← Culturally Speaking: The South Florida Sunday Podcast
Culturally Speaking: The South Florida Sunday Podcast
Patrick Franklin, President, The Urban League of Palm Beach County + Dr. Mary Ann DuPont, Retired Education Administratioin, ULPBC Board Secretary
00:29:29
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- [00:00]
A
Good morning and welcome to another edition of Culturally Speaking. My name is Patrick Franklin, President CEO of the Urban League of Palm Beach County. And I thank you for waking up with us this wonderful, beautiful Sunday morning. I hope that you've had a great weekend, hope the weather's been good to you, and I hope that you're going to end your Sunday on a good day. But thank you again for waking up and joining us this morning. I like to welcome another great, great speaker that we've had with us in the past, Dr. Marianne Dupont. She's a retired education administrator and she's also the secretary of the Urban League Board of Directors and she sits on many other boards. Dr. Du Pont, welcome to Culturally Speaking.
- [00:43]
B
Yeah, thank you. It's wonderful to be here. Wonderful way to start my day.
- [00:47]
A
Absolutely. Dr. Du Pont, you've been on with us before and we've had a great discussion. I've been knowing you for many years, and as always, you are an educator through and through. You spent your entire life educating our children. Let's just kind of go back. For those who don't know your background, tell us a little bit about your background and who you are.
- [01:11]
B
Okay. Well, I came up during the time. During segregation time. You really want to know the truth? So all of my elementary and secondary education was desegregated, was segregated rather, and my post secondary was all desegregated. But however, I grew up during a time when the educators we had had a standard of excellence. And so I was well prepared for desegregation environment. And so with that, and also what I'd like to share with people about my background is this is my grand. I had a grandmother who could not read or write. And my parents did not graduate high school. However, they held high standards for me. And I did not realize it until I was about 35 years old that my grandmother could not read or write because each time we got our report cards, she would look at the report card, and if my brothers had like Cs and Ds on it, she'd say, baby, what are these funny looking marks? I said, oh, Grandma, you know those are C's and D's. And then. And I was about 35 when I realized that someone showed her what an A and a B looks like.
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A
Yes.
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B
Okay.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So all she would do, look on your report card and look for A's and B's.
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A
Yes.
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B
And if you did not see A's and B's, you know you gotta.
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A
And I know you had all A's
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B
and B's that's correct.
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A
That's right, that's right.
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B
That's right. Cause she called my brother report cards funny looking marks. But it just come up in that environment and, and also what I want to say too, what led me to majoring in mathematics in college. I loved literature, however, and I loved just writing and interpreting things and poems. However, when you write something, I came to understand, just because someone doesn't judge you by the color of your skin, they don't like your opinion. You can have the most beautifully written document, but they downgrade, they grade it down. And so I suffered during my first semester at the University of South Florida, which I don't mind seeing. And I would go home crying in the evening because I was not used to having sees my grades. However, something told me, major in mathematics and get foreign professors. Because see, when you major in mathematics, if you do a proof, nobody can dispute that.
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A
No, math is math.
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B
If you solve a problem, nobody could dispute that.
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A
That's right.
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B
And also the foreign professors had more empathy, I think, toward being fair versus someone who was not.
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A
That's why you and I get along so well. Because I was a physics major in college and math is math. The numbers don't lie.
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B
Exactly. But that's what got me through. And also with mathematics, the books, I only had to buy one book per course because sometimes with the English and world history and all those areas, you had to get multiple books for one course. So I know for calculus I had one book that got me through calculus. One, two and three and three. Exactly.
- [04:23]
A
I know that for. Well, when you talk about your love for math and science and literature and all that, what has changed with that type of thinking with our kids today? What has driven our kids away from that math and science, in your opinion?
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B
Well, you know, I have some. What's interesting, I have quite a few young people that have the interest in the math and the science.
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A
Good.
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B
You know, one of my mentors that I have, and they enjoy it because some of them enjoy technology, they enjoy the coding and all of that. But when I also have their parents understand and everyone understand that what children need today is what I had when I was a child growing up, and that is caring adults who could protect them, love them, nourish them and teach them. And in my opinion, I'm a senior citizen, that has not changed. Yes, they still need that today.
