There is a substantial difference between a proverb and a quote. Quotes are the words of one person that some hold paramount while proverbs are communal. Proverbs represent a consensus of a community and its world view. This distinction is a representation of different types of knowledge, proverbs are communal expressions of world views, while quotes are individualistic thoughts. The beauty of proverbs is that they form a genre folklore, sayings that whole communities can live by.
One of the most ubiquitous African proverbs is "It takes a village to raise a child." This proverb exists in many different African cultures and languages. In Sukuma, the language of the Basukuma ethnic group of Tanzania, the proverb incarnates itself as “one knee does not bring up a child. In Suguti, the language of the Kijita people of Eastern Africa, the proverb says "regardless of a child's parents its upbringing belongs to the community.” In Swahili, people say “one hand does not nurse a child.” This proverb is so persistent because anyone who has raised or worked around children knows that children require community. While this quote is wonderful, there is a quote that sums up this current moment and schooling in general with a different tone, “a child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth”
As one reads this proverb you can see an image of it; one can feel it. When I first heard it I was taken back to Chinua Achebe's 1959 novel Things Fall Apart. The novel tells the story of how hurt feelings can cause familiar and cultural destruction. Nwoye is the oldest child of big man Okonkwo who metaphorically burns his village. Nwoye difficulty fitting in with his father’s and his community’s traditional views leads him to join the missionaries who later destroy the community and culture that his father and the elders sought to protect.
The proverb paints a perfect parallel picture of the moment that we are living in. After the deaths of unarmed black people this year, including 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police in her home, Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot by two white men for no reason and George Floyd who was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer sparked literal and metaphorical fires across the country. While the protests are generally peaceful, some have escalated to looting and burning of businesses and police precincts. This is the consequence of America’s treatment of Black people. America is feeling the flames of Black outrage of our treatment.
Within the context of schooling, the proverb is powerful because it is said and written as a declarative sentence. We all know that we are supposed to care for every child in a school, but we are not sure why or the consequences of not caring for a child. “A child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth” is a great proverb because it paints a picture of how our actions as educators affect children.
Schools, even well-intentioned ones, are deeply racist institutions. New York City Schools, both private and public, as well as charter and traditional public schools, are deeply segregated. The National Association of School Psychologists has reported that 40 years' research demonstrates that Black students receive harsher punishments than their white peers. According to a 2020 study, in-school racial discrimination from teachers and peers were both negatively associated with academic persistence for Black and Brown students. This shows us why using the proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” is not enough. Educators generally want to do right by children but often don’t. Schools focus on the problems without focusing on the actions that may be causing them or the feelings that solving them may elicit. Schools must focus on what it is like to have to go to a racist institution every day for hours at a time for years of your life.
If schools want to improve they must acknowledge that their actions have consequences. Not far-flung consequences, but consequences that affect children, families, and communities now. Children and families feel each and every action in a school. We can choose to feel the warmth of our children by courageously and consistently loving them or we can choose to feel their warmth by their rage from having to exist in a racist institution. If we want to change schools for the better just live by the idea that “a child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.”
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