Today I speak to you as an authority on organizational design, diversity, education and black boys in the public school systems; I have two. There is a serious challenge training new teachers and those seeking Masters in Education within HU’s school of education. It is evident to me that antiquated systems, outdated processes and the avoidance to place experiential learning in the forefront of training-the-trainers with innovative approaches have been met by finger pointing, non-responses and the all-around lack of concern. The construct of omitting excellence invades HSE in the most heinous actions of malfeasance by HSE administrators and pawns, meaning if change does not come soon, changes need to be forced – history has told this story many times over – it does not always end well. Surreptitious on-the-spot policies pulled out of the atmosphere to justify HSE administrators lack of knowledge cannot be tolerated any longer. If there is not a proactive remedy under the color of Hamline’s many historical salutations of excellence, the continued and rapid decline in graduate education programs will make current programs obsolete in real-world applications. In some cases inside the HSE, theory and practice never should mean so little.

Before I explain further, I must point out the professors and adjunct that see students, or engage them online are a group of fine-tuned educators; the challenge begins when this group has to bow-down to directions from an administration that have become stagnant and have no relationship to what is happening in a real-time and relevant world of education outside of Hamline University.

The system inside of the HSE is broken; not only from the academic administration point-of-view, but also from the preparedness of new teachers to enter into the battle-field of gaps in the public school system. Undergraduate and graduate schools of education and their programs must develop, test and refine new ways of teaching teachers for public school classrooms by preparing them for the reality and not their personal-cultural expectations. Furthermore, the teaching tool of experiential learning must be inserted into all courses to form a network of knowledge and move students inside of an academic system at HSE that is currently unreliable and at best, setup to do the best failing possible.

In HU’s MAT and MAEd programs, it has been my experience that and those running the programs are more often good people surreptitiously doing their best and failing. And they fail not despite their training, but because of it. One could argue that HSE must create the policy context that allows these partnerships to flourish and state policies can cultivate a variety of preparation pathways if they eliminate bureaucratic and input-based requirements that prevent innovation and customization in educator’s preparations.

On another note, HSE must respect their lettered professors and adjuncts knowledge about students and their proficiency level to maybe have a class skipped, or given credit based on that student’s’ academic rigor. If a HSE professor tells the school of education that a student should not have to take a class based on sound judgements, reason and logic, that student should be given the option to receive full credit so he/she can move forward. Currently, the broken HSE system does not recognize their professor’s suggestions and does not have a policy in place for experience, work history or the real-time practical application of said courses. In short this means the HSE does not respect its people, students or the battle that’s being waged on black boys in public schools and the desperate need to recruit and retain those who get it.

My Action Research project: “How do Teaching and Research Universities reset the Unpremeditated Educational and Cultural Malfeasance in the Training of new Teachers?” offers solutions including adjusting courses of multiculturalism and social justice –  moving them closer to real-world courses that focus on the issues: “The Black Boy in Public Schools: How do new teachers train to teach students in poverty?” This course would outline the systemic issues of whiteness, the black body and education to assist new teachers to get the knowledge and experience from a black-body point of view, versus the sugar-coating of Brown vs the Board of Education.

Hamline University was founded on great expectations; nationally recognized – an almost elite “Harvard” of the Midwest. Being a critic means you also want things to get better. I love HU and all the professors, staff and like-minded administrators who have touched my life. With HU being awarded a $1.5 mil U.S. Dept. of Education grant for its English Learners in the Mainstream (ELM) Project to train E-12 teachers in Minnesota, it would be doing a disservice to myself, past, current and future students if I did not tell you that the Hamline University School of Education administration is broken; in some places beyond repair…deep down, you already know.