Plato says, "learning is the painful process of freeing the mind of prejudices and accepting the responsibility to help others to achieve this goal." In order to achieve the goal of creating a learned Americanized African community, void of the long-standing protracted living conditions that have been imposed upon our people, Americanized African leaders must accept the responsibility of freeing the minds of high-risk members of the community. Living conditions such as high unemployment, abuse and neglect, substance abuse, dangerous neighborhoods, homelessness, and exposure to inadequate and inappropriate social and educational experiences have created afflictions that enslave members of the community by dwarfing their good spirits and minds. The stresses of this dysfunctional reality have created a devastating intergenerational culture of pain, failure, disappointment, and self-hatred that have proven to be an extraordinary challenge for the Americanized African community to overcome.

Nevertheless, high-risk Americanized Africans long to be liberated from the misery of their dysfunctional enslavement and are in desperate need of an unyielding commitment to develop a learned community that ultimately breeds happiness. Aristotle believed that a humanistic educational philosophy could do just that as it, "cultivates the disposition that will lead people to be ready, able, and willing to engage in the excellent activities that constitute or which lead to happiness." Humanistic education is particularly effective at educating high-risk individuals as it "is concerned with the development of the whole person with a special emphasis upon the emotional and affective dimensions of personality" (John Elias and Sharan B. Merriam, 1995). In other words, an educational philosophy draped in humanism is not simply about numeracy and literacy, it fuses academics and life’s daily pain and struggles into a learning process that develops the whole person socially, emotionally, and int ellectually.

I had the good fortune to experience first hand the effectiveness of humanistic education when I served as a public school and adult educator in high-risk Americanized African communities in New York City and Washington, DC. During that time, I found it extremely effective to blend the classroom subject matter with real life personal and community issues and concerns that the learners themselves would share with me. Before long high-risk learners began to buy into the premise that they could use the creative expression and critical thinking skills learned though subjects such as reading comprehension, writing, math, and business to solve, eliminate, and better handle life issues that create pain and struggle. As they better understood the value of utilizing education as a tool to free their minds and to liberate themselves from life’s afflictions, the learners also began to feel better about themselves which translated into higher expectations socially and academically. Robert Blakely in his book, Adult E ducation in a Free Society, (1958), referred to this type of learning as "fundamental to the solutions of all social problems."

Perhaps, there is no greater example of using the power of education as a solution to social problems then that which can be found in the experience of the religious Jewish community. Much like Americanized Africans, they also suffered one of the most inhumane atrocities perpetrated against mankind. However, their community leaders truly understood the power of using education to attain knowledge, self-awareness, and to stimulate and satisfy inner motivations. Their commitment to using the power of education inspired them to work tirelessly to create their own community-based educational process that fortified their community and eventually lead them to building national systemic social, political, and economic processes that allow them to maintain a community of functional, thinking, and productive individuals.

Compared to their time of exploitation, as a result of their commitment to using the power of education to develop a learned community, the present state of the religious Jewish community is extremely strong, influential, and prepared to compete in a global society. In his book, Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971), B.F. Skinner describes the profundity of this type of commitment toward education when he wrote, "that culture is strongest that educates as many of its members as possible."

Unfortunately, Americanized Africans have had to contribute an unconscionable amount of lives, time, energy, and resources fighting for basic human, social, and political rights and have not convened the type of interest, resources, and commitment needed to bring education to the forefront of our struggle. Still to this day, for most Americanized Africans the struggle to survive centers on maintaining the lowest level of hierarchy needs food, shelter, and clothing! The reality of globalization, however, is now challenging Americanized African leaders to rethink their priorities and method of commitment to building a strong Americanized African culture. They now find themselves, in fact, faced with the ultimate challenge of how to package and promote education as the primary liberatory tool to change the destiny and nature of high-risk Americanized Africans.

According to theologian Thomas Aquinas, “an emphasize on liberal learning, organized knowledge, and the development of intellectual powers of the mind enable a person to gain a measure of knowledge about his destiny and his nature.” Finally! Americanized Africans realize that in order to improve the destiny and nature of our people the focus of our struggle must be on fulfilling our responsibility to successfully complete the painful process of using the power of education to develop a learned community.

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