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Since Jackson blames an abdication of responsibility for the downfall of standards in U.S. schools, his strategy calls for renewed cooperation among students, teachers and parents. "We get parents to pledge four things: to meet with the child's teacher and exchange phone numbers, to pick up report cards four times a year, to pick up test scores and to make sure that their children study two hours a night without radio or television. We know that when parents' interest increases, the student's effort increases." Jackson is also advocating dress codes and student decorum to help restore school discipline and pride.
Many young apostles seem to be espousing Jackson's creed. During the 1976-77 school year in Kansas City's Central High School, an average of 500 students out of 1,300 were absent each day. Last month the absenteeism was down to 200 students a day. A student pride association raised money to carpet the auditorium, paint murals on the walls and plant trees.
EXCEL high schools in Los Angeles and Chicago are enjoying similar benefits: less graffiti, fewer fights, a reduction in thefts. In Chicago's Marshall High School, where city cops not so long ago were keeping students from knifing one another, the police are becoming counselors. Another indication of the turnaround at Marshall is a sharp increase in the number of students choosing advanced English, math and science courses as electives. In many Chicago high schools, boys have given up wearing the broad-brimmed hats that are the marks of the streetwise. At a Los Angeles EXCEL high school, the Friday absentee rate has dropped from 35% to under 12%, and there has not been a fight in four months. Not all of this is Jackson's doing, but he is helping to pass the message.
Part of the reason for Jackson's success is that he symbolizes black brotherhood. Jackson was beside Martin Luther King Jr. when he died; he fought for jobs for blacks in Chicago's Operation Breadbasket twelve years ago and, at age 36, he has smoothed some of the rougher edges of his younger years and acquired substantial authority within the civil rights movement. He is also the father of five children, ages 2 to 14, and knows about the problems they face. Few others, particularly whites, could emerge as heroes by telling ghetto kids to shape up. Jackson has credibility as well as charisma.