A mix of old and new suggestions for school board

In the West, the Ph.D. is considered by most to be the highest academic degree. One must master a subject and dedicate his or her life to creating and expanding knowledge through research. Less than 1 percent of the population earns a Ph.D. Minority Ph.D.s, like other skills and professionals, are more likely to serve their communities.

It is required for tenure-track professorships at most colleges and universities. We hear lots of talk about the shortage of teachers in elementary and secondary schools, but it is even more dismal in the science and math departments of colleges and universities where they are needed as role models.

According to Dr. Francis X. Mahaney Jr., writing in 84 NEWS Journal of the National Cancer Institute, in 1994:

‘‘There is a severe shortage of African-American Ph.D.s in these areas [medicine and science]. While there are more than 30 million African Americans in the United States, fewer than 60 are board-certified oncologists. This lopsided picture is repeated for all medical professions and life science doctorates.”

Mahaney goes on to cite a National Research Council report: ‘‘In 1992, 951 Ph.D.s were awarded to African Americans, a 6 percent increase over the 897 awarded in 1990. .... Eighty-six were in the life sciences, 34 were in the physical sciences and 31 were in engineering. Only about 2 percent of the total number of doctorates awarded in life sciences in 1992 went to African Americans.”

He wrote this more than 10 years ago, but given how long it takes to produce a Ph.D., things have not changed much.

* Add theology as an elective.

Humans are hard wired to make⁄seek meaning. Some say that this is the downside of being comparatively more intelligent. This search is primarily done through religion and spirituality. Religion is one of the most powerful and influential forces in shaping humans and needs to be understood.

* Stop closing schools to celebrate Martin L. King Jr.’s birthday.

King was first and foremost a scholar, academic, intellectual and theologian. He was dedicated to the life of the mind. It is a contradiction to let school out to celebrate him. Keep it as a deferred holiday for teachers but make it a teach-in day for students to learn about the moral transformation he brought to the world.

* Consider all great leaders when naming schools.

While there are many in the community who deserve honor, we should not forget about people like Dr. John Hope Franklin Jr., the other father of African-American history — Carter G. Woodson was the first; Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, the father of many things Afrocentric; photographer, film maker, poet and writer Gordon Parks; and activist and National Council of Negro Women Inc. president Dr. Dorothy Height.

Oxon Hill High School should be named after some of the many black scientists who achieved against great odds. Roger Arliner Young, a zoologist, comes to mind. She died in 1964, and like all African Americans, especially women, during the peak of Jim Crow, overcame barriers to become the first African-American woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940.

Her scientific contributions, resulting largely from research she performed at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. — the only place that African-American researchers were welcome for many years — include improved understanding of the structures that control salt concentration in the paramecium, as well as the effects of radiation on sea urchin eggs. In addition, she taught at a number of universities.

I have written many columns on education because history teaches me that if there is a devil, his⁄her religion must be ignorance, because ignorance has been and continues to be the most evil and destructive force in human history. It essentially blocks access to one’s humanity and potential and, consequently, the humanity and potential of others. This is why teaching, especially at the elementary and secondary level, is such a sacred calling.

Van Caldwell, a lawyer, lives in Kettering. He can be e-mailed at wvcaldwell@comcast.net.