Education
As a child, Arthur Ashe loved to read and was a straight-A student. This was largely due to Arthur’s mother, Mattie. She understood the value of an education and taught her son to read by the age of four. When she passed away two years later, Arthur recounts that ”books and sports saved me from withdrawing too much, as a 6-year-old would. I always loved school and could hardly wait to get up in the morning and go to school.” (https://arthurashe.ucla.edu/education/) Young Arthur understood the value of an education not only as a way to bring honor to his family, but also as a way to rebel against forces in society that saw him as “less than” or incapable of achieving what the dominant white culture had achieved.
Because of his academic and athletic achievements, Arthur earned a full scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Later, Arthur used this experience to reach out to other student-athletes and help them achieve their highest in both academics and sports. In 1969, Arthur co-founded the National Junior Tennis League, a tennis-for-all dream. This program offered free or low-cost tennis and education programming to students in underserved communities. Past participants include Serena Williams and Coco Gauff. In this program, participants learn life skills such as leadership, discipline, teamwork, and responsibility.
In the late 1980’s, Arthur and tennis friend Bob Davis established the Safe Passage Foundation. This network of inner-city tennis centers let young people meet five days a week after school and in the mornings during summer breaks to learn tennis and experience the sheer joy of the game. Half the time, young people learned tennis; the other half focused on off-court life skills, including academic skills that would support their efforts in public school and keep them in college. At a time when college athletes were lured out of academics to play on professional teams, Arthur made it clear that this benefited neither the athlete nor society at large. “It’s no secret that 75 percent of black football and basketball players fail to graduate from college. …that isn’t likely to change… We should either get serious about academic standards or cut out the hypocrisy and pay college athletes as professionals. Black America stands to lose another generation of our young men unless they are helped to learn as well as play ball.” (Coddling Black Athletes, NYT, Opinion, Feb. 10, 1989)
Learning and Leadership Activities
Goal Mapping with Educational Milestones
Pick one dream or goal (if youth are working in pairs, they can select a shared goal or dream). Create a timeline or mind map, starting from the dream/goal and working forward. Include the degrees, skills, extracurricular activities, internships, mentors, etc. needed. On the timeline/map, indicate any “checkpoints” or “detours” to present real-world flexibility. For example, a checkpoint could be working with someone to ensure that you are on the “right track” along the way. A detour could be a natural, political, economic, or social event that might temporarily derail your plans (e.g., a personal health issue, a global pandemic, an economic downturn, new political leaders, a natural disaster, etc.). Youth can share their maps with each other and then present them to other groups, such as parents, school communities, local business organizations, or other community partners.
Future You Interviews
Take turns interviewing a partner. One partner will play their future self (10-15 years into the future) while the other plays the role of a journalist. Possible questions for the interviewer include: What do you do now? How did your education prepare you for this? What challenges did you overcome? Switch roles, and after the interviews, hold a group discussion and write journal entries about the insights you gained. Think about what you learned and how you might start to incorporate these lessons into action in your life. For example, will you seek out opportunities to learn from others? Will you change your perspectives on school? Will you consider participating in different community activities?
Dream Team Collaboration
To explore how collaboration and diverse education paths support shared goals, form small teams and choose a group goal (e.g., creating a policy to address a critical issue in your community, creating a non-profit, etc.). Each person will choose a different role (e.g., reporter, marketer, accountant, etc.). Research the education/training needed for each role and come together to address your group goal. Each person contributes ideas and actions based on their role. Eventually, groups present their collective plan and explain how each person contributed differently based on their skill set and knowledge gained from different educational pathways.
Reflect, Discuss, Write
Think about this quote from Arthur: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” What is he inspiring us to do? List the issues/challenges that are important to you. How will you apply this quote to each of those challenges/issues? What will you do to get started?
Justice Through Education
Form small groups and brainstorm a response to the prompt “When have you seen education used to challenge unfairness?” For example, Malala Yousafzai and girls’ education; the role of student-led protests on issues like gun safety, climate change, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights; and Freedom Schools during the American Civil Rights Movement. When you have shared your ideas, each group chooses a current injustice, such as climate inequality, racial injustice, unequal access to healthcare, misinformation/disinformation, or violence against immigrants. Each group investigates the following:
What is the injustice?
Why does it matter to us?
How can education make a difference?
What could schools, students, or communities do to help?
Each group creates a mini-poster or oral presentation of their findings and shares with the larger group. Finish with a discussion about how doing this would exemplify what Arthur modeled throughout his life.