 am to 9 pm: 419-255-1115 ex 334 to address the critical educational issues facing today’s students, especially those students at the lower end of the economic scale. December 2 These discussions over who is in control and who should be in control – the politics • Start After-Prom 8th Annual Holiday Craft Show: Start HS; 10 am to 4 pm: 419-344-0466 – spill over into who should be in classrooms, how much they should be paid and how we • The Gunckel Reunion – Civic Center Promenade; 8 pm to 1 am; BYOB and refreshments: can raise the funds to continue to pay them. But we don’t talk about how those in control 419-277-3475 or how those in the classroom should be teaching our kids. • World AIDS Day 2006: Rosary Cathedral; Prayer breakfast; 10 am to Noon: 419-244- We obsess over school buildings and community input and control as if getting the ideal 6711 ext 515 classroom, the right color teacher or the proper method of making administrative decisions • A Journey Through Healing: Third Annual Memorial Service; A Journey Through are the answers to all that is wrong with our educational efforts. The problem with these Tears, Healing for the Holidays; Greater St. John’s COGIC; Noon to 1:30 pm: 419-531- useless discussions is the fact that so few of those caught up in the conversations have 1336 not the slightest interest in actually improving education. Not that answers are necessarily found on the state on federal level, by the way. The December 3 federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the centerpiece of President George Bush’s • David Carter Symphonic Choir: “The Light Still Shines;” Spirituals and Songs of Faith; domestic program, is a well-meant bit of legislation that demonstrates, more than anything Monroe St. United Methodist Church; 4:30 pm else, the powerlessness of the federal government when it comes to crafting real progress on such issues. • Delta Sigma Theta Alumnae Chapter Peppermint Social: Sanger Branch Library; 3 to Yes, it is an unfunded mandate, as critics contend. The real snafu, however, is that NCLB 5 pm: 419-537-1774 tends to mask the situation that exists of a lack of educational attainment among those in the lower class to poor end of the economic spectrum. December 8 What’s the real problem with our educational system? It’s too little, too late for the • Toledo Bar Association: Honoring Yolanda Gwinn, law clerk for Magistrate Judge majority of poor to lower class students in this country. By the time a poor child enters Vernelis Armstrong, with the Robert Kelb Award for outstanding service; Noon; kindergarten, or even Head Start if she is that lucky, events have passed her by. Her Radisson Hotel: 419-531-1749 economic status has marked her as very likely doomed for failure and it will take a • Women in Red 2006: Family Baptist Church; Speaker Minister Sandra Harden; 7 pm brobdingnagian educational effort for the typical poor or lower class youngster to catch • Holiday Banquet “An Elegant Evening of Stars:” Wyndham Hotel; Speaker First Lady up with her wealthier classmates. And she is not likely to find herself in surroundings that Shirley Jordan: 419-537-9736 are conducive to catching up with her rich or middle-class counterparts in most classrooms in this country. December 9 In 1995, Betty Hart, Ph.D., and Todd R. Risley, Ph.D., released their findings of a study • Top Ladies of Distinction: McKissick Senior Center community event; 1 pm they conducted in Kansas – Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. The conclusion, in a nutshell, is that parental conversation is the most December 9-10 important facet in the intellectual development of a child and if that conversation has not • Grace Temple COGIC: Annual Craft Show/Bake Sale and Fish Fry; Saturday at 11 am started at an early age, by the time a child is three years old her intellectual growth is already well nigh stunted. to 3 pm; Sunday at 1 to 4 pm; Booth rentals available; Door prizes: 419-205-0086 or 419- Hart and Risley found that by the age of three, children whose parents were profession- 779-0963 als had, on average, a vocabulary of 1,100 words and those whose parents were on welfare had, on average, a vocabulary of 525 words. The children’s I.Q.’s showed similar December 10 disparities. The correlation, Hart and Risley found, was based on simple factors – the • Clarence Smith Community Chorus: Christmas Concert; Friendship Baptist Church; 6 number of words the parents spoke to the child and the manner in which these words were pm; Free concert: 419-534-3370 delivered, i.e., with or without encouragement. The results, according to the researchers and many others have followed up on the work December 11 of Hart and Risley, have been evident over the years in terms of the educational gap between • Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce: Introduction to FastTrac Seminar; 5:30 to 6:30 pm: black and white, between wealthy and poor, between middle-class and lower class. A poor 419-243-8191 or lower class child, on average, will not have the chance to catch up in an average educational setting, much less in one that is far below average. December 16 But, change is possible. At the moment, there are a few schools around the nation which • Baker’s Keyboard Lounge in Detroit: Featuring Toledo’s Ramona Collins; 9:30 pm; have performed admirably in terms of raising the level of attainment among poor students. With Bobby Jones, Glen Oliver, Bobby Welch and Donald Byrd and the Blackbirds Here in Toledo, we have a few experimental public schools that have demonstrated their • Greater Harvest MBC: Choir Director and Musicians’ Musical; “Let Everything that potential for success. The recipe invariably calls for extra work, parental involvement and Has Breath Praise the Lord;” 6 pm: 419-474-3811 an added dose of discipline in the educational environment. However, say the critics (the critics who are concerned about education not with just carving out their little fiefdom within the system), and rightfully so, these schools are just December 20 a drop in the bucket and the kids who attend are prompted to do so by their parents and • Xmas Gifts for Children aged 2 to 12; Good News Bible Chapel: 419-241-2728 would probably succeed anyway. Nevertheless, the models for success exist. It behooves us as a society to enter a straightforward conversation about how we can go about correcting the deficiencies wrought by a system of economic disparities. To do so, we have to make the break from The Sojourner’s Truth the trivia we have focused on in the past – who makes what decisions, what color our Toledo’s Truthful African-American administrators and teachers will be, how the buildings are constructed. Owned and Operated Newspaper It’s time we started to get serious about changing our approach to education and stop using our kids as political punching bags. Kevin McQueen Publisher Fletcher Word Publisher and Editor Becky McQueen Business Manager Alan Abrams Reporter Geneva J. Chapman Reporter The Sojourner’s Truth Tamir A. Shaw Reporter 1/2 Artisha Lawson Reporter 616 Adams Street, Toledo, Ohio 43604 Ashlee Austin Reporter Phone 419-243-0007 • Fax 419-255-7700 Jack Ford Political Columnist Published weekly on Wednesday Carol Chehade Columnist Printed by Webco Graphics Michael J. Hayes Entertainment Critic Advertising deadline: Friday at noon Jennifer Retholtz Layout Designer/Webmaster Aida Maxsam Sales Representative Pamela Anderson Sales Representative 26 Weeks - Only $40.00 52 Weeks - only $70.00 Kathy Sweeny Ad Creation Name: ______________________________ Phone # (_____) _____-_______ A Certified MBE, 2006 1/2 Address: _____________________ City ____________ State ____ Zip _________ The Sojourner’s Truth, 616 Adams Street, Toledo, Ohio 43604 Phone 419-243-0007 • Fax 419-255-7700 Send your check or money order to: [email protected] The Sojourner’s Truth, 616 1/2 Adams St., Toledo, OH 43604 www.thetruthtoledo.com November 29, 2006 The Sojourner’s Truth Page 3 My View By Jack Ford The Truth’s Political Columnist A new administration in in Ohio spread out over many of the shut-out at the polls appreciate how rough and members positioned for key Columbus brings with it a public and non-profit agen- when both Sykes and Ben nasty politics can get in run- committee chairmanships.