Unlocking Potential, One Student at a Time

At NHEG, we believe that education is not just about textbooks and classrooms—it’s about igniting curiosity, fostering creativity, and empowering students to reach new heights. Our nonprofit organization is dedicated to promoting literacy for children and adults alike.

“The article talks about how awesome libraries are for learning new languages. It says libraries are like treasure chests full of cool stuff that can help you learn a new language, like books, CDs, and even online apps. Libraries are quiet and peaceful, so you can focus on learning without any distractions. They’re also super inclusive, so you don’t have to worry about making mistakes while practicing. Plus, libraries have fun events and activities that teach you about different cultures too! Overall, the article shows that libraries are amazing places to learn languages and have fun while doing it!”

-Reggie

How You Can Contribute

1. Spread the Word: Share your NHEG success stories with friends, family, and fellow students. Let’s create a ripple effect of educational empowerment!
2. Volunteer: Join our global community of volunteers. Whether you’re in Ohio or halfway across the world, your time and expertise matter. Together, we can make a difference.
3. Donate: Every contribution fuels our mission. Your support helps maintain services and our growing library. Consider donating today!
4. Subscribe: Get our latest news and resources in your inbox.

Find More Great Resources in Our Learning Annex!

Welcome Students to the NHEG Learning Annex | Defiance Ohio (newheightseducation.org)

The post Empowering Students: A Journey with New Heights Educational Group first appeared on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post Empowering Students: A Journey with New Heights Educational Group appeared first on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

CHEO High School Symposium Saturday, April 1

Dear Ohio Home Educators,

CHEO’s most important event of the year is just a month away! Year after year, parents who have attended the CHEO High School Symposium express 100% satisfaction and are grateful for the help in navigating the high school years. This event – hands down – is the most important service we provide for families planning for high school or are already in the midst of high school.

I am writing to encourage parents with students in 7th through 12th grade to attend CHEO’s high school symposium on Saturday, April 1. We will have an experienced HSLDA high school consultant who will be sharing options for high school teaching tracks, how to create a transcript, and so much more. Cedarville University will be explaining College Credit Plus which is like a state scholarship that pays for college while in high school. And I am very excited that this year we will have a representative from Universal Technical Institute to explain career opportunities in the fields of STEM and trades.

Also, this year we are adding an important career exploration opportunity for students in grades 10 – 12. CHEO will be assisting the US Army in the on-site administration of the ASVAB assessment.

This tool, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) measures potential academic and occupational success. It helps determine what types of jobs your student will be suited for based on individual strengths. Most students who take the ASVAB are NOT pursuing a career in the military. Rather, the vast majority of students wish to take advantage of this FREE assessment because it provides valuable information on career options and how to pursue training based on the student’s individual scores.

CHEO is excited to provide this opportunity for home educators, but space for this assessment is limited. If you want more information OR you would like to reserve a place for your high school student, you will need to contact me directly. Please reach out by email to cheo@cheohome.org (subject line ASVAB) OR call my cell at 330-730-1255.

When we go through the high school years, we don’t know what we don’t know! As parents, we are searching for the Lord to direct our steps and give us wisdom and discernment. The workshop presentations will provide excellent information to help you have a clear understanding of what to do in this season of your homeschool journey. It is literally the best Saturday you will spend all year!

There is a small registration fee for the workshops to help us cover the cost of the facility and speakers. After the symposium, CHEO is providing a FREE on-site college fair with valuable access to colleges, universities, trade schools and more. Parents and students will be able to speak with informed representatives who will answer your questions and provide valuable information regarding their specific institution.

Please help us spread the word to your friends and family who have students who would benefit from all of the opportunities available on April 1st!

I look forward to seeing you there!

Melanie Elsey

CHEO Legislative Liaison

The post Exciting news for the High School Symposium and College Fair! first appeared on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post Exciting news for the High School Symposium and College Fair! appeared first on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post FEE Stories – Why College Degrees Are Losing Their Value first appeared on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post FEE Stories – Why College Degrees Are Losing Their Value appeared first on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post FEE Stories – The History of Slavery You Probably Weren’t Taught in School first appeared on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post FEE Stories – The History of Slavery You Probably Weren’t Taught in School appeared first on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

Individual freedom can only exist in the context of free-market capitalism. Personal freedom thrives in capitalism, declines in government-regulated economies, and vanishes in communism. Aside from better economic and legislative policies, what America needs is a more intense appreciation for individual freedom and capitalism.

I was born and raised in communist Romania during the Cold War, a country in which the government owned all the resources and means of production. The state controlled almost every aspect of our lives: our education, our job placement, the time of day we could have hot water, and what we were allowed to say.

Like the rest of the Eastern European countries, Romania was often referred to as a communist country. In school, we were taught it was a socialist country. Its name prior to the 1989 Revolution to overthrow the Ceausescu regime was the Socialist Republic of Romania.

