Beware Of The Drum Major Instinct

Now in adult life, we still have it, and we really never get by it. We like to do something good. And you know, we like to be praised for it. Now if you don’t believe that, you just go on living life, and you will discover very soon that you like to be praised. Everybody likes it, as a matter of fact. And somehow this warm glow we feel when we are praised or when our name is in print is something of the vitamin A to our ego. Nobody is unhappy when they are praised, even if they know they don’t deserve it and even if they don’t believe it. The only unhappy people about praise is when that praise is going too much toward somebody else. (That’s right) But everybody likes to be praised because of this real drum major instinct.”

How many of you will admit to having the drum major instinct inside of you today? It’s been 35 years since the assassin’s bullet attempted to take Dr. King’s dream away from us. But if he were here among us today, I do believe he would proclaim that the drum major instinct is still doing us damage today. The insatiable desire to get ahead, to be number one, to display our greatness is hitting us and hurting us time and time again.

What if Dr. King could drop by for a visit to America today? No doubt if Dr. King did drop by America for a visit he might be a little shocked to find out some of the things that exist today. If we gave him a tour of many of the school systems that he fought to integrate, He would wonder in amazement at how segregated the schools have become in our large city school districts and inner suburban rings.

The drum major instinct has caused many people to pull their children out of the inner city public schools and either send them into the suburbs or private schools, so that in the day of tomorrow, their children can sit in the seats that John and James had wanted.

There is nothing wrong with wanting the best for one’s children. I want the best for my children. But Dr. King left us with a vision of what’s best for all children. Our old Testament passage gave us a passage by which we are to be able to approach God. It says in Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

At the foundation of equality and acting justly is the requirement of some kind of a leveling field. We voice the opinion that all our young people are created equal, but that drum major instinct within us wants us to make our children more equal than others.

I can understand that some suburban schools, with their wealth and the absence of some urban schools problems can do a better job of preparing students to take the SAT and ACT exams. I’m happy for those kids who have the chance. What I do not understand is the denial on the part of many is to admit, that the students are better equipped for the SAT and ACT exams than are many inner city students.

Although the students have been given an advantage by being in a better school system, the drum major instinct causes us to insist that colleges look at all students the same, regardless of where they went to school. How dare a college consider race, excuse me, a students high school location in its admission process. How dare a college deny my child, who had a higher SAT score than one of those minorities, I mean inner city students did who was accepted by that same college.