Native Drums
Explore the powerful symbolism of drums in African American culture, once tools of communication and resistance during the darkest times of slavery. We confront the lingering shadows of economic exploitation and the pervasive influence of media and religion in controlling black narratives. Let’s reexamine the role of the black church and its mission to fight systemic injustices, urging a return to prophetic ministries that prioritize humanity and community over material wealth. This podcast episode is not just a reflection of the past but a call to action for the future, urging us to build a more just and liberated world.
Native Drums
Choice, Equity, And The Fight For Honest Classrooms
What if the single most powerful lever in education isn’t a new curriculum or app, but a teacher who truly knows the student? We sit down with Dr. Larry Jackson—former superintendent and now executive director of the PEE DEE Education Center—to explore how personal connection, consistent family “non-negotiables,” and community partnership lift kids higher than any quick fix. From interest inventories to real-life examples, he shows why engagement beats poverty, and why the best classrooms are built on trust, relevance, and care.
We take a hard look at school choice and the Education Scholarship Trust Fund, tracing how tax dollars gave way to lottery funds and what that means for equity, public schools, and the future of honest curriculum. Dr. Jackson doesn’t stop at critique; he challenges churches and community anchors to seize the same opportunities, launch excellent schools, and protect rigorous, truthful learning. If the rules change, our communities can adapt—and lead.
Technology and AI enter the spotlight as tools, not saviors. We talk about practical guardrails for academic integrity, the risk of outsourcing thinking, and smart ways to use digital resources to deepen, not dilute, student voice. Parents get a playbook too: homework expectations, summer learning, reading habits, and proactive communication that turns schools from silos into true partners. The takeaway is clear: when adults align—teachers, administrators, and families—students rise.
If this conversation sparked ideas or resolve, share it with a parent, teacher, or pastor who cares about kids. Subscribe for more candid talks on education, leave a review to help others find the show, and tell us: what’s your top non-negotiable at home or in your classroom?
Hello everyone. This is Josilia Williams sitting in for Dr. Ralph Canty and welcome to Native Drums. On this evening, we have our special guest, and that is Dr. Larry Jackson. Dr. Jackson has been our former superintendent of Florence School District One Schools. Welcome to Native Drums, Dr. Jackson. Thank you. Glad to be here. It's a pleasure to have you here on today. As an educator, you have um retired. You've retired uh 15 years, you said?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Wow.
SPEAKER_00:You say that proudly. I know you do. I know you do. So what have you been doing, you know, um within those 15 years and presently? Tell us currently what you're up to.
SPEAKER_01:Well, um, first of all, I'm glad to be here. Um I um had worked in public education for 30 years. I know I don't look it, but I've been around a while. I had been around a while. And I just reached a point where I felt like um, you know, I had given all that I could and uh wanted to do something different. And so um I was coming off of uh having lost my first wife. Had my daughter was very ill at the time, and uh she ultimately passed away, and so I had a lot of personal issues that I was dealing with that I thought, you know, I can't I can't give to the school district what I had been giving before. So I needed to kind of decompress and and get away for a while. And so that was my my plan was to just have some take some time for self.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Uh and so in the interim I um remarried and started a new family, and then um started to get the itch uh again and uh had been doing some work for the uh I was the uh the education chair for the state NAACP. Okay. Uh and then was also working with the local NAACP in the on the in the education side. And so um that brought some reward and trying to deal with some of the inequities that is that currently exist in the public school system. And then uh uh maybe about a year and a half or so ago, um an opportunity came uh where there was an opening at the PD Education Center for the executive director's position. So I thought, you know, that might be something that I would be interested in because I had been uh a board member there for a period of time. And so that opportunity presented itself, and so um I applied for the job and was blessed to get it. And so that's what I've been doing for the last year and a half is uh the executive director for the PD Education Center.
SPEAKER_00:So you're back in the saddle again.
SPEAKER_01:Back in the saddle again. It's kind of like it's kind of like riding the tiger. You know, once you get off, uh you're glad to get off, but then the challenge becomes how am I gonna get back on? Uh because he's got fangs and teeth, and so uh, but I rated we didn't kind of like uh doing double dutch, you know, you kind of wait till that time and then you jump on, and so uh that's what I've done. So I found that to be very, very rewarding and kind of taking the place for what I have been doing before.
SPEAKER_00:Well, great, great. It's good to know that you're back in the South. Thank you. We're glad to know that. So uh as we were talking earlier, so as an education professional that has worked in different facets of education, and um what are some of the things that have remained to be true in education over the years?