From an economic standpoint, a petty fraction of property was still privately owned. In a communist system, all property is owned by the state. So if it wasn’t a true communist economy, its heavy central planning and the application of a totalitarian control over the Romanian citizenry made this nation rightfully gain its title of a communist country.

Socialism Creates Shortages

Despite the fact that Romania was a country rich in resources, there were shortages everywhere. Food, electricity, water, and just about every one of life’s necessities were in short supply. The apartment building in which we lived provided hot water for showers two hours in the morning and two hours at night. We had to be quick and on time so we didn’t miss the opportunity.

Wrigley’s chewing gum and Swiss chocolate were a rare delight for us. I remember how happy I was when I’d have a pack of foreign bubblegum or a bar of delicious milk chocolate. I’d usually save them for special occasions.

Fruity lip gloss, French perfume, and jeans were but a few of the popular items available only on the black market and with the right connections. God bless our black-market entrepreneurs! They made our lives better. They gave us the opportunity to buy things we very much desired, things we couldn’t get from the government-owned retail stores which were either half-empty or full of products that were ugly and of poor quality.

The grocery stores were not any better. I get it, maybe we didn’t need to be fashionable. But we needed to eat. So, the old Romanian adage “Conscience goes through the stomach” made a lot of sense.

During the late 1970s, life in Romania started to deteriorate even more. Meat was hardly a consumer staple for the average Romanian. Instead, our parents learned to become good at preparing the liver, the brain, the tongue, and other giblets that most people in the West would not even consider trying.

When milk, butter, eggs, and yogurt were temporarily available, my mom—like so many others of our neighbors—would wake up at 2:00 a.m. to go stand in line so she’d have the chance to get us these goodies. The store would open at 6:00 a.m., so if she wasn’t early enough in line she’d miss the opportunity.

In 1982, the state sent their disciples to people’s homes to do the census. Along with that, food rationing was implemented. For a family of four like us, our rationed quota was 1 kilogram of flour and 1 kilogram of sugar per month. That is, if they were available and if we were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when they were being distributed.

The one television channel our government provided for us often focused on programs related to crime and poverty in the western world. After all, people were poor and suffering because of capitalism, so we were told, so we needed socialism and communism to solve the inequalities of humanity.

Capitalism Advances Private Property

Considering the shortages created by the government-controlled economy of my birth country, I came to understand and appreciate capitalism, the one system that had the most dramatic effect in elevating human civilization.

The layman definition of capitalism is the economic system in which people and businesses engage in manufacturing, trading, and exchanging products and services without government interference. A free-market capitalist system works in a more efficient manner when not tampered with by government or central bank intervention in the credit markets, monetary policy, and interest rate fixing.

Private property and private property rights are at the core of capitalism. When in school, we learned that private property makes people greedy and is considered detrimental to society. Private property was associated with capitalism, the system that our textbooks claimed failed.

Allocation of Resources

Romania was rich in natural resources, yet the difference between our standard of living and those from the West was quite dramatic. It was indicative of a flawed economic system that most countries in Eastern Europe adhered to during the Soviet Era. But one may ask why was there so much poverty when natural resources are so abundant?

Economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources which have alternative uses. Efficiency is thus of primary concern when the goal is economic progress.

In a centrally-planned environment, the various government individuals who are assigned the task of planning the economy could not possibly know how to properly allocate the scarce resources of an entire nation, no matter how smart or educated they are. Shortages are one of the consequences of improper allocation of the scarce resources.

The free market, however, through the multiple spontaneous interactions of businesses and consumers, directs the allocation of resources via the amazing process of supply and demand. It is precisely due to the profit and loss events that economic efficiency is stimulated.

Free Markets Attract Capital

Due to its profit incentives, capitalism encourages innovation. Innovation leads to progress and an increase in the standard of living. But progress and the climate which offers humans a high standard of living cannot be created without the capital to transform and turn resources into the final products that give us the—relatively—cheap energy and food, smartphones, fitness gyms, and overall the life we currently afford. Capital moves in the direction of less regulation, less government intervention, and less taxation. In short, capital moves to where there’s more economic freedom.

In contrast, communism, socialism, fascism, or just about any government-controlled system lacks the profit incentive. The people, who are the human resources, have no desire to engage in a business where the reward is not attainable (unless it’s done in the black markets). They accept the state and its bureaucratic cronies to dictate their faith.

Capital is chased away due to the high risk associated with governments who engage in high levels of controlling their economies and, often, corruption. The overall standard of living is dramatically lower than in most capitalist places, and the poverty is higher. Consequently, the collectivist country falls into an economic and social trap from which it is hard to escape. Only capitalism can save a nation from the failure of its central economic planning.