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A
Still need it today. When you talk about some of the needs today. And I want to go all the way up the river a little bit to our kids in preschool our kids from 0 to 4, 0 to 5. What should our parents be doing with their kids, Dr. Dupont? And what should they be doing and focusing on distinctly.
- [05:46]
B
Thank you. What they should be doing is being just as engaged with their children as their cell phones. And in education, they talk about involvement versus engagement. Involvement, in my definition, is what you do to and for your children. Engagement is what do you do to, for and with your children. And so even from the. From the beginning, even the. Some of the basic things. If you had a stop sign, you can ask the little one, what color is that?
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A
Yes.
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B
You know, what letters do you recognize? Because that's what I would get my grandbaby.
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A
What does that sign say?
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B
That's correct. However, the most important thing is even little ones, when they just starting up, don't undermine their intelligence, because first of all, they like little tape recorders.
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A
Yes.
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B
You know, they're recording in my mind more than what you think that they are. So even when I talk about their cell phone, the most important thing is just to hold them. Because you'd be surprised how many times I go out into the community and the little one's so happy to see me, they just start grabbing you by your legs because they want a hug.
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A
I do.
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B
And so I tell the parents, even if you got a night job or whatever and you got older people, you know, in the house, just leave them a little note, a little message. You just let them know you love them so they have a nice day. And even if they. My grandbaby, she's 16 years old, I still hug her each time, every time, each time I see her. Also important is read to them, you know, as you. Even the stop sign, like I said before. And they just say, you stop, you know, or different things just in life, as you go, even going to the grocery store and call things by their proper names.
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A
Right.
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B
You know, as you could talk and communicate with them and let them know, even when they're young, that you have high expectations of them, you know, because God has created them with intelligence. But it's how we have to expect more. Because I think, Maya Angelou, it was someone who said, the greatest danger for us lies not in setting our aim high and failing, but in setting our aim low and achieving our mark. And often times that's what parents do. And I also tell them, have the conversation, set the standards for your house.
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A
Yes.
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B
Let them know, in my house, I expect a 100% graduation rate. That mean all my little ones, you know, I expect you to graduate high school. And my Suspended rate in my house. Zero percent.
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A
Yeah. Unacceptable.
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B
Yeah, exactly. I do not expect you to be getting suspended from school.
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A
Yes.
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B
And also important, keep your eyes on your phone. Keep your eyes on your children. You know, they say it takes a village to raise a child. But I say nowadays you have to know who is in the village. And so when you. You don't let anybody use your phone. So you should not leave your children with anybody. And so you just know who with your children and also your phone, what you do with that, you keep it charged up and do the same thing with your children. You go ahead and, you know, motivate them and have positive things. Don't say things like, oh, you're just gonna be like your daddy, you know, or, I couldn't do math. Now you can't do it. Don't say things like that to them. Because I think Ziglar said that our children are born to win, but two men are conditioned to lose. Because if you do loser talk to me, I live down to that. And they look so much at what we say, you know, what we do versus what we say. So you literally have to model that. Because you tell your child when they start to drive, well, don't be on the phone. Why don't you be on the phone driving? Because that's what they pay attention to.
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A
Practice what you preach.
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B
That's correct. And when you. If you practice what you preach, there's no need to preach it, because they know to follow that. Right. People also have respect for the phone. They don't treat their phone any kind of way. You know, let just anybody use it. So. And then. And children, you should always have respect for them. I always tell my people, because I have some people in my family. I said, if anybody want to cuss at your children, fuss at your children, or just hit your children, I say, do not let your children be around those people. And I had one young lady, she was separated from her boyfriend, you know, and their little baby. And she said she tell him that all the time. And that's why I make sure. Because if you do, you condition them to. When they go to a school center, you condition them to respond to that kind of response. You know, if I'm yelling at you, that's what you respond to. If I say, patrick, please take your seat. No, you stand up. If I say, patrick, sit yourself down. You go sit.
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A
You go sit.
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B
Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. And the one.