SPEAKER_01:Um I I would say the the most seminal thing uh that I believe uh makes for an effective educational system is for the educators to uh know the student. Oh yes. Um uh there's an old saying that I used to subscribe to that said, a good teacher is a student of the pupil's mind. And by that I mean that in order for me to educate you or to get you interested in what I'm trying to teach you, is I need to know what makes you tick. I need to know about you, I need to know what your interests are. You know, I I I came from the old old school of we would do interest inventories. You know, before uh if a kid were in my class when I was a school teacher, the first day, I would give them an interest inventory. And and on that inventory would be things like, tell me what you like, tell me what you like to do, how do you spend your free time, what are you interested in? What do you like video games or do you like sports or or do you like needlepoint, whatever it is, and then I'm going to use that information uh to teach you. Uh, I may incorporate something that you like into the lesson that I'm trying to teach. So uh if you're going to be effective, and this transcends generations, it's it transcends time, and that uh if I know what makes you tick, then I can reach you. Uh, you know, if I'm just being sterile and saying, okay, we're gonna learn how to do long division, you know, you're gonna go, I really am not into long division. But if I relate long division to something that you're doing, if you're a baseball player and I say I can teach you how to make your how do you determine what your average is in a baseball game, you know, I might get your attention. And I think, you know, as an educator, and particularly for parents who are engaging with teachers and education professionals, you need to have some non-negotiables. Um, I've got a sister who was a principal in Orenburg. In fact, she was the first black female principal at Orangeburg Wilkinson High School.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And uh there was a reunion. She had been out of, she'd been retired now almost 30 years. Uh, but they had a reunion a couple of weeks ago. And several of her former students, now again, she's been gone for 30 years, but several of her students had her pick had a t-shirt with her picture on it. Wow. And at the top of the uh picture it had non-negotiables. Because that was something that we learned from our from our mother, and that was there's some things that are non-negotiable. And for parents who are watching this tonight, let me tell you what some of the non-negotiables are. I am going to know who your friends are. You know, I'm gonna know who you're hanging out with, I'm gonna know who you're talking, I'm gonna know who you're associating with. You will do homework. You know, that's your job. When you're still living in my house as a child, that is your number one job. You're gonna do your homework. Uh number three is you're going to be in church. We're going to go to church. You're going to have some spiritual background for what it is that you're doing. Again, these are all non-negotiables. Uh, you know, I you're not you're going to be respectful of time. Uh, you're when the sun goes down, you're in the house. You know, again, non-negotiables. These things transcend generations. And if if parents, you know, I I always would tell folks, uh, education is like a three-legged stool. Uh, on one leg you've got the teachers, uh, on the other leg you've got the administrators, and the third leg is made up of the child and his parents. And if you know, if you've ever gone to a restaurant and you put your food on the table and the table is unbalanced, you know, it's a horrible, it makes for a horrible meal. Definitely. So if you've got a stool that has three legs and one of the legs is not carrying its weight, right, not gonna work. So those things transcend time. Uh and if you're gonna be a if you were an effective teacher when I an effective student when I was in school, those things still apply, and they still apply today.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, they do. We need to make more t-shirts.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, non-negotiables.
