Black Thought Unknown

On the left, meet Joshua Beckford, who at six years old was the youngest person to ever attend Oxford University.  To put that into perspective, that’s like the United Kingdom’s parallel to Harvard.  At 8 years old he has decided that his career path is going to be neurosurgery.  And he wants to be an astronaut.  While wishing to be an astronaut isn’t unusual for an 8 year old, for some reason I believe he’s going to.  On the right, meet Ramarni Wilfred.  Also from the UK, he has achieved the highest score of 162 on a Mensa IQ test, putting him in the likes of Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein.  Actually, he just might be better than they are.

Let’s pause for a bit.

How come these two gentlemen are not news?  How come these two gentlemen are not studied and followed?  I’m not suggesting that their private lives be made into a circus or anything, but I just wonder why news reports on such children are so scarce.  I think that these two children — and the many that are like them — are not news because their essence does not fit a specific agenda.  I think that we are inundated with nigga this, and nigga that, drugs, money and other extremes of capitalism.  Let’s face it ladies and gentlemen: America prefers to keep you stupid.  And being that since this a reality America prefers to feed you stupid, because after all you are what you eat.  I also think that we should question our parenting, our expectations and our schooling system.

One of the first things I thought of when I read the stories of these two, is this:

Are we capable of producing children like these in our American public schooling system?

“My daughter went to boarding school with the children of kings!” ~ Eli Pope, Scandal

From there, I imagine what if Ramarni or Joshua attended any of the various schools I grew up on.  While I turned out alright (as many do), I highly doubt these boys will grow up to NOT be the men they are on the right path to be.  Both of these boys are from the United Kingdom; this means that we have to step our game up at home in America.  While we like to pretend that we all go to school with the children of kings, lets cut the bull; our public schooling system turns out very few kings and queens, and a whole lot of pawns.  And we have a society built on exploiting the ignorant.

Are our parents capable of nurturing children like these in America?

One thing about intelligence and success, is that is has to be nurtured.  I wonder how many parents in the United States, particularly from the United States ghettos, actually NURTURE their children’s developmental growth.  How many parents just push this aspect of parenting to the side?  How many parents are overworked?  How many parents check the homework of their kids? How many parents actually know how to develop children not in their same shadow, but to be greater than they are?

While I’m definitely far more intelligent and successful than my parents, I’d say they did a good job.  But what could have been, if I was placed in the type of school that has Ramarni or Joshua as classmates?  Where could I have been now if my schooling was paid for?

In conclusion, let’s not forget that such intelligence falls in the shadows.  Let’s constantly remind ourselves that simply put, we have options.  We have more options than what the American media portrays for us.  Let’s celebrate our smart children, and nurture them; place capital in them.  If not, then such intelligent black thoughts will only become invisible.