Life Management for Young People

Aside from its thesis that practically every human being has immense potential to learn, become educated and make significant contributions to the general progress of the universal body of all humankind, this book also provides the reader with an enlightening overview of the political and social evolution and vicissitudes which has resulted in the present day, deplorable failure of the New York City educational system. Rev. James’ irrefutable proposition is presented in a calm, objective, fair and surprisingly dispassionate manner, supported by historical fact and several capsulated biographies of a few, among his thousands, of modern human success stories which will - by inference, and perhaps mild implication - move most readers to indict the New York City political establishment and educational system for sacrificing the education of minority children to the ruthless greed of more powerful political interests.

Having been vigorously, deeply, continuously and successfully involved in the struggle to obtain education for more than three thousand minority youngsters who otherwise would have been rejected by a grossly inequitable and inadequate educational establishment, he has developed unique skills and tactics for dealing with political and educational bureaucracies. Along with becoming an expert at circumventing and surmounting political and bureaucratic obstacles, William James has inevitably, though unintentionally, become an expert on politicians, bureaucrats and college administrators. This renders him a very valuable asset to any community and educational institution or program.

As a result of having visited numerous prisons, reformatories, colleges and high schools throughout this country over the past twenty-five years, I have concluded that the main difference between the young people in college and those incarcerated is what was expected of them and what they, in turn, came to expect of themselves. In other words, the vast majority of both groups are where they expected to be. As an eleven year old at Wiltwyck School for Boys (a correctional institution for juvenile delinquents in Esopus, New York) the other boys and I made wagers as to who would be the first to get to New York State Training School, Coxsackie and Elmira reformatories, Sing Sing, Auburn prison, etc. Those were the places where our older brothers cousins, uncles and fathers were or had been at one time or another and we expected to follow in their footsteps. Had we been eleven year old boys attending The Horace Mann School, The Dayton School, The Lincoln School, The Riverdale Country School, etc., in all probability we would have anticipated eventually attending Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia or some other Ivy League College.

In this book Rev. James confirms my conviction concerning human expectations and justifies his life long mission which is to improve the human condition by assisting individuals to fulfill their most extreme potential and proving to them that they are capable of successfully coping with difficult intellectual challenges.

This gave me the idea that what was happening in our public school system went beyond the lack of inspiration and incentives, but that the ideas placed before the learners in the public schools were too shallow to challenge the human mind. The youngsters went outside and got into street gangs or other activities because it was exciting and at many points daring and challenging. The public schools were many times dull. Well, I began to think that the most exciting and challenging thing on this planet was knowledge. One needed it for everything and it could do so much for life in general. At this point I began to think: What instrument of challenge had I gained from this highly intellectual "evangelical humanist," Dean Lynn Harold Hough?

It came to the point that during breaks in the gym time and after gym hours we began to have the Christ walk with us in the Church office. This was downstairs in the house next door where I lived in a parsonage. There the conversation was a little changed from the "hook shot" in basketball to science and religion, or the planning of life goals. Discussions, discussion; they went on and on with boys and sometimes girls sitting on the floor around the desk. While we discussed everything from Plato to Immanuel Kant in philosophy and from the Booker T. Washington-W.E.B. Dubois debate, to affairs of State under Roosevelt and Truman. I began to see that "mind growth" was taking place, and sometimes to my amazement I could see and hear the growth of these minds in my very presence. How amazing it was, like seeing a moon flower bloom at night before your very eyes.

Then the time was on its way for some of my basketball stars and stickball champions to finish high school...not drop-outs in these groups. College yes, college. There was only one Black college student that I knew in a ten-block radius of the Church. But, we had Cornish Rogers. After understanding Immanuel Kant and being able to differentiate phenomena from numina and comprehending the difference between "a thing in itself" and "a thing in experience," I thought that this boy was ready for college.