In 1978 the movie The Wiz gave us Lena Horne singing: “Believe in yourself the way that I believe in you.”

In 1988 Stand and Deliver’s Jaime Escalante told us: “Students will rise to the level of expectation.”

The truth is, all children, regardless of their parents socioeconomic status, skin color, or cultural background, will rise to the level of expectation of the adults who believe in them or fall in failure because of those who do not.

Our current system of education does not show our children that it believes in them. Just the opposite is true.

We do not challenge students to greatness. Instead we accept anything offered as being their best.

We do not believe they can achieve anything better than “middle class” so that is where we set the bar.

As adults, we show our children that “getting by” by “getting over” is preferable to the effort necessary to succeed.

Our children are falling to the depths of depravity because their adult role models, in and out of the home, have not shown them the virtue of standing righteous.

When adults make negative comments about the youth of today they are neglecting the fact that children do no raise themselves but are a product of their upbringing.

We hear adults say time and again, “It takes a village to raise a child” while allowing the leaders of the village to circumvent the laws and mores of the village.

“Don’t do what I do, do what I say” has never been an effect model for raising children since children will eventually emulate the actions of their role models, adopting their coping skills and strategies for success or failure.

If we want our children to succeed, adults must show them the way to success.

If we want our children to believe in themselves, we must believe in them.

It is up to us, as adults, to set the level of expectation for our children as high as is humanly possible and show them, not tell them, that they can achieve excellence.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!