Capitalism Helps Us Be Better Individuals

Similar to the old Soviet lifestyle, let’s remember what the typical Venezuelan family of our times worries about on a daily basis. Food to put on the table and the safety of their children. They wake up in the morning wondering how many meals they can afford that day, where to get them from, and how to pay for them.

We, the lucky ones to live in a relatively free-market system, don’t have these kinds of worries. We go to work, get leisure time to be on Facebook, watch TV, be with our families, read books, and enjoy a hobby or two. In short, we have the personal freedom to engage in and enjoy a variety of life events because of capitalism.

But there’s another important motive to desire to live in a capitalist society. We are free to create and come up with all kinds of business ideas, no matter how crazy some might be. Because we don’t have to worry about tomorrow, we have—or make—the time to read, explore, and innovate.

Capitalism makes it possible for us to challenge ourselves, to have goals, and to put forth the sweat to achieve them. It gives us the freedom to try new things and explore new opportunities. It gives us the chance to create more opportunities. It helps us build strong character because when we try, we also fail, and without failure, how do we know we’ve made mistakes? Without failure, how do we know we must make changes?

Individual Freedom Can Only Exist in the Context of Free Markets

Before immigrating to the U.S., I had to go through a rigorous process. One of the events was the immigration interview with the American counselor who, among many other questions, asked why I escaped Romania and why I wanted to come to America. My short answer was freedom. Then he posed the interesting question: “If America was to go through a period of economic devastation with shortages similar to Romania, would you still feel the same way?” I didn’t think too much about it, and I said, “Yes, of course, as long as I have freedom.”

In retrospect, that was a dumb answer on my part. After several decades, I came to believe that the human condition of individual freedom can only exist in the context of free markets. Shortages are created by the intrusion of the state into the complex activity of the markets, whether it’s price controls or poor allocation of resources.

When shortages are powerful and long enough to dramatically affect lives, people resort to revolt. Large revolts call for serious governmental actions including, but not limited to, eroding or completely eliminating individual rights (the right to free speech and to bear arms), the institution of a police state, and the enacting of a powerful state propaganda system. Capitalism is the path to the individual rights and liberty that build the solid foundation of a free society.

Is America a True Capitalist Economy?

The short answer is no. Most of the world refers to the American system as being a capitalist one. Based on my short definition of capitalism, it is obvious that it is not quite a pure one, and I wish to clarify that the U.S. is not a truly free-market capitalist system.

The economic policy of the 19th Century with limited regulations and minimal taxation attracted the needed capital to our country. The Industrial Revolution made spectacular advancements in human conditions due to the capital concentrated in the region. America lost its number one place due to legislating higher regulations, taxation, and protectionist policies.

But we are still enjoying some of the fruits today. Compared to many countries in the world, we still maintain stronger capitalist traits than most, however Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, New Zealand, and a few other nations who lead the way in economic freedom have surpassed us (see the latest statistics).

What America Needs

Aside from better economic and legislative policies, what America needs is a more intense appreciation of individual freedom and capitalism. Such a crazy idea is not acquired through public schools or becoming a public servant. Young people don’t need more years of schooling with more worthless college degrees and student loans in default. America needs more entrepreneurs and businessmen. It needs more people with drive and ambition, more self-starters, more innovators, more people who are willing to take chances.

It starts in our own backyard, in our home, in our small group, in our community. It starts with loving, involved, and dedicated parents who’d instill the values of personal responsibility and delayed gratification in their children. It continues with an education that entails both theory and hands-on practice in environments conducive to learning how to think independently and how to acquire life- and work-skills. It evolves into a purpose-driven life rich in learning and experiences. And this may be just the beginning of attaining the intellectual maturity to perceive the value that free markets and individual freedom afford most of us.

The post FEE Stories – I Grew Up in a Communist System. Here’s What Americans Don’t Understand About Freedom first appeared on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post FEE Stories – I Grew Up in a Communist System. Here’s What Americans Don’t Understand About Freedom appeared first on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

Thursday, April 21, 2016

The post Grade Inflation Eats Away at the Meaning of College first appeared on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post Grade Inflation Eats Away at the Meaning of College appeared first on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela known throughout the world as a revolutionary and political leader who aided in the dismantling of Apartheid; Black South Africans whose lives were filled with fear due to the historical racist and prejudicial governmental policies of South Africa found their hero in Mandela. The world craved such a leader, as Black South Africans lives were filled with violence, fear and the struggle to end racism, and they were severely affected by policies enacted and intended to make them feel subservient and inferior to White South Africans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (/mænˈdɛlə/;[1] Xhosa: [xolíɬaɬa mandɛ̂ːla]; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and political leader who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.

