Failure of US Education

Summary

In this episode, we explore the flaws in the US educational system, its impact on the Black community, and practical steps for self-sufficiency and financial independence.

Key Topics

Flaws in US educational system
Importance of practical skills and trades
Financial literacy and retirement planning
Historical education and Black identity
Self-sufficiency and community resilience

Takeaways

The US education system wastes time on unnecessary courses like algebra for most people.
Hands-on learning and interaction are crucial for effective education in the Black community.
Financial education should start early, around sixth or seventh grade.
Entrepreneurship and owning a business can lead to better financial security than traditional employment.
Understanding our history and identity is vital for empowerment.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: The US Education System's Failures
00:43 The Irrelevance of Algebra in Adult Life
01:22 Learning Styles and the Black Community
02:08 The Flaws of Lecture-Based Teaching
02:40 Gaps in Curriculum: History and Black Identity
03:07 The Importance of Knowing Our Roots
04:02 Three Generations of College Saturation
04:24 Trade Schools vs. College: Which Is Better?
05:03 Introducing Financial Education in Schools
05:37 Early Financial Literacy and Independence
06:06 Retirement Planning and Entrepreneurship
06:40 The Power of Self-Ownership and Business
07:19 Building Wealth Through Retirement Accounts
07:54 The Benefits of Starting Your Own Business
08:28 Maximizing Retirement Contributions
09:03 Thinking Outside the Box for Financial Success
09:33 The Importance of Self-Reliance
10:03 Skills for Society's Collapse
10:28 Education on Investing and Gold/Silver
10:48 Critical Thinking and Community History
11:24 Knowing Who You Are to Avoid Control
11:54 The Control of Our Identity and History
12:27 Growing Our Own Food and Food Sovereignty
12:51 Self-Sufficiency in Food Production
13:32 Supporting Black Businesses and Community
13:56 The Path Forward: Education and Self-Reliance