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A
If you just join us. Thank you for joining us. This morning, I have with me Dr. Marianne Dupont and a retired Educator and just an absolute wonderful community resident here in West Palm Beach. Dr. Pont, we were talking about school and preparing our children for school. Are our kids prepared to start school when we look at the third grade reading scores and say that we're behind? And I was always focusing on how do we make sure that our kids are reading at grade level from day one, how do we do that again
- [11:29]
B
to go back to the experience the children have. If you look at remember years. See I came up years ago with the old intelligence test that people would give. Now if you look at the environment they come from and assess them on that, for example, what color is a banana? Okay, on the intelligence test they're looking for yellow. But, but the children experience it is brown. Because a lot of them have come from those backgrounds. And the problem is us as adults, how we have what we have done for them. If you like I said put them in an environment where you're reading to them, you making sure that they be obedient and you do not even when you set rules for them. But they have to get the proper training. And so you have too many people who under. In my mind, they underestimate the intelligence of our children and the way they interact with them. Because I won't ever forget my mother worked for a family some years ago and this little two year old said to her, please change her diaper before she become irritated and see and that comes from the language that we use in the household. And so the children got the intelligence. Now I'm going to tell you the other thing about our children too. If you go and teach them the way they should, they'll catch up. Yes, they'll catch up in a heartbeat. And so that's what has to be. And people have to focus on. The biggest concern I have is to make sure the expectations that they are getting before they start school is aligned with what's required when they start school. So because often that's what happened. There's a, there's a misalignment. You know, some people think that we just babysitting. And that's why you see a lot of centers. They say early learning center versus daycare versus daycare. Exactly, exactly.
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A
And so define that a little bit for our young parents who may be listening.
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B
Early learning is literally when you focus on your reading, writing and all of that, that you expecting them, your numbers,
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A
your colors, all that.
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B
Daycare is literally you taking care of them. You know, you make sure they, you know, you know, they fed and you
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A
know, you play, take a nap and do all that.
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B
Yeah, right, you do all of those things. But they have an educational focus on the side where they have high expectation of the children. And that's where the misalignment, the misalignment now, because often organization can get grants. And see, that's what I appreciate about you so much. When you came years ago and you want to see how the children get feedback on their grazing, how they were performing, you were making sure the support y' all gave was, was aligned with what was acquired.
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A
Right?
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B
Now see, some organization, they go back, the grant requirement is this. So there's no alignment between what you're doing, they're doing and then what the school requires, right.
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A
When you look at the state of Florida right now and you and I have had this discussion before, Kindergarten is not required in the state of Florida.
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B
Right, Exactly.
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A
You know, I mean, how could that be? Because you just come and start first grade, right?
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B
Well, you know, first of all, parents look forward to the kindergarten. They want to know the truth or they're not a requirement, right? So you don't have to have a requirement and make something happen and because then again, they don't have to worry about daycare, you know, and all of that. And especially with our parents, you know, who are working and you have to be careful again about who you leave your children with. But the requirement, it doesn't bother me because why you got say, demand or mandate everything but when it helped meet the parents needs, you know, because they look forward to it so long as they know that, you know, they'd be able to go to, you know, at
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A
the Urban League we have a slogan that says our children equal our destiny.
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B
Right?
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A
How. What gives you hope for the future? When you as a retired educator and activist in the community and you're constantly working with, with children and their families, what gives you that hope that our children are our destiny, that we can make that come true?
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B
Someone said our children are living near. Postman said that our children are living Message we send to a time we will never see. And then what give me hope is and I thank God for it. I'm among people who live with hearts for helping others. Because when you look at the West Palm Beach Library foundation, the Urban League of Palm Beach County Junior Achievement, the Coalition of Black Student Achievement and the birth of 22 group Dominion Ministries, all these people I'm associated with, that's what they do. They live with hearts for helping others. And by doing that, and I see the difference in the young people because I had one young man and his grandmother, his grandmother going through chemo, hospitalizations, all of that. And she takes care of him. And yes, he has wonderful report card. He's really excelling in school. And so that's why I know it works when we really surround people, because, you know, someone said a long time, you hear the adage, it takes a village to raise a child, but what does it take to raise a village? And what I say is people who truly care about children and knowing that, the power that we have. And then when I go to churches, I tell them, you all truly believe in God. What's your problem?
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A
Right? There you go.
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B
What's your problem? You know, but it's is you all. That's what. That's what made me feel hopeful and promising, you know, when I see that. Because I'm. I'm a product of that. Yes, that who. People who poured into me and continue to do it.
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A
You just. You just ran off a list of organizations. And I dare to say those are all the organizations that you're on the board of directors or that you're currently working for. What drives you to give your time to these organizations that you believe in, that you have full faith and confidence in? What drives you to do that?
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B
The children. Because they all tell you, all of them, and make it clear. That's what I do. The work I do in the community and also connect the greatness group. I work with them in St. John Missionary Baptist Church now I'm a regular also with them, supporting their parents. And that's what's common to me for all, knowing that the children, they will succeed, they will be successful. And we just have to give them that and believe it. Our problem are the grownups, you know, who think that if their children. In fact. Let me tell you this quick story. My grandbaby told my niece that we expected her to be perfect, okay? Just because we want. Told her about earning all A's on her report card. And I told her, if you talking about a human being, there's no such thing as perfect, okay? I said. And I have told her over and over, if you build the children confidence, they put forth the effort, they will get better, stronger and smarter.
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A
Yes.
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B
So when she did so, when she earned all A's, I said to her, I said, does this mean you're perfect? She said, no. I said, what does it mean? She said, I did my work. And then children, they're capable of doing that, but we have to have the high expectations, you know, of them.
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A
Absolutely, absolutely. We are honoring you at The Urban league at our 53rd annual gala. And you have been such a steadfast board member, not only with the Urban League, but also with all the other organizations and the work that you do in this community. And we are honored to recognize you for this. And we've given you the Alfred Malifado Award for service. What does that mean to you?
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B
Well, first of all, Al, you know, he was someone. In fact, I always kind of get emotion when I think about him from the way his passing. It was just so unexpected. That's why I made a couple of notes and. But thinking about it, because he was very proud of the work and deeply committed to giving back to the community that he poured his gratitude and love for, for humanity and to the service and philanthropy for the Urban League of Palm Beach County. And he also soared into other charities. So I've seen his work over time. So when Sulan informed me, I said, wow, this was like a booster shot from God because. And it's on behalf of all the people that I work within the community that, you know, that was so on. But to be able accept this award, because I know when you've been successful, that that doesn't happen alone.
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A
Right.
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B
But. And it was just so in the kind of person and what I really loved about him. If you had a conversation with him and he had to rush off to another meeting, he didn't look through you, he looked at you.
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A
Yes.
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B
And very few people do that because when they interact and socialize with a group and they think as they talking to you, they think about it. I got to go and see Patrick, you know, but you knew you had his.
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A
He was very sincere. Very sincere.
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B
Exactly. And he cared about young people. And what I wanted to share to you one story. We've served on a scholarship committee and people said it was for need. Okay. Now, this year, that particular year, we were able to. I think we were able to offer about 12 scholarships in terms of funding, but we didn't have that many students apply for it. We had only about five, I think it was. We were just shocked. This was when they first started. So it was one young lady from Wellington. She applied and see what people do when they go making assumptions. And she wanted to go to Harvard, but her family could not afford to send her to Harvard. And the group just looked at it as well, she's not in need because her family, they live in Wellington, but they were in need. And I said to them, but why would you penalize this young lady? Because she's going around to apply for other scholarships to get herself there. First of all, she had no expectation, did the work to qualify to go there.
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A
She was qualified to go and she just didn't have.
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B
The family couldn't afford, she had the
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A
funds to do it and the family
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B
could not afford it. And then I was the only person who understood what I was saying. And we weren't taken away from the other children because no one else has applied that. So the money was just sitting there. And I really tell you truth, I got upset and I didn't serve on that group anymore because people get a stereotype of what need is.
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A
Yes.
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B
You know, and just like a drug free community, they think of something that's all dilapidated, run down. They don't look at how many people living in mansions and on yachts and all of that.
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A
You don't, you don't judge that book by the COVID at all. Because you know, I've had this so many times when we do our food drives and I've had people question, people in authority question, well, why is that person when that BMW in line, I go, because they have the need, if they're going to wait in line for an unknown box of food for an hour or two, they have a need for it.
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B
And, and we don't know that. Some people give them a ride, some people pick up for people. However, going back to Al's story, he told me, he said, he said, Mary, he saw me about a year later, he said, we did get that young lady. And I said thank you so much.
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A
Yes.
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B
You know, yes. Because like you want to penalize her for, you know, making assumptions about where they live here, so this is what they can do. And she had high expectations for herself. And I said, what a wonderful thing that she resourceful to actually go to get more money so she would be able to attend.
