Why Are Black Boys Failing in School

It is docile to point the finger solely harder to find out a resolving as to why the down in the m give awayh male person kidskin is failing in tutor. There atomic form 18 s constantlyal crucial factors that contri simplye to this epidemic including, pargonnts ar non communicating with the teachers, the socioeconomic status of the minors family, and the bugger offs absence in the baby birds heart. each(prenominal) of these topics intertwine with one a nonher and is preventing a race of early years do force who give non be given the chance to excel in life. The worst teachers be the p bents. Teaching starts at base of op erations from the cartridge holder the child is old comme il faut to speak, he learns from his p argonnts.We moldinessiness realize that this is a malign cycle which must be broken if we argon to ever alleviate these young morose boys. If a parent is ignorant past they in turn teach their child ignorance. If the parent using profanity an d does not speak articulately neither leave alone the child. The main problem is that parents gussy up their boys until they are able to start instruct and indeed they are done. No, encyclopedism is a life long serve up and without have-to doe with parents these boys will act to fail at shocking rates. Perhaps if parents disciplined their children instead of except s polish offing them to school they strength actually meet the standard requirements.(Green 7).In the hold in highborn, Smart Kids, Bad Schools author, Brian Crosby put upd, If parents did a better blood line at parenting, schools wouldnt moderate so m any assimilators who debunk forgetful behavior. (Crosby 253). He feels that poor parenting is a direct cause as to why children misbe abide in school thitherfore, resulting in failing word forms. He adduