Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

Step 2-A deliberate effort is made to develop a capacity to master
whatever one aspires to learn, to succeed in whatever one
aspires to do ;
Step 3-Tease in positions of authority endeavor to empower their
colleagues and subordinates, teaching them how to use
power for the good of all ;
Step 4-The enterprise is viewed as belonging to the people ; specifically,
to those people in the community who voluntarily
express an interest in it-and hence, the standards, norms
and values permeate from the base to the apex in terms
of the kind of institution desired by the students and the
community ;
Step 5-People are helped to help themselves-to learn from failures
rather than seek to avoid them ; to be honored more
for having tried than for having succeeded .
The educational model to which we subscribe is built upon a different
assumption about the nature of potential human ability than is typical
of most educational institutions . While we recognize variation, we know
that the ability potential of the average Black American is well beyond
the normal demand level of the most rigorous academic programs and,
hence, we justify a maximum social effort to develop the abilities of all
people . Concomitantly, any failure to achieve high levels of performance
constitutes a group (social) failure rather than an individual's failure .
We propose to educate our students for three goals : freedom, individuality
and service :
(1) FREEDOM in a very general sense refers to a freedom from external
constraint . Malcolm X College is characterized by free access to
the resources of the institution, the city, the world . The role of stall and
student body is to remove the obstacles which block the path of those
seeking the more specific freedom defined as "the capability to deal creatively
and effectively with one's situation ." We take the position that in
order to achieve positive freedom, students must be encouraged to actively
and consciously attempt to utilize their personal resources, their
life style, and their experiential background in the classroom . The student
must become skilled at identifying needs, problems and issues which
affect the nature and quality of life in his environment and then use them
in his research . Hopefully, he will learn to relate his learning to the prob-
34 March 1970 NEGRO DIGEST