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The Final Call Online Edition


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Why we must control
the EDUCATION
of our CHILDREN

by Minister Louis Farrakhan

[Editor's note: The following text is taken from a message delivered by the
Honorable Louis Minister Farrakhan at the Second Annual Muhammad

University of Islam Banquet held on August 15, 1992 in Chicago, IL.]


mlf-book4.jpg (6369 bytes)In The Name of  Allah,
The Beneficent, The Merciful.

The subject matter deals with "Why We Must Control the Education of our Children." The word "control" implies power to manage, direct and control the destiny of a people.

We cannot have power without proper knowledge, for it is knowledge properly exercised and implemented that gives us power. Power is the ability to do what we want to do. Power is the ability to remove the impediments that stand in the way of what we want to do. Power is what we need, but we cannot have power until we have the proper knowledge. Knowledge is the prerequisite for power.

If we examine the torch-light of western civilization, we can see a civilization in decline. By examining the educational institutions of America, we can see that America is in decline.

President Bush should not want to take credit as being the "education president," for nobody wants to preside over declining affairs. If the civilization is in decline, because the educational system is in decline, then what does that mean for we who have been educated by an educational system that is in decline, meaning that the mathematics that is the base of this civilization is now being troubled by a new mathematics that is bursting asunder the old mathematics. That’s how you bust up an old civilization; you bring a higher mathematics, a higher law, a higher knowledge, wisdom and understanding and you produce a higher civilization.

Jesus said, "You can tell a tree by the fruit it bears and you can tell a man by his works." What is the fruit of the American educational system? Black people are the fruit. Well, examine the product. Is it a good product? Vanity will make us say, "Oh, yes, we are a great product," but in reality, when you walk the streets of Chicago, and you see the condition of our people, that’s the fruit of American society and the American educational system. What is wrong with it? It is outmoded, out-dated, and its season is over. The basic under girding philosophy of western civilization is white supremacy.

If a people are going to rule, they have to have an ideology and philosophy that under girds and guides the education so that the people who are going to rule can rule. Let’s look at the word "Education." It comes from a prefix and a Latin word, "E" and "duco." "Duco" means to lead and the prefix "e" means "out or out from." When one is truly educated, they are led out from darkness into light, from weakness into strength, from powerlessness into power. To lead out means that the job of education is to cultivate what God has put within.

Education must lead out or cultivate what Allah (God) has put within so that the world can glorify God by seeing what God has deposited in each human.

The knowledge of this world is rooted in a doctrine that creates demons. This is an educational system that we have no right to be proud of. We have no right to be proud of what it has made of us. We have no right to be proud of what it is making of our children and if we see it for what it is, then we want no part of it. Either we destroy it, which it must be destroyed, or we must take control of it, redirect it, manage it. But it takes power to do that.

• • •

A superior education starts with the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self. It is sad that we send our children to school and they are denied the right to say a prayer. Allah (God) is the source of all knowledge. He created the universe and the universe is like a textbook. We are studying from the handiwork of a Creator and yet we are disallowed to honor Him with a prayer. Whether it is a Jewish, Muslim or Christian prayer, prayer and recognition of the divine being who is the source of all knowledge must be a part of education, otherwise the education is doomed to fail.

All the great philosophers of western education said, "Know Thy Self." That’s the best knowledge and that’s what’s missing in the educational system: It’s the knowledge of self.

If America is going to be a melting pot and believes in this pluralism that she hypocritically talks about, she must destroy an educational system based on racism and produce a new educational system that gives each human being their proper respect. Unless you are willing to destroy in order to make new, then you are not really sincere about building a new civilization.

The reason the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was so successful is because he had a higher mathematics at the base of his teachings. The body of knowledge that he gave us was beyond the scope of what white folks taught Black people. He went to the learned of our people first, but since he only went to the fourth grade of school and couldn’t say that he had a Ph.D. behind his name, many of the learned ones rejected him.

If the scholars of this world are beginning to listen to Farrakhan, that’s a testimony that my teacher is a superior teacher. I do not have a degree from any of this world’s institutions. Then, I must be taught by somebody other than the scholars of this world. You marvel at Malcolm X, but Malcolm only went to the eighth grade and I never saw Malcolm lose a debate to any college-trained Black or white person because Malcolm was given a higher mathematics that put him outside the sphere of the education of this world.

I coined a phrase, "He who gives you the diameter of your knowledge prescribes the circumference of your activities." If your slave-master is your educator, no wonder you act like a slave. In 1992, we have educated slaves, busy voting for another slave-master. "Let’s get ready to vote for another master. He’s going to be a kind and gentler master. He even plays the saxophone. He’s got on dark glasses, and he’s going to be a good master. We don’t like master Bush."

Silly people, hoping that your slave-master will change your condition when with the proper knowledge we can change it ourselves and change America in the process. We don’t have to ask why we should control our education. The answer is clear. We should control it because if we don’t we will always be under somebody else’s control.

The place where control has to start is in the mind. We must first overthrow the government of our own head. You can tell by your condition that your government (head) is not doing good by you. This government (head) has messed us up. Once knowledge comes, we overthrow our mental government and replace it with a better governance of self–self-control, self-management, self-direction, self-independence, and self-respect. It starts with you and me—with a new knowledge coming in.


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