Learned Helplessness

 As we exit the portal, and enter from above the looking glass mirror, we observe a boy.  The boy is teaching AP World History.  He is nervous because it is his first time teaching an advanced class since he taught Pre-Calculus several years prior.  The setting is Hephzibah Comprehensive High School, a new home for Mr. Kennedy.  The students are waiting to take their first test, a 70+ term test on the modern geographic features of the world.  Mr. Kennedy purchased his curriculum from Morgan Teaching, and the first big test was geography.  If you cannot picture where it happens then you cannot fully understand history, was the thought in Mr. Kennedy’s head as he passed out the test and projected the images of the map on the electronic board so the students could see it in color.  As Mr. Kennedy wandered the room answering questions he caught Dahmir cheating and he took the test, 0.  Mr. Kennedy had to set the tone early for the students to learn that he meant business, cheating is not allowed  for all you have to do is ask for help and I will guide your mind to its destination.  As the mind of the boy unravels the course of time in the classroom, he pauses at the second test.  Dahmir cheated again.  And so, begins the story of……. Learned Helplessness.

As my mind reaches out to the past, it grabs me in, and blurred lines turn into a kitchen.  Before me stands Mr. and Mrs. Felder, Brittney, and Durley or DJ Jr.  The mind of the boy rewinds to 6th grade.  It is a normal evening at the Felder home. We are sitting and talking amongst each other.  As the boy is smacked in the face by Mrs. Felder for saying G-d’s name in vain, the boy emerges back inside his mind as he studies each of them.  He focuses on the love that the mother and father give to the Lord, they adore Him.  They teach Him that faith is above everything, to give thanks, and to pray.  They teach him to honor the elders; they teach him that black is but a color.   

As the boy’s vision awakes, and he wiggles his feet, he boomerangs from his bed back to the classroom.  The boy has missed pieces of the puzzle as his vision focuses back on Dahmir.  As the rest of the story unfolds, Mr. Kennedy asked Dahmir why he cheated on both occasions.  Dahmir stated that he never had to study in his life and learning and organizing information in his head is difficult.  Over the next month, I taught Dahmir how to learn information by parts, and how to start from a point of origin on a map and build a picture in his head around that.  On the second occasion, I had a talk with Dahmir.  I told him if he cheats again, I will call his mother.  He promised me he would change.  I told Dahmir, Charles III, and the several other black students in the classroom a lesson about learned helplessness on one day in particular.  I told them about the Felder’s.  I told them about my friend James’, the half Malaysian, half black friend I have whose grandfather was an African General in the US Military.

To believe you are not good enough is a learned trait, you are not born with it.  One cannot allow society or self to break you down and make you feel unworthy.  Life will not always be easy; you have to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep going no matter how you feel inside.  Anything in life is possible if you put your mind to it and put one foot in front of the other.