Last night was quite interesting, to say the least. I enjoyed the company of Dr. Poussaint, a leading black pychiatrist. I didn't think the speech would be all too entertaing but once again I was proven wrong. Dr. Poussaint touched on issues of race, child abuse, social equality and lack there of. Poussaint didn't hesistate to mention the stats. He informed the audience that 80% of prison inmates are high school dropouts, meaning 6 out of 10 high school dropouts are are prison inmates; 40-45% of all prison inmates are black, 1/3 of homeless people are black men; chidren from upperclass parents will hear 20,000,000 words by age 3, and chilren from lowerclass parents will only hear 1,000,000 by age 3.
Poussaint entertained the crowd when describing his own life stories as a child. Once, as a school boy, he felt embarrased by all the other kids because he knew he couldn't speak as well as they did. So, he hid. His teacher pulled him out of hiding and made him talk and once he did she told him he had a speech impedement. She said that he needed a speech pathologist. He fired back saying, "Well, let's go get all the kids from the block 'cause they talk just like me." Watching the time , Poussaint tried not to be long with his talking. That brought out a story of when he and his father would go to church. When the preacher put his watch on the podium, Poussaint asked his father, "What does that mean?" His father would reply, "Not a damn thang." Poussaint had the crowd burst into laughs.
Listening to Dr. Poussaint and all his words of wisdom made me really wish my parents had of been there. They needed to hear it more that I did, especially about Poussaint's parenting infromation. My folks go by the old saying, "Spare the rod, ruin the child." Poussaint had much to say about parenting. Wise men say, "It takes a village to raise a child." Poussaint says, "No it don't! It takes a fortune."
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