Why African-American boys often fail in school

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 8/8/03 | ERNEST HOLSENDOLPH

[visualops]

I disagree with you on the dating. I do think one should be discreet and any guy one dates should not be paraded before the children as a potential dad. If I hadn't made some effort to stay 'in the market' so to speak, I wouldn't have met my second husband.

[summer]

Re posts #77 AND #98 -- Thank you for sharing your thoughts and supporting my view that there needs to be more black males in teaching.

I am always disheartened when I read of "complaints" by black leaders in FL against Gov Bush, because I taught in an all black school and IMO, there is a laundrey list of constructive things these black leaders should instead be spending their time on. Gov Bush is in the mainstream of black parents' thinking on the topic of education, as surveys show they are very interested in improving the quality of education and support vouchers. Yet, the black leaders seem to ignore this, and ignore the efforts they could be making to encourage more black males to enter teaching.

I am aware of only two programs currently reaching out to black males to get them to enter teaching: one is at Marygrove COllege, in Michigan, where 90% of the public school students in Detroit are minority and fewer than 2% of the teachers are black. And the other is in South Carolina, at Clemson, which has an innovative program, "Call Me Mister" to recruit more black males to enter teaching. But two programs like this in our nation is not enough.

I would like to see black leaders put some pressure on traditionally black universities to step up recruitment of black males for teaching degrees, and more emphasis by black leaders in communities to get parents to understand that teaching is a profession suitable for black males too.

Far too often these black parents think that every time a white teacher is hired, that white teacher has taken away a job from a black teacher. Nothing coulf be further from the truth. Also, sadly, the few black [female} teachers I know never seem to want to teach in black neighborhood schools; instead, they view themselves as successful when they get hired in a white school.

Here are three links on this important topic:

(1) Call Me Mister - Black male teaching program at Clemson University, SC

(2) Marygrove College press release -- program recruiting black males for teaching careers

(3) MenTeach.Org - Organization to supporting more males to enter the teaching profession

[summer]

coulf = could

[Aut Pax Aut Bellum]

It's simple. You reap what you sow.

How dare you insinuate that what one does directly affects the outcome! No. It's always Society's fault, environment, social pressures,lack of more Laws,etc.! One is never responsible for one's own actions in America any more!

/sarcasm

[Nowhere Man]

I think the crux is that a lot of Black males lack fathers. I know in the past, slavery did its job in breaking up Black families but with emancipation, it put a stop to that. Only in the 20th Century when single mothers were able to get welfare by kicking the father out the door, this problem resurfaced. So again, you have shiftless youth with no fathers out there just living for today and the next 5 minutes. Like a house, it is only as strong as the foundation it was built on, without a strong foundation, things do collapse.

I know my father wasn't around much for me and I'm a product of a single mother after a divorce, but I thank God that she was strong enough to raise me right. I know there are times I do probably lack in a few things because of my father, but at least I know right from wrong which is the main thing.

[aristeides]

Your implication is that various populations should be separated?

No, actually I wasn't thinking of such segregation at all when I made my posting. I was thinking that blacks as a whole would benefit more than whites from more vocational education, and would suffer more from a demand that everybody do academic education. I am as interested in seeing academically talented blacks be properly educated as such whites. They may be relatively few, but they certainly do exist. And both talented blacks and whites suffer from the presence in the same classroom of people who really do not belong there, and who would benefit far more from vocational education.

So I wasn't thinking of segregation by ethnicity. But I certainly was thinking of segregation by intelligence.

[honeygrl]

Most of the schools (especially high schools) have quite a lot of male teachers as well as many black male and female teachers. (they still claim they don't have enough though and imply that the white teachers aren't as good as black teachers, which I don't buy into.)

[honeygrl]

I meant most of the schools IN MY COUNTY. I accidently left that out.

[okie01]

Bump for later

[keats5]

So true. I have one girl and two boys. I know how to teach my girl, but I really need my husband to teach the boys how to be men.

I suppose I could demand my boys' respect, but it's not necessary. My husband taught them that men don't hit girls, nor do men act like girls. If the boys ever talked back to me when they were young, my big husband would shout in his thunderous voice, "Don't you ever treat my wife like that!"

The boys are teenagers now, and have grown bigger than me. They actually seem to enjoy taking care of me at times. I rarely have to open doors or carry groceries while they're around. They speak well and treat others repectfully, just like their dad.