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A
So in closing final words about what our children should be doing, what our parents should be doing to help our
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B
kids succeed, let me tell you my, if I could wave a magic wand, especially in grades 6 through 12, at least once a week they would be sitting with them and looking at their student information system where their grades are.
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A
Yes.
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B
And if those grades not looking the way you know they should be because same with my grandbaby. And that's why I tell people how to make judgments. Here they, they're thinking, wow, she probably get 1/ hundreds on everything. No, she doesn't.
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A
Right.
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B
And she probably want to hear me say this, but under her, when she was getting ready for a performance with the Palm Beach Opera they would rehearse from about 7:30, 10:30 at night during that week, whatever. So on this math test, she got a D. And all I said to her, you know, difficult and failure of feedback. Okay, what did you miss? What you need to work on? I said, now what do you need to do? I said, you know, you got to bring it. And sure enough, she ended up getting aid, you know, doing no work. So that's why I tell her, if that's the one thing, sit with them once a week. Also tell them you do not have to know algebra to get help for your child. All you need to know is say they got a C or whatever, talk with them. Is it because they did not complete an assignment? Is it because they just missed an assignment? Because some of the children have to learn to hold themselves accountable and responsible. Then always stay in touch with the teacher. Yes, and the teacher. All the time. The teachers welcome that.
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A
They will share information with you and everything else.
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B
I'm just telling you if that's the one thing, because on that student information system, they got everything that you need to know about your child. Like the open book, got the teacher grade book. They even have, like, classroom assignments. Even when you sign up as a parent, they'll let you. You can see, like, assignment is due Monday. It'll let you know today is due Monday.
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A
That's called engagement.
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B
Exactly. And that's what I'm talking about.
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A
Stay, stay in touch with your child.
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B
That's right. And hold high expectations.
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A
And that's virtual.
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B
That's correct.
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A
Yeah, absolutely.
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B
You know, you could do it at any time of night, you know, whatever. But even if you do it at least once a week, you know, and then giving them that feedback, and that's how you get better, stronger, and smarter, and you build their confidence. And that's the difference between children who are high performing and the ones who are not. That they might see something new. And a high performance student would think, how can I do this? And somebody low performers say, oh, I can't do this.
- [26:38]
A
Right, Right. See, folks, you've been listening to this morning, Dr. Maryann Dupont. And if you would like to come out and honor her with your presence at our 53rd annual Equal Opportun Day Gala, which will be on April 17 at 6pm at the Kravitz Center. I'm quite sure she'd be happy to see all of you come out and say hello and wish her well because she's so, well, deserving of this recognition. So come on out and support the Urban League. Come on and support Dr. Dupont. And that's going to be on April 17th at 6pm at the Crawford Center. For more information about our gala, go to the Urban league website@ulpbc.org, call the Urban League at 561-833-1461 to get more information. And we look, we all want to be there to support those who are giving back to our community. Come on out and join us, please. All right, if you have a middle school or high schooler, we have an event coming up on coming up on the 14th of April, come on out and join us for a high school youth summit. And you can get more information by calling the Urban league again at 561-833-1461. Also, if you're looking to become a homeowner, we have many different opportunities for you to engage a home buyer education class on April 18, May 16, June 13 or June 27. These are all 8:45 to 3:30pm These will be at the Urban League and the financial literacy workshops virtually be held on April 21, May 20 and June 17. If you want more information, call the urban league at 561-833-1461 or go to our website at ulpbc.org if you're a young professional between the ages of 21 and 44, we have a place for you. Become a member of our Young Professionals. They're a very dynamic group. They network a lot. They volunteer and support the Urban League of Palm Beach County. And if, if you're a little older than 21 to 44, we can help you. Also with our Urban League Guild with ages 45 and up, become a member, a volunteer with the Urban League Guild. So with that being said, folks, I'd like to thank you for joining us this Sunday. Hopefully our young parents and those with our school age kids got a lot of good nuggets of information from Dr. Pott this morning. And look, if you want to know more about and talk with Dr. Pott, call us at the Urban League. We can get you in touch with her. Okay. With that being said, I hope you have a great Sunday and I look forward to seeing you again next Sunday. Thank you and have a great day.