A Xhosa, Mandela was born into the Thembu royal family in Mvezo, Union of South Africa. He studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand before working as a lawyer in Johannesburg. There he became involved in anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943 and co-founding its Youth League in 1944. After the National Party’s white-only government established apartheid, a system of racial segregation that privileged whites, Mandela and the ANC committed themselves to its overthrow. He was appointed president of the ANC’s Transvaal branch, rising to prominence for his involvement in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. He was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and was unsuccessfully prosecuted in the 1956 Treason Trial. Influenced by Marxism, he secretly joined the banned South African Communist Party (SACP). Although initially committed to nonviolent protest, in association with the SACP he co-founded the militant uMkhonto we Sizwe in 1961 and led a sabotage campaign against the government. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1962, and, following the Rivonia Trial, was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the state.

Mandela served 27 years in prison, split between Robben Island, Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. Amid growing domestic and international pressure and fears of racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990. Mandela and de Klerk led efforts to negotiate an end to apartheid, which resulted in the 1994 multiracial general election in which Mandela led the ANC to victory and became president. Leading a broad coalition government which promulgated a new constitution, Mandela emphasised reconciliation between the country’s racial groups and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. Economically, his administration retained its predecessor’s liberal framework despite his own socialist beliefs, also introducing measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty and expand healthcare services. Internationally, Mandela acted as mediator in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and served as secretary-general of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999. He declined a second presidential term and was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela became an elder statesman and focused on combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the charitable Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Mandela was a controversial figure for much of his life. Although critics on the right denounced him as a communist terrorist and those on the far-left deemed him too eager to negotiate and reconcile with apartheid’s supporters, he gained international acclaim for his activism. Globally regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice, he received more than 250 honours, including the Nobel Peace Prize. He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Thembu clan name, Madiba, and described as the “Father of the Nation”.

https://www.un.org/en/events/mandeladay/assets/pdf/mandela100-booklet.pdf

“Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way.” Those who are voteless cannot be expected to continue paying taxes to a government which is not responsible to them. People who live in poverty and starvation cannot be expected to pay exorbitant house rents to the government and local authorities. We furnish the sinews of agriculture and industry. We produce the work of the gold mines, the diamonds and the coal, of the farms and industry, in return for miserable wages. Why should we continue enriching those who steal the products of our sweat and blood? Those who exploit us and refuse us the right to organise trade unions? …

I am informed that a warrant for my arrest has been issued, and that the police are looking for me. … Any serious politician will realise that under present-day conditions in this country, to seek for cheap martyrdom by handing myself to the police is naive and criminal. We have an important programme before us and it is important to carry it out very seriously and without delay. I have chosen this latter course, which is more difficult and which entails more risk and hardship than sitting in gaol. I have had to separate myself from my dear wife and children, from my mother and sisters, to live as an outlaw in my own land. I have had to close my business, to abandon my profession, and live in poverty and misery, as many of my people are doing. … I shall fight the government side by side with you, inch by inch, and mile by mile, until victory is won. What are you going to do? Will you come along with us, or are you going to cooperate with the government in its efforts to suppress the claims and aspirations of your own people? Or are you going to remain silent and neutral in a matter of life and death to my people, to our people? For my own part I have made my choice. I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.

“THE STRUGGLE IS MY LIFE,” PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED WHILE UNDERGROUND IN SOUTH AFRICA, 26 JUNE 1961

In its proper meaning equality before the law means the right to participate in the making of the laws by which one is governed, a constitution which guarantees democratic rights to all sections of the population, the right to approach the court for protection or relief in the case of the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and the right to take part in the administration of justice as judges, magistrates, attorneys-general, law advisers and similar positions. In the absence of these safeguards the phrase “equality before the law,” in so far as it is intended to apply to us, is meaningless and misleading. All the rights and privileges to which I have referred are monopolized by whites, and we enjoy none of them.

(I)consider myself neither morally nor legally obliged to obey laws made by a parliament in which I am not represented. That the will of the people is the basis of “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society…. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” The authority of government is a principle universally acknowledged as sacred throughout the civilised world, and constitutes the basic foundations of freedom and justice. It is understandable why citizens, who have the vote as well as the right to direct representation in the country’s governing bodies, should be morally and legally bound by the laws governing the country.

It should be equally understandable why we, as Africans, should adopt the attitude that we are neither morally nor legally bound to obey laws which we have not made, nor can we be expected to have confidence in courts which enforce such laws. … I hate the practice of race discrimination, and in my hatred I am sustained by the fact that the overwhelming majority of mankind hate it equally. I hate the systematic inculcation of children with colour prejudice and I am sustained in that hatred by the fact that the overwhelming majority of mankind, here and abroad, are with me in that. I hate the racial arrogance which decrees that the good things of life shall be retained as the exclusive right of a minority of the population, and which reduces the majority of the population to a position of subservience and inferiority, and maintains them as voteless chattels to work where they are told and behave as they are told by the ruling minority. I am sustained in that hatred by the fact that the overwhelming majority of mankind both in this country and abroad are with me.

