The Significance and Importance of Education

On Tuesday, May 15th the Newburgh Enlarged School District will be holding their election for four seats on the Board of Education. Last night, May 3rd I attended the “Newburgh BOE Candidates Forum” which was held at “The Ritz” and was hosted by the NY Civic Engagement Table along with other community organizations. I must say that it was a very well put together forum, but I feel that the candidates should have been allowed a little more time to give their answers to the many questions that they were presented with. The event had food for the belly and most definitely food for the mind. Truthfully, “All” of the candidates made good presentations now it is up to the electorate to make their choices.

Being that our children are our most precious possessions, their education should be looked upon as being very significant and most important for that will determine their future. Some of them possibly one day will be our future teachers, politicians, doctors, lawyers, educators, mayors, councilmen/women, governors and even possibly president of the United States, therefore we must make sure that they are receiving the necessary education that will enable them one day to be able to excel in their lives. We must make sure that our children stay in school and get to the colleges that will prepare them for the 21st century jobs.

The power of the vote is still the strongest weapon that we have, therefore we must make sure that we use it. We must make sure that our children are receiving all of the help that they may need. For by third grade the powers that be are able to know which of our children will more than likely wind up in prison, based upon their reading levels. Wow! That is something that most definitely we should be concerned about.

Our children are very fragile, therefore we must make sure that each one of them are receiving the necessary things that will enable them to grow up to become productive citizens. Education is one of the most significant and most important things that will enable them to be survivors in our society.

Last, but most definitely not least, we must realize that a lot of our students are not performing as well as they should in school due to depression. Depression is a silent killer in the youth community. It kills esteem, it kills motivation and it kills dreams. But it is only able to destroy these things because it kills hope. And in a world where so many young people already exist in environments where they are not expected to make it, we now have hopelessness on top of hopelessness. These conditions turn our community’s best into candidates for suicide-for no other reason than because we fail to accept and address depression in young people as real. If we can spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically address and treat depression, we will witness a resurrection of hope in our children that will not only save their lives, but also change the future for the better. (Jeff Johnson, BET HOST and producer, and CEO of Truth Is Power).

Being that a lot of our students within our school district could possibly be facing these same types of issues let us vote for candidates that we feel will be sensitive to issues such as this for “a mind is a terrible thing to be wasted!” Remember your vote has great significance and importance, therefore go out and vote on Tuesday, May 15th from 12 to 9pm. The candidates are Ramona Burton, Shoy Colbourne, Philip Howard, Mark Levinstein, Carrie Robinson, and Sylvia Santiago. Vote! There are four seats open which are three, 3 years seats and one, 1 year seat to be filled. Vote Wisely!

This is “Lillie”s Point of View” and I’m just having my say!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email