SPEAKER_00:Non-negotiables, negotiables. Oh, wow, that's awesome. That's awesome. And you answered uh, well, you somewhat you touched on the second question I I have about teachers utilizing uh and foster the set to foster the success of children, and you talked about it a while ago. The teacher needs to know the child.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, that is that is critical. Um because if if I know, if you if I if you think I know you, or if I you know, here's an example. I was taking a graduate course, and um, you know, all of us have taken graduate courses, and you go in and they give you an index card, and they say, Oh, put your name, your address, your contact information on this index card. Well, the course that I was taking, the instructor had us to fill out the index card, we did that. And then the next class meeting, she said, Larry, um, how's your daughter? And I thought, how did she know? Then I remembered that I had put that on that index card. But she personalized just that one thing. So from that point forward, I sat up in there and I was eager to participate because, and she did this the whole time. And then she um she asked, she had a map in the classroom and she had us to get up and pinpoint on the map where we all live.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And she said, if I'm ever in the area, I'm gonna stop by and see you. And she did that. So again, she was modeling for us how to be an effective teacher is I need to show you that I'm interested in you. I you you have more value to me than just being a student. I'm interested in your well-being. And uh if we if we had teachers, more teachers doing that, then I believe some of the ills and some of the issues that kids are facing, they would feel more comfortable talking to you and saying, because you've you've you've shown that you've got a vested interest in me as a student than I feel comfortable sharing with you. Or uh, you know, I I would also tell my employees that, you know, parents aren't keeping all the good kids home and sending us the bad ones. They're sending all of them.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:You know, we don't get to pick and choose who's coming. But we can make that burden a lot easier if we invest, if we pour time and energy into them, the end product is going to be what I had a uh today we had a meeting with uh some representatives from the State Department going over test scores. And uh, and one of the key factors was poverty and kids of poverty and how the uh but what we but what we've seen is that schools that are engaging, it their success transcends poverty. Those those kids that have those schools where educators are heavily involved in kids, their test scores are off the charts. You know, we've got a local high school in here in town. I can't say which school because these scores are embargoed, it won't be released until Monday. But I can tell you that there's one local high school that uh would be deemed uh a school of poverty, but their test scores are off the chart. Are off the chart. Wow. And I'll give you a hint, the school's colors kind of look like the colors that I'm scoring here tonight. Okay. But there's test scores can compete with any other school in the state. Wow. A school that celebrated a homecoming recently. Of course. But I won't name the school, but but it's that kind of engagement on the part of teachers that makes all the difference.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. That is awesome. That's good stuff. That's good stuff. So um, for our viewers, please take this in what Dr. Jackson is saying uh when it comes to your children and when it comes to your the teachers of your children and um and the non-negotiables. Right. Definitely, definitely, and I'm serious about that, teacher. We need a list of these are your non-negotiables. Non-negotiables, definitely. Now, let's um talk about this educational scholarship trust fund that the legislators have this law that has been passed. So they're mixed with views and feelings about this um trust fund and about the voucher system. So can you speak on the pros and cons uh of these distributions?
SPEAKER_01:Sure. Um I guess one of the pros could potentially be, you know, this is no more than choice. And uh, of course, I I I like to be able to choose to make my own choices. And so uh, you know, for example, if I go to the grocery store and they've got several different kinds of milk there, I want to be able to select the milk that I want. I don't want someone telling me you've got to purchase this kind of milk. So from that standpoint, uh uh school trust vouchers are can be construed as a good thing. But now I'm gonna be heavy on the not so good things because I believe in public education. Um I'm a proponent of public education. I went to the public schools, I worked in the public schools, so I'm always gonna be a proponent. And so when the General Assembly first uh rolled this out, uh they were going to do it with tax dollars. And so uh in the first iteration, it came out using tax dollars, and uh uh there was the litigation against it. And so the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that vouchers could not be, could not use tax dollars. Uh, because some of these were going to parochial schools, and so there would be a separation of church and state. So this this the uh the uh Supreme South Carolina Supreme Court said you can't use tax dollars to fund these vouchers. So the General Assembly decided, well, how can we get around that? And so they said, well, wait a minute, we can use lottery money. You know, those are not tax dollars, so we can use lottery money. So that's what they've done. And so um I I'm just concerned that uh we will have a mass exodus from public schools, and uh uh those who can will take advantage of that. And as we as this happens, schools are gonna be browner and blacker uh uh than they've ever been. Uh however, I think there's a panacea for this, and I think that if uh uh you know you and I were talking earlier about uh the role that I believe uh the African American church can play in filling some of these gaps. Uh we know that uh there's a movement across this nation uh to change uh the face of public education, and not only to change the face face of public education, but the curriculum that what's being taught. So we need to be concerned about who's teaching it and what's being taught. And so uh the the concept, for example, that's one of the concepts that has been uh uh uh fostered in some of the curriculum that the State Department of Education has looked at is slavery was not such a bad thing. Well, you know, uh let's ask the slave that. I think he or she would say, I beg to differ. And so um, just like there are lots of folks who are taking advantage of these uh vouchers and and money, why not have our churches say, well, you know what, we can do that too. So, you know, why can't Savannah Grove Baptist Church start a school? You know, why can't Savannah Grove Baptist Church take advantage of these resources? Because other folk are doing that. You know, so this door that has been opened, you know, there's an adage of, you know, I can I can beat you at your own game. So what you're doing, you know what, I can do that too. Yes. So um there's some good in it, but I think that we need to, uh as African Americans, we need to take advantage of these opportunities.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Uh we've got a we've got a society right now that I believe is uh trying to rewrite our history and and whitewash our history. And so um, in order to combat that, uh we should get these resources. We should teach our children, uh, we should uh uh take the place, stand in the gap for those things that are not being taught for our children. And we can do that with or without resources, but you and I both know it would work a lot better if you had resources because then you could hire staff, you can do all these things that these other folk are doing. So I challenge us, I challenge every every African-American church that's watching this podcast that invest in your children. Look at your look at what you can do to combat this attack on public education.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, that's great. And like you said, there are churches out there that are doing it. Right. Um in Columbia, um, my daughter is involved in a church. It's called Soarin Eagles Christian Academy.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh. And um they have the children there, they're just awesome. Um, and they are hands-on, and it's an it's a wonderful thing. So you are correct. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Let's let's, you know, there's an old carpe diem. Let's seize the day. Yes. Let's, you know, let's when you when you give me lemons, I'm gonna make some lemonade out of it. So let's take advantage of this opportunity that other folk are also taking advantage of. So the onus is on us to do what we can while we can.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes, great, great. So, now let's look at this. How does the state of education now compare to how it was when you first began your journey as an educator?
