Meeting with Claiborne Barksdale

Last Wednesday, the interns (Briana Hanny, Kalina Deng, and myself) met with Claiborne Barksdale, director of the Barksdale Reading Institute. The Barksdale Reading Institute (BRI) is a privately funded institute which, as explained on their website, “is designed to improve significantly the preliteracy and reading skills of Mississippi’s children from birth through the 3^rd grade.” In talking with Mr. Barksdale it was clear that the success of the Institute depends on two things: human capital and the ability to reach children during their most informative learning years: ages 0-8.

However, BRI must combat the tremendous reach of poverty. According to a survey cited by Mr. Barksdale, children reared in poverty hear 40-50 million fewer words than children raised in financially stable environments. Additionally, the language heard by children in poverty lacks positive reinforcement and is of inferior quality. This outcome was also seen in the 1970’s Abecedarian Early Intervention Project at the University of North Carolina. Working with just over one hundred children from backgrounds of limited education, the researchers created two groups: a treatment group which would receive language immersion in a stimulating environment and a control group which would not. This process lasted from the age of six months until three years. At the end of the study treatment children possessed IQ’s that were twenty points higher on average than that of the control group. Also, years later they were two and a half times more likely to graduate from high school, demonstrating the critical need from cognitive stimulation at an early age. Clearly, efforts to diminish the rapidly increasing education gap must extend outside the classroom. Poverty creates an atmosphere in which children are falling behind before they are even conscious of their ability to learn. For many, the game is over before it even begins, an indictment of our entire education system.  

In addition to emphasizing the critical role of early literacy, Mr. Barksdale explained to us that “education is people, people, people.” BRI has begun placing principals in low performing schools, hoping to find individuals capable of identifying problems and finding solutions. As Mr. Barksdale pointed out, Mississippi schools have been both stable and failing for some time now, it is time for some instability, some fresh minds. This should extend to all levels of education and not be limited local talent pools.

BRI has a tall order: to prove that schools can be successful in any location and regardless of students’ perceived inabilities. In speaking with Mr. Barksdale the monumental scale of such an endeavor is overwhelming. This effort is not limited to classrooms and grade books but involves home life, social constructions, economic vulnerability, and systematic prejudices. Brown v. Board of Education was handed down fifty seven years ago and yet Mississippi, due to many socioeconomic and political influences, is still littered with schools that are both separate and unequal. But early childhood education, as much as anything, appears poised to correct that, for education doesn’t start in kindergarten.  

Week One

Mississippi River flooding, Greenville, MS. 5/28/11

Simmons High School Graduation, Hollandale, MS. 5/29/11

Six days ago I departed Bethesda, Maryland and began my journey to Oxford, Mississippi. In the time since, I have enjoyed traditional Mississippi fare, sought shelter from a tornado, toured the Delta, and visited the B.B. King Museum in Indianola. However, most importantly, I have begun to see the fundamental connections between race, poverty, and education in Mississippi. Whether walking down the street in Greenville or simply driving through the campus of Ole Miss, it is remarkably evident that the “past” is very much a part of the present. The history of race in Mississippi is clearly inherent to life in Oxford and throughout the Delta, seen both in the Colonel Reb debate and vast inequality of academic opportunity.

            One thing that drew me to this internship, and has proven very gratifying thus far, is the sheer novelty of such an experience. Both the Deep South and teaching were previously foreign to me, and in many ways still are, which is why every day is a new adventure. Huckleberry Finn rode down the Mississippi River; I attended graduation at Simmons High School in Hollandale, Mississippi. That inability to anticipate and lack of prior perspective is exactly what will make this internship profoundly defining. Additionally, it is clear to me after a week in Oxford that the only way to understand the obstacles at hand in the Mississippi public education system is to see them in person. For it is not just a story about facilities, jobs, and books, but also families, personal histories, and long-standing emotions.      

            I learned a great deal this past week. At the Crown Restaurant in Indianola I learned that catfish, when breaded with parmesan and topped with melted butter, can be quite delicious and at the B.B. King Museum I learned the origins of blues. But I also learned that Edgar Ray Killen was not the last civil rights criminal walking the streets and segregationist academies still infect communities. Much lies ahead of me these next two months and if the first week is any indicator, there will be no dearth of opportunities to learn about education, poverty, and race in Mississippi and where I fit, morally and socially. In the words of Simon and Garfunkel, "I've gone to look for America," a critical part of which is right here in Mississippi.