[MissAmericanPie]

Gang influence, it starts pretty early. There are gang members I know that are in their fifties. So I guess kids figgure if it's good enough for gramps it's good enough for them.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Sounds like the kids in UGA aren't doing too badly. They are well above average.

Just like Lake Wobegon.

[Chief_Joe]

I grew up in a mixed interracial school and the black kids were my friends and they were just as hard working and dedicated to learning as anyone. Something happened called welfare and the welfare state, women's liberation, affirmative action…

This is where I think the heart of the problem is now. Yes the black nuclear family has been very nearly destroyed by the substitution of the male head of household with a welfare check. As I see it, this has lead to an unexpected, though some might say expected, consequence in how black females view black males: they do not view them as providers but only as sex partners. Additionally, it is drummed into black women’s minds from various media that they are expected to be the leader of the family and that a black man is unnecessary. Today’s black woman seems tormented. She has gained an advantage over black men in a society that is less fearful of her personal achievement and she is prideful of her achievement, but she also harbors a lot of anger and hate at the black male for not being the provider and leader she instinctively knows she needs to raise a family. It seems black women of today have developed a disrespectful and condescending view of the black males. It is possible that her anger and hate at the black male manifest itself in the raising of black boys where she has “low expectations” for them and high expectations for her daughters. “But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form…” Out of fear or the myth of the black super woman, It seems possible that today’s black woman does not really want the black male to achieve higher gains for fear that it threatens her position as head of the household.

[Chief_Joe]

Children model themselves on those that are visible to them. …’Men’ who are visible to them and have status …are a dealer, an athlete or at best the dropout with money enough to acquire some bling.

I believe this is a good observation and true, but I also believe that socializing institutions play a significant role in developing the models in which children view themselves. The re-ordering of the black family with the single-woman-lead model has been devastatingly bad for black boys and girls from my observation. The weakness in this model has lead to other institutions like the media setting the dominant model for children to view themselves as being: currently, the "bling-bling" model.

[Clinging Bitterly]

>> ...the article never addressed the structure of the black family...

I think there's a taboo in the academic community against linking social problems to "non-traditional" families.

We see it and they see it, but nevertheless, it is not there. The expedient thing to do is to continue on the present track, and this article is no exception. The blame for every social problem will always be placed squarely on the shoulders of capitalism and it's proponents, the rich. It's a rule.

[King Prout]

I suspect (and suspect you know) that he was referring to the study/book entitled "The Bell Curve" which claims to show that there is a 5 to 10 point disparity between the peak or population (median) average of the so-called "intelligence quotient". Specifically, this book purported to show that the "average" white was slightly more intelligent than the "average" black, ad that IQ as used as an indicator for success in life is a viable predictor for the disparity of outcomes between the aggregate black and white populations.
I have read this book, some time ago.
I found its statistical analysis to be solid.
I question the raw data, though, as well as the basic premise. Since 5 to 10 points on the IQ scale is less than what is known as a standard deviation (15 points) it is thus not supposed to be of any statistical significance as a measure of intellect. Any given person can have variable results from two separate administrations of any specific IQ test, such variation normally within =/-7.5 points for a total range of deviation of 15 points. For this reason, people who score between 101 and 115 are supposedly intellectually comparable. Likewise, those who score between 94 and 109 are of comparable intellect. Knowing this, the hump of the bell curve looks a bit less significant.
Additionally, there is some lively debate over the utility of the tests for measuring actual intelligence. Much of the bodies of these tests depends heavily on grammatic and syntactic skill, not intellect in itself. Thus, the data might -if indeed they are accurate- in reality show a discrepancy in linguistics proficiency between the races, which in itself is not difficult to believe, given the public education system's dismal track record teaching basic skills among the urban concentrations of black populations.
Moreover, I don't LIKE this book - or, more precisely, the way rcist idiots have grabbed this book as a justification for their racism.

Of course, to me, taking this "IQ" business too seriously is all rot:
On the one hand, from my lofty perch of a consistently measured IQ of 160+, just about everyone is a moron :)
On the other hand, given my lack of acheivement in garnering wealth, power, property, family, etc... (ie: the real terms by which success in life is measured) my lofty IQ is a commodity of questionable value - and so as a consequence is the concept of IQ-dependent success.