SPEAKER_01:Wow, it it's an excellent question. It it has it has changed dramatically because uh I can remember, you know, as a school teacher having to do lesson plans and trying to pull resources from here or there. And I tell people this story. Um, my mother, I was blessed to have a, you know, I loved my mother because she was such an imp a role model for me. She only went to the sixth grade, but she wanted me, and this is a common denominator that I share with people all the time, is that I don't care what child that you've got in front of you, if you were trying to relate to the parent, there's one seminal question that you can ask is, and that is this ma'am or sir, would you want your child to have a better life than you've had? I don't care what else is out there, but if you ask that seminal question, nine times out of ten, or 99.9% of the time, the parent is gonna say yes. So then, okay, well then look, what can we do together to make that a reality? But anyway, my mother, um, uh, again, to date myself, she bought a set of World Book encyclopedias. I think everybody had those same things. And so she said to me, every night before we go to bed, you're gonna read from this encyclopedia to me. And so I went from the letter A all the way to the letter Z. Wow. Um, but to answer your question, so we were using your I mean uh uh encyclopedias, and well, now you know you've got a device, you know, that within seconds you can pull up information. And so um the use of technology is just amazing and the resources that are available right now. And one of the things that we do at the uh at the at the uh PD Education Center is that we provide training uh for staff on how to utilize this technology. And so um we had a lady come in uh a couple last month and she was showing how to create a lesson plan, uh, you know, pulling from all of these different resources and having video, you know, on demand, uh, you know, so you're not having to pull it from a book. I mean, it's right, you've got a screen up and you're pulling information and you in real time, you know, if you want if you're talking about the Gettysburg address, for example. Right. You could pull up and have a video of someone actually reading the Gettysburg in real time. Right. And so the use of technology has just changed the landscape dramatically. However, I will I would caution the audience about this, is that this, what you've got and what I've got is just a tool, is a tool. Yes. It's not the end all or be all, it is just another resource, no different than your car or the blender that you use to make a cake. It is a tool. That's it. And do not, do not, if you don't hear, if you don't listen to anything else I say tonight, do not let this raise your children. Oh yeah. Do not let this raise your children. It is a tool. Nothing more, nothing less, and it is a resource. Um, when I was a kid, I used to be the first, I was the first person at school every day. You know, I lived right behind North Vista Elementary School. Okay. I was the first person there every day. And uh the librarian was nice enough because she got there early. She would let me come into the library and I would read. And so when I became superintendent, I um went back, I was visiting North Vista one day, and I said, Um, I'm gonna go see if I can find a book that I checked out when I was a child.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01:So I went to the card catalog. Again, this is before they had evolved the technology, which is the card catalog, and found the name of the book and went to the shelf and I found the book. Oh found the book, I opened the book, and you know, the card that would be in the back of the chat, found the card in the back of the book, and guess what?
SPEAKER_00:Your name my name was still on it.
SPEAKER_01:And at one point I was happy, but then I thought no one else has checked this book out. And that bothered me because I thought, you know, as a child, I'm I'm a I'm an old man at this point, and I thought nobody else has checked this book out. And so it bothered me because I thought, you know, my going to the library then, you know, we were poor, didn't have a lot, but I could go to the library and I could go to Italy or I could go to Europe or I could go anywhere through reading or through the resources. So parents have again, as a parent, you need to know what your child is doing. You need to know what they're reading, what what technology they're using. That's right. Because it could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing. And there are people on that that are wanting to raise your children if you let them. Yes. You know, who want to get involved with your children if you if you let them. So to ask your question, technology, it's like night and day.