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the podcast, everyone. And today we're going to discuss the US educational system and how it's failed the black community over the years. So, with all the knowledge and experience that's in this country, our residents should be doing a whole lot better than what they're actually doing. And part of that is we're not given courses that we actually need on a regular basis. There's only a few courses that we should be taking that we actually need. But, you know, there's a lot of filler courses too, just to take up time and space that we really don't need at all. So some of the courses that we really should look more into is math. And the parts of math that we should actually concentrate more on is addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, and percentages. Anything more than that should be a specialized course for something more specific. But for general education, those aspects of math is what you should be taking, not being forced to take algebra, where nine times out of ten, the majority of people who take algebra have no use for it whatsoever. I know I didn't. And I've been in the workforce for 36 years, never had any use for it. So when we go back to when I was in school, that was actually a waste of my time. And there's a lot of courses in the US educational system that basically waste your time. But another aspect of the U.S. education is the way that they teach us. We learn differently from everybody else as a whole. Most people in the black community learn by hands-on experience. Not sitting down and listening to someone talk or lecture you for 45 minutes to an hour and then expecting you to get it all. It doesn't work that way. Or telling you to read up on what they talked about, that's that's not useful at all. So even though they spoke for 45 minutes, but if there's no interaction with you and the students, then what you're saying is basically pointless. Because then after you've spoken for so long, and then you're expecting your students to go home and almost basically self-teach themselves and try to remember some of the aspects of what you said. So that's pointless, and that can harm our community. But going back to the different subjects, besides math, of course, reading, spelling, grammar, English, punctuation, a little bit of history is fine. But you know, sometimes some of those courses go a little too far or not far enough. For instance, one of the most insulting things is when these schools so-called call themselves teaching you black history. And black history to them is you and slavery. As if we never existed any time before then, and then for some odd reason, at a certain time, we just popped out of the sky, dropped onto slave ships, and then was brought here. That's basically almost like what they're trying to tell you that you had no relevance before then. And if you understand our history and where we really came from, you'll understand how that mindset is crippling to us. But we have to see through it so that it's not crippling. Now, there's books out here that can tell you who you are, and maybe at some point down the road I'll elaborate a little more because I do know who we are, and so I don't take to heart some of the things that's done to us so much like I used to because I understand the mindset better. So when you understand your enemy, sometimes things aren't going to get to you as much. But they do not want us to know who we are. That's a given. The other thing is there's three generations of people that have really been pushed to go to college for a better education and better paying jobs. Well, here we are three generations later, and now having a college degree is so overly saturated in the market that you were better off not going to begin with, to a certain extent. It's always good to have a better education, but when it's emphasized the way that it has been, they need to dwindle that down some. Because it's also been found that someone going to a trade school actually make out better than the person who went to college and then comes out with debt that's so high, it's as if you own two mortgages on two different houses. So the U.S. educational system needs to be revamped, and some subjects need to be excluded from the curriculum because it's basically a waste of time. Now, a subject that needs to be introduced, and I would say around preteens to teens, so you're looking at sixth, seventh grade, there should be some type of financial education. And what that would do is you're starting early enough that you're creating a certain mindset in people from an early age. So as they mature, they'll think more along the lines of spending wisely and not impulsively. And the reason why I say around sixth, seventh, eighth grade, you need to start that then because it's around that age that there's some form of independence displayed. It's around that age bracket that you start going to the store more and buying certain things. You're getting money from your parents. So when you have some type of financial education, you'll learn that some things you don't really need to spend all your money on. You need to hold some of it and put some aside for an emergency. And if that had happened while I was still in school, things would be so much different for me. And if I had the knowledge of what I have now, if I had that back, I say 10, 20, 30, I probably would have been retired already. Or not just that, but I would be working for myself. And you see, that's the thing that this educational system needs to try to instill in more of our people. But we're only going to get that from our own people telling us that you should consider possibly starting your own business because you make out so much better working for yourself than working for someone else. Especially in this racial environment now where the blatant racism is coming out again because there's this fear, jealousy, and hatred of us that's coming more to the light each day that goes by. You see, when you work for yourself, you have certain perks. For instance, if let's say when you start working, you create an IRA or a Roth IRA for yourself. An IRA is for is a retirement account that you put aside for yourself in the years that you're working so that by the time you retire, you would have a substantial amount that you won't need to work anymore or depend on anyone else anymore. That's that's what the overall goal is. Sometimes it doesn't happen for some people like that because they never had the financial knowledge or it just never even crossed their mind to think of something that far ahead. But if it's instilled in you at an early age, chances are you'll be a little more successful than the average person. And the difference is working for somebody else in terms of putting aside money for your retirement. When you're working for a company, you could put a couple thousand aside each year, and you can't go above that amount, or you'll be penalized. Now, that could hover between six and eight thousand a year, which really isn't that much. But let's say you own your own business, and that business is making six figures and the high six figures. So when you own your own business, I forgot what type of IRA it's called, but you can contribute up to $70,000 towards your retirement. And just think of if you put your money in some decent ETFs or stocks, within a few years, you could be well into the millions. And then if the business you have, if you're tired of it and you've accumulated so much, you can either sell it or just disband it and go on with your merry way. But you have enough in retirement that you don't need to work anymore or concern yourself with work. That's my purpose for this podcast today. Some of you need to start thinking outside the box to be able to move ahead financially. Because when our finances is right, we can do a whole lot better for ourselves, especially if we own our own businesses, instead of the stress of working for somebody else. Because it's something that I heard not too long ago, where the saying goes that your supervisor isn't going to give you enough so that you can move next to them. Makes sense, doesn't it? They're never going to pay you enough so that you can be neighbors. They don't want to live next to you or near you. And as members of the black community, that's even more so. So when it comes to education, we need to learn how to be a lot more self-sufficient and learn skills and trades that we can actually utilize just in case that one moment in time where maybe society collapses, you still have skills that you can use to be utilized throughout that community that's trying to rebuild. There's certain positions on certain jobs that if society collapsed, there would be no use for them whatsoever. They would basically be obsolete, at least for a number of decades before society gets back to that point or even centuries. But we need to start looking at education differently. There's so many things that we could be doing right now. And one of the things that I've noticed is investments. We're not taught about the stock market, we're not taught about investing in gold and silver, we're not taught about just simply putting money aside for retirement. And if you're someone who doesn't know about the stock market or purchasing gold and silver, and you're just stacking money in a savings account, not even a high yield savings account, then you're still setting yourself back because each day that goes by, that dollar loses more value and requires more to be used just to maintain the same level. We need courses like critical thinking, and we also need real history courses on our community so that our community doesn't look so down on themselves, falling for what some of the people who don't like us because of our mere appearance. We need to overcome that. You see, there's a saying that if you know who you are, you can't be controlled. This country as a whole does not want us to know who we are because they want to control us the entire time. And when we're under someone else's control, we're not gonna really have much say-so over anything. Now, they're already trying to erase our influence over the Democratic Party with who gets into the presidency. I believe I discussed that in the last video. So the final thing that I think we should learn more of is growing our own food. And that aspect was actually part of our culture. Even after slavery, the bulk of our people grew their own food still. That was before supermarkets. Supermarkets didn't emerge until the early 1900s, and that was really so you could be more dependent on others so that they can control your food supply all these years later, and then you would be at their whim. But if we had courses that taught us how to grow our own food, and it doesn't have to be something extravagant, it could just be maybe three, four, or five different things. If you run into hard times, then you can rely on what you're growing rather than trying to scramble and try to get money together to buy a few things at the supermarket that's with inflation is now gonna cost you an arm and a leg, just about. Figure of speech, of course. So we need to start thinking more clearly about education and how we can help each other out and pull each other up. Because at this point, we have no friends. All we have is each other and God Himself. So I hope that I helped you think differently about our educational system because we need to be more reliant on ourselves. Stop being so reliant on others teaching you. And even Malcolm X said that that, and I'm just gonna kind of paraphrase that it's foolish for you to let your children be taught by your enemies. And it makes sense because believe it or not, the majority of us have been indoctrinated by the educational system because you've been trained to think a certain way that puts you more under everyone else's control. And we need to be more supportive of each other in black businesses. And I'm happy with the turnout of the current boycott. That's a step in the right direction, and we just need to continue to follow up. So I hope you stay blessed and take care.