Our Children Are Brilliant: Is Our School System Helping or Hurting Them?

All children have tremendous potential to excel in science, math, technology, physics, chemistry and all the subjects that could enable our youth to contribute to the progress of society. But our schools are not giving equal access to knowledge to all children, but are instead purposely creating an underclass in the inner cities that is programmed for prison. Meanwhile, wealthy suburban schools offer the subjects that produce our future scientists and engeneers. What would happen if all children were given access to higher knowledge? Ramal Bell, recent winner of the Illinois Institute of Technology Engineering Award, is a Senior at Lincolnwood North, a school in an affluent suburban community that offered Engineering/Physics classes.  One of the few African American students at the school, Ramal represents what can happen when youth are given access to knowledge. His parents, Lamar and Angel Bell, realized that they had to give their children academic opportunities in order to enable them to excel. How can we transform our inner city schools so that they really prepare our children with the skills that are needed to be a viable part of the society in which they live?