SPEAKER_00:And that's um, that leads to my next question about the pros and cons to the heavy use of technology and instruction today. And then and also AI, I want you to talk a little bit about that. Because, you know, sometimes when I'm using AI, I feel like I'm cheating.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, well. You know, I I I you know, part of what I do every day at work is I I get to work early and I read all these educational journals, and then I send this information out to our superintendents. And so um the article that I sent out yesterday was about AI and its pros and cons. Right. And that um we have to be very careful. You know, you've got kids who who have allowed AI to write their term papers. Right. That's the right thing. And so you have to be very careful uh to not let that take the place of going to the library and doing research on your own and not letting technology do all of the work for you. And so that that is a tremendous concern. Uh, that um uh here's another example. I was talking to superintendents today, and I was trying to relate uh a story to them, and I said, um uh I'm an avid reader, big time reader my whole life. And so I was saying to them, and this is Halloween coming up, that um uh Washington Irving uh wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and that the title character in that story is a man named Ichabod Crane, uh who was a school teacher. Uh, but that I said to them, Did you did you know that the name Ichabod appears in the Bible? And they were like, What are you talking about? See, it appears in the Bible in 1 Samuel 421. There's a story about someone named Ichabod. And Ichabod was uh the man was named Ichabod because uh the Philistines had stolen the Ark of the Covenant. And so uh Eli's daughter was so distraught over that having happened, she named her son Ichabod. And the name Ichabod means without worth or without value. And so I was saying that all children have value, and that uh as a teacher, as an educator, we need to see the value in these children, and that um I would not have known that had I not researched it, had I not utilized some technology, right? Figured I could have gotten the Bible and thumbed through it and tried to find it, but I could put in a search about Ichabod and I found out that Ichabod's name appears in the Bible. So um, you know, using technology can be a good thing, right? But we have to monitor, you know, and educators are gonna have to monitor to make sure that you that the child is the author of whatever it is they're turning in.
SPEAKER_00:That's right, because it uh some I feel that somewhat it may dumb us down.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00:You know, not we aren't utilizing our gifts or our brains. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. And so um I here's a here's another story that I tell folk all the time. You know, uh again, L. Frank Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz. And there are five characters in that story. I think it's five. It's uh Dorothy, uh the scarecrow, the lion, and the tin man in Toto. Right. And so um, you know, in the story they go off on a mission and they get the broom and they bring it back, and so then they discover that the wizard is just a man behind the curtain. But what he does is he comes out and he says uh to Dorothy, he says to the scarecrow, you know what, you wanted a brain, so uh I'm gonna give you a diploma, and all of a sudden the scarecrow becomes smart. And then he says to the lion, you know, you wanted courage, so I'm gonna pin a metal on you, and all of a sudden you're gonna be courageous. Then he says to the tin man, Well, you wanted a heart, so he pins a metal on him that was the shape of a heart, and all of a sudden he becomes compassionate. And then he tells to Dorothy, you know, you wanted to go home, but you had the ability to go home all the time. But the question is, did he give them something that they didn't already have? No, they had it already, but they needed somebody to bring it out. The problem that problems. Yeah, so that's what teachers, that's what educators are supposed to do. There's something of value in every child. There's no child who child who's an ichabod, but there's some value in each child, and then it behooves the educator to get it out.