Nothing that this court can do to me will change in any way that hatred in me, which can only be removed by the removal of the injustice and the inhumanity which I have sought to remove from the political and social life of this country.

COURT STATEMENT, PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA, 15 OCTOBER–7 NOVEMBER 1962

Mandela, we love you for what you stood for
The right for equality
The right to end racism
The right to be human
The right for governmental policies to be just, and
The right to be free.

The post Nelson Medela first appeared on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post Nelson Medela appeared first on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

“No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million Black people
who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million
Black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but
disguised hypocrisy. So, I’m not standing here speaking to you
as an American, or a patriot or a flag saluter, or a flag-waver-no not I.
I’m speaking as a victim of this American System.
And I see America through the eyes of the victim.
I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.”

“And why was he our ‘Shining Black Prince’?
Selected Quotes from Malcolm X: Nation Time: Spring 1997
https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/Malcolm_X/513.Malco
lm.X.Selected.Quotes.pdf

One of the most influential figures of the Civil Rights Movement was Malcolm X. Unlike Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s non-violent mission for equality and the end of discrimination not only for Blacks but for all races, Malcolm X commanded attention throughout the world.

“Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the black community.

Malcolm spent his adolescence living in a series of foster homes or with relatives after his father’s death and his mother’s hospitalization. He engaged in several illicit activities, eventually being sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1946 for larceny and breaking and entering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X Malcolm’s childhood was fraught with misfortune yet he never stopped looking forward to another day in which to excel even to the extent of educating himself while in prison.

“…Malcolm X was one of the most articulate and powerful leaders of black America during the 1960s. A street hustler convicted of robbery in 1946, he spent seven years in prison, where he educated himself and became a disciple of Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam. In the days of the civil rights movement, Malcolm X emerged as the leading spokesman for black separatism, a philosophy that urged black Americans to cut political, social, and economic ties with the white community. After a pilgrimage to Mecca, the capital of the Muslim world, in 1964, he became an orthodox Muslim, adopted the Muslim name El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, and distanced himself from the teachings of the black Muslims. He was assassinated in 1965.

In the following excerpt from his autobiography (1965), coauthored with Alex Haley and published the year of his death, Malcolm X describes his self-education… It was because of my letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of a homemade education.

I became increasingly frustrated. at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there – I had commanded attention when I said something. But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t even functional. How would I sound writing in slang, the way I would say it, something such as, “Look, daddy, let me pull your coat about a cat, Elijah Muhammad-“

Many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I’ve said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade. This impression is due entirely to my prison studies.

It had really begun back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversations he was in, and I had tried to emulate him. But every book I picked up had few sentences which didn’t contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese. When I
just skipped those words, of course, I really ended up with little idea of what the book said. So I had come to the Norfolk Prison Colony still going through only book-reading motions. Pretty
soon, I would have quit even these motions, unless I had received the motivation that I did.

I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary – to study, to learn some words. I was lucky enough to reason also that I should try to improve my penmanship. It was sad. I couldn’t even write in a straight line. It was both ideas together that moved me to request a dictionary along with some tablets and pencils from the Norfolk Prison Colony school.

I spent two days just riffling uncertainly through the dictionary’s pages. I’d never realized so many words existed! I didn’t know which words I needed to learn. Finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying. In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks. I believe it took me a day. Then, aloud, I read back, to myself, everything I’d written on the tablet. Over and over, aloud, to myself, I read my own handwriting.

I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words – immensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but I’d written words that I never knew were in the world. Moreover, with a little effort, I also could remember what many of these words meant. I reviewed the words whose meanings I didn’t remember. Funny thing, from the dictionary first page right now, that “aardvark” springs to my mind. The dictionary had a picture of it, a longtailed, long-eared, burrowing African mammal, which lives off termites caught by sticking out its tongue as an anteater does for ants.

I was so fascinated that I went on – I copied the dictionary’s next page. And the same experience came when I studied that. With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history. Actually the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia. Finally the dictionary’s A section had filled a whole tablet-and I went on into the B’s. That was the way I started copying what eventually became the entire dictionary. It went a lot faster after so much practice helped me to pick up handwriting speed. Between what I wrote in my tablet, and writing letters, during the rest of my time in prison I would guess I wrote a million words.