SPEAKER_00:Amen. Amen. Amen. My last question is for parents. What can parents do to supplement their child's learning?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I go back to those non-negotiables. There you go. I need to know, you know, I mean, do you have homework tonight? No, yes, you do. But I don't, yes, you do. Well, but we've already no, you do. And so if you've done it already, then I want you to read ahead. I want you to look ahead. Look, you know, there's something that I heard Dr. Candy talking about recently called vision casting. And vision casting just means looking beyond where you are right now. Right. Looking ahead. And so, parents, you know, have your child look ahead. You know, um, our granddaughter um was back during COVID. Uh, she was in uh she was with us and she was studying here in Florida, she was enrolled at a at a Florence school. And then her mother got transferred to England. And so they moved to England, but we decided that because she was already enrolled here and they were virtual, that she could just continue virtually from England. Okay. So um, but we said, don't tell anybody, don't tell your teachers, because they won't know where you are. All they'll know is you'll log on, just like everybody else in Florence is logging on, and you'll just participate in the lesson, but don't say anything.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
SPEAKER_01:So they happened to be studying, and they were in England. So they happened to be studying something about Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. And so she couldn't hold it anymore. She said, I pass by that every day. Oh. I passed by that every day. So, of course, we had to explain to the folks here in Florence. She's not in Florence anymore, but by that time the year was about over. Okay. And so it worked out. But again, getting engaged with your children, giving them some experiences, uh, don't just rely on the school. As I said, it's a it's a it's a it's a uh a three-legged stool. And so, you know, learning never should never end. When the summer comes, don't say, okay, wow, it's over. No, you keep them engaged. Because we have found in all the research says that downtime, uh, particularly in the summer when you've got these large gaps, uh, that they children tend to regress. And so you want to keep them, keep that pump prime, like you said. Keep them learning. Uh uh, either you're green and growing or you're ripe and rotten. And so um uh, you know, we we we want to do either you're green and growing or you're ripe and rotten. And so we want children to be green and growing. And so um, as I said, you know, you keep keep pouring in the children, it's like an investment. You know, if you invest in your child, you know, I I applaud parents who are actively engaged in their children's lives. Yes, yes, you know, and it's so easy to use a device to take your place, but please don't do that. Uh stay engaged, stay involved. You know, I would and I would say I'm not gonna let schools off easy now because you know, I I tell folk all the time when schools say we want parents to be involved. Is that what you really want? Because if you really want parents to be involved, then you're gonna invite them, you're gonna have them come in, and you're not gonna put up these these barriers, you know, to not make parents feel welcome in your classroom. If you want that collegiality and if you want to work together with parents, then you extend it, you extend that olive branch and say, you're welcome to come into my classroom anytime. You're welcome to call me at any time if you've got a problem. So don't be a don't let that first meeting be a negative meeting. Right. Let it be a positive and then build off of that positive.
SPEAKER_00:And then answer the emails when they're yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01:You know, there's there's nothing worse than telling people to reach out to contact you, and then you don't respond. You don't respond. I mean, I uh that's a pet peeve of mine. When I was working here, we had we were the first school to have a website.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:In Florence one, when I was principal at Williams. We were the first school to have a website. We were one of the first schools to um to have what we call, it was a phone line called SIN, Student Information Network, where parents could call in or kids could call in to say, hey, listen, you might want to know this, you know, there's a fight that's gonna happen or whatever. So we were one of the first to do that. You know, I started the IB program here in Florence when I was working, so you know, I got a lot of skins on the wall. But I I I none of these things would have happened if I hadn't been smart enough to know I don't know everything, but I can I can get information from other people. And schools have become silos, and that's the worst thing that could happen. You don't want to be a silo, you want to be open, you want to invite people in, and you you may learn something from them while they're coming to learn something from you. And so, but but most importantly, know your students, know their parents.
SPEAKER_00:Uh that's the key to success. Amen. Amen. I I like that. Know your students. That's uh um I'm raising children for the second time, and I'm almost at the end of it.
SPEAKER_01:Aren't we all?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, because TJ is now 18, he's a senior at West Florence. But um I found that um I like the email, okay, and um when Octavius was going to the Royal, I um talked to the teacher and said, let's be a team. You're a team of teachers, team up with the family so that we can make the child a success story. Right. And that's when they really begin to engage with him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, if if if you as a parent let the teacher know that you're engaged, and you're gonna get back what you put. In. And so if they know that you're engaging and that you want to know about your child's success, and don't call me when the problem happens, let me know the minute you see something, get ready to happen. You tend to be more successful, and it becomes a pleasant experience. It should never be, oh Lord, here they come. No, it's no, I oh yes, here they come. And I'm welcome, and I'm welcoming them and I want them to be involved. So it's a partnership, and it will never be successful unless everybody's doing their part. Amen.
SPEAKER_00:Amen. Well, Dr. Jackson, you have been so enlightening. Thank you. Thank you ever so much for joining us here. Appreciate it. And Native Drums and the Doors Swing Open for you to come back again.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I want to before I finish, let me say this too. As a child, I used to come out here to church. I was friends with the cruises. That's right. Patty Cruise, and it was kind of like a second mom to me. And so I can remember coming here as a child, I think, with Reverend Lund. Now, yeah. Yeah, that's that's how far back. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's how far back I remember coming and listening to him. And I thought he was a I mean he was just a riveting pastor, but I remember that as a child coming here. So I do have some Savannah Grove Roots.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you have some roots here. All right. Welcome home. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All right. Well, everyone, thank you ever so much for joining us here at Native Drums. And uh, we'll be back on next week, so make sure you tune in. This is Jocelia Williams sitting in for Dr. Ralph W. Canty Sr., pastor of Savannah Grove Baptist Church. Have a great evening.