I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying. Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened. Let me tell you something: from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn’t have gotten me out of books with a wedge. Between Mr. Muhammad’s teachings, my correspondence, my visitors,… and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life.”

http://www.lattc.edu/Lattc/media/lattc_media/PDFs/Learning-to-Read-by-MalcolmX-PDF.pdf

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
New York, June 1965
CHAPTER ONE NIGHTMARE

“When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home in Omaha, Nebraska, one night. Surrounding the house, brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out. My mother went to the front door and opened it. Standing where they could see her pregnant condition, she told them that she was alone with her three small children, and that my father was away, preaching, in Milwaukee. The Klansmen shouted threats and warnings at her that we had better get out of town
because “the good Christian white people” were not going to stand for my father’s “spreading trouble” among the “good” Negroes of Omaha with the “back to Africa” preachings of Marcus Garvey.

My father, the Reverend Earl Little, was a Baptist minister, a dedicated organizer for Marcus Aurelius Garvey’s U.N.I.A. (Universal Negro Improvement Association). With the help of such disciples as my father, Garvey, from his headquarters in New York City’s Harlem, was raising the banner of black-race purity and exhorting the Negro masses to return to their ancestral
African homeland-a cause which had made Garvey the most controversial black man on earth.

Still shouting threats, the Klansmen finally spurred their horses and galloped around the house, shattering every window pane with their gun butts. Then they rode off into the night, their torches flaring, as suddenly as they had come.”

https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/malcom-x.pdf
Advocacy and teachings while with Nation “From his adoption of the Nation of Islam in 1952 until he broke with it in 1964, Malcolm X promoted the Nation’s teachings. These included beliefs:

• that black people are the original people of the world[99]
• that white people are “devils”[2] and
• that the demise of the white race is imminent.[3]

Louis E. Lomax said that “those who don’t understand biblical prophecy wrongly label him as a racist and as a hate teacher, or as being anti-white or as teaching Black Supremacy”.[100] He was accused[ of being antisemitic. [101] In 1961, Malcolm X spoke at a NOI rally alongside George Lincoln Rockwell, the head of the American Nazi Party; Rockwell claimed that there was overlap between black nationalism and white supremacy.[102]

One of the goals of the civil rights movement was to end disenfranchisement of African Americans, but the Nation of Islam forbade its members from participating in voting and other aspects of the political process.[103] The NAACP and other civil rights organizations denounced him and the Nation of Islam as irresponsible extremists whose views did not represent the common interests of African Americans.[104][105]

Malcolm X was equally critical of the civil rights movement.[106] He called Martin Luther King Jr. a “chump”, and said other civil rights leaders were “stooges” of the white establishment.[107][G] He called the 1963 March on Washington “the farce on Washington”,[109] and said he did not know why so many black people were excited about a demonstration “run by whites in front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn’t like us when he was alive”.[110]

While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of African Americans from whites. He proposed that African Americans should
return to Africa and that, in the interim, a separate country for black people in America should be created.[111][112] He rejected the civil rights movement’s strategy of nonviolence, arguing that black people should defend and advance themselves “by any means necessary”.[113] His speeches had a powerful effect on his audiences, who were generally African Americans in northern and western cities. Many of them —tired of being told to wait for freedom, justice, equality and respect[114]—felt that he articulated their complaints better than did the civil rights movement.[115][116]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X

Malcolm X a great but controversial leader is remembered by memorials and tributes that include the first home he was brought up in which is now a historical monument. Malcolm X is also portrayed in the movies, TV and on stage.

Malcolm X was a great leader known for his beliefs that not everyone liked. But he proved to everyone that despite being incarcerated for seven years he put his time to good use through selfeducation turning out to be the most prolific, educated speaker that there was in the United States.

We welcome the holiday that celebrates Malcolm X for we live in a democracy where both sides must be heard; the good, the bad and the ugly that rears its head because of the suffering, racial
discrimination and fear and torture of Blacks.

Let us look forward to another day for great leaders to appear to lead us to justice for the benefit of all races in the United States

The post Malcolm X first appeared on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post Malcolm X appeared first on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

Harriet Tubman an abolitionist renown.  

We thank God for her spirit, her strength and her love for her fellow men.  

We’ll remember her birthday this March to tell her story of the love for mankind, 

despite the cruelty that she, the slaves and the fugitives received  

by the merciless slave masters bent on slavery. 

March 10 is the day on which it is said that Harriet Tubman (Araminta Ross) famously known as an abolitionist was born. As most Blacks who were born into slavery in the 1800s, Harriet was like them but became a hero when she escaped from slavery and helped other enslaved people escape from their masters or bondage. 

Harriet was born in Dorchester County, Maryland where she lived a horrific life like most slaves being beaten and whipped by her slave masters and even experiencing a life-threatening head injury that induced visions and dreams she attributed to the works of God. She became deeply religious because of her Methodist upbringing and these visions and dreams.     

“She often fought illness in her childhood, but as she grew older, the “sickly” young household girl grew stronger and even became a fieldhand. On a secluded plantation during her adolescence, Tubman attempted to warn an escaping slave that his master was nearby. She was caught between the slave and his master when the two confronted each other. The master slung a lead weight at the escapee, but hit Tubman in the head. The force of the blow “broke her skull and drove a piece of her bandana” into her head. The head injury would cause her to have headaches, fainting spells, and visions for the rest of her life. In 1844, she married a free black man named John Tubman. Around this time, she hired a lawyer to investigate her family’s slave contracts. The lawyer found her mother should have been freed at the age of 45, meaning that some of her siblings should have been born free.” 

https://www.crf-usa.org/images/pdf/gates/Harriet-Tubman-End-of-Slavey.pdf 

In the mid-1800s she escaped to Philadelphia to return to help those she left behind; she helped her family to escape and led many others to their freedom.  

“The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. This law required the United States government to actively assist slave holders in recapturing freedom seekers. Under the United States Constitution, slave holders had the right to reclaim slaves who ran away to free states. With the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the federal government had to assist the slave holders. No such requirement had existed previously.” https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Fugitive_Slave_Law_of_1850 

Harriet tried to find and help slaves in captivity escape and this included John Tubman who she later found out had remarried to a woman named Caroline thereby ending her quest to find him. Frederick Douglass an abolitionist was also said to have worked with Tubman in helping fugitives.  

“There is evidence to suggest that Tubman and her group stopped at the home of abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass.[63] In his third autobiography, Douglass wrote: “On one occasion I had eleven fugitives at the same time under my roof, and it was necessary for them to remain with me until I could collect sufficient money to get them on to Canada. It was the largest number I ever had at any one time, and I had some difficulty in providing so many with food and shelter. … “[64] The number of travelers and the time of the visit make it likely that this was Tubman’s group.[63] 

Douglass and Tubman admired one another greatly as they both struggled against slavery. When an early biography of Tubman was being prepared in 1868, Douglass wrote a letter to honor her. He compared his own efforts with hers, writing: 

The difference between us is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day – you in the night. … The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism. Excepting John Brown – of sacred memory – I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have.[65]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman 

In 11 years, Tubman helped rescue 70 slaves in what was said to have taken 13 trips that included family members. Tubman was called “Moses” because of her efforts to free and rescue the slaves from their slave masters and to help fugitives to escape to the north.  

She was devout and dedicated to God aided by visions, premonitions and the voice of God which is said to sometimes be attributed to her head injury. Although a religious woman she would not hesitate to use a gun which she carried for her protection and the protection of the slaves, even to the point of using it on them if they ever turned back to their plantation. 

“Despite the efforts of the slaveholders, Tubman and the fugitives she assisted were never captured. Years later, she told an audience: “I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”[3]… 

Scouting and the Combahee River Raid 

“When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Tubman considered it an important step toward the goal of liberating all Black people from slavery.[107] She renewed her support for a defeat of the Confederacy, and in early 1863 she led a band of scouts through the land around Port Royal.[108] The marshes and rivers in South Carolina were similar to those of the Eastern Shore of Maryland; thus, her knowledge of covert travel and subterfuge among potential enemies was put to good use.[108] Her group, working under the orders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, mapped the unfamiliar terrain and reconnoitered its inhabitants. She later worked alongside Colonel James Montgomery, and provided him with key intelligence that aided in the capture of Jacksonville, Florida.[109]  

Later that year, Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War.[110] When Montgomery and his troops conducted an assault on a collection of plantations along the Combahee River, Tubman served as a key adviser and accompanied the raid. On the morning of June 2, 1863, Tubman guided three steamboats around Confederate mines in the waters leading to the shore.[111] Once ashore, the Union troops set fire to the plantations, destroying infrastructure and seizing thousands of dollars worth of food and supplies.[112] When the steamboats sounded their whistles, slaves throughout the area understood that they were being liberated. Tubman watched as slaves stampeded toward the boats. “I never saw such a sight”, she said later,[113] describing a scene of chaos with women carrying still-steaming pots of rice, pigs squealing in bags slung over shoulders, and babies hanging around their parents’ necks. Although their owners, armed with handguns and whips, tried to stop the mass escape, their efforts were nearly useless in the tumult.[112] As Confederate troops raced to the scene, steamboats packed full of slaves took off toward Beaufort.[114] 

More than 750 slaves were rescued in the Combahee River Raid.[115][113] Newspapers heralded Tubman’s “patriotism, sagacity, energy, [and] ability”,[116] and she was praised for her recruiting efforts – most of the newly liberated men went on to join the Union army.[116] Tubman later worked with Colonel Robert Gould Shaw at the assault on Fort Wagner, reportedly serving him his last meal.[117] She described the battle by saying: “And then we saw the lightning, and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder, and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling, and that was the drops of blood falling; and when we came to get the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.”[118] 

For two more years, Tubman worked for the Union forces, tending to newly liberated slaves, scouting into Confederate territory, and nursing wounded soldiers in Virginia.[119] She also made periodic trips back to Auburn to visit her family and care for her parents.[120] The Confederacy surrendered in April 1865; after donating several more months of service, Tubman headed home to Auburn.[121] 

During a train ride to New York in 1869, the conductor told her to move from a half-price section into the baggage car. She refused, showing the government-issued papers that entitled her to ride there. He cursed at her and grabbed her, but she resisted and he summoned two other passengers for help. While she clutched at the railing, they muscled her away, breaking her arm in the process. They threw her into the baggage car, causing more injuries. As these events transpired, other white passengers cursed Tubman and shouted for the conductor to kick her off the train.[122] Her act of defiance became a historical symbol, later cited when Rosa Parks refused to move from a bus seat in 1955.[123][124]” 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman 

Harriet Tubman,  

your legacy and dream continues,  

until the day when slavery,  

is abolished throughout the world. 

The post Harriet Tubman first appeared on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post Harriet Tubman appeared first on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The snow leopard is one of nature’s most beautiful creatures. As of 2021, the snow leopard is no longer considered an endangered species. However, the population is still at risk due to illegal poaching and the encroachment of society into the cats’ habitat. So, although it has been moved from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the Endangered Species list, the snow leopard is still at risk. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the snow leopard is still on track to lose over ten percent of its wild population over the next three generations.

The natural habitat of the snow leopard is primarily in the mountainous areas of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan. Their defining features include a white pelt, with a pattern of dark rosettes and spots. Additionally, the leopard has a tail that is longer than most other cats, in order to assist with balance on steep mounds of snow. Unfortunately, the snow leopard’s distinctive coat makes it a prize for poachers. The bones and other body parts are also used in traditional Asian medicine.

Snow leopards are known to be extremely elusive. Their territory spans over twelve countries, and they live in snowy, mountainous terrain. This makes gathering data on the cat difficult. For this reason, the wild snow leopard population is believed to be between 4,000 and 6,500 in number, and researchers are unable to narrow down that number to a more specific figure.

In addition to poachers, snow leopards face a variety of other threats, including human encroachment on territory and “retaliatory killings”–the leopards are killed by farmers in the area to protect their livestock. Due to humans pushing further into their territory, snow leopards find it increasingly difficult to find food, not only due to industrialization, but because a snow leopard’s prey is also hunted by the surrounding humans.

Snow leopards are capable of bringing down prey that is up to three times their own weight. A typical diet would include blue sheep, Argali wild sheep, ibex, marmots, deer and other, smaller, animals. Because these animals are also consumed by humans, the number of prey in these mountainous areas is dwindling, leading the snow leopards to attack local livestock instead and the aforementioned retaliatory killings by farmers.

According to the Snow Leopard Trust, there has never been a verified instance of a snow leopard attacking a human. The Trust focuses its efforts on protecting the snow leopard by partnering with local communities and creating incentives for those communities to preserve snow leopards.

A snow leopard can live between ten and twelve years in the wild. In captivity, their level of survival sharply increases to twice that, at 22 years. Snow leopards mature quickly. Initially, they are totally reliant on their mother, and their eyes do not open until they are seven days old. At two months old, cubs are able to eat solid food. At three months, they are able to learn basic hunting skills. Between 18 and 22 months, the cubs are ready to leave their mother. It is estimated that male snow leopards reach maturity by age four. Females maturation is harder to pin down, due to scant information. However, it

is estimated that a female snow leopard is ready to have her first litter by age three.

Mating season is the only time you will see more than one of these solitary cats. From January to mid-March, males and females travel together for a few days. Once that time is done, and the female leopard is pregnant, she retreats to a secluded den site. Pregnancy typically lasts between 93 and 110 days. Her cubs are usually born that June or July, and she becomes their sole caretaker, providing food and warmth, and teaching them how to survive in the wild. Once the cubs are ready, they separate from their mother and strike out on their own.

We continue to gather details about this “Ghost of the Mountains,” but information remains scarce. Their spotted white coats are unique, and unlike other big cats, they cannot roar, but can make other sounds such as a mew, purr, growl or hiss. They also make a low puffing sound called a “pusten” or “chuff.” This is a non-aggressive sound, and can indicate contentment, or be used to communicate with other snow leopards in the area. It is often used as a greeting.

There is still much to learn about these beautiful animals. Researchers continue their work with the people of Central Asia and the Himalayas to preserve and protect the snow leopard. Yet, the snow leopard remains elusive, which only adds to its mystique. Although sometimes misunderstood, this great cat is harmless to humans and is a key part in the planet’s continuing ecology.

The post Snow Leopard: The Ghost of the Mountains first appeared on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..

The post Snow Leopard: The Ghost of the Mountains appeared first on New Heights Educational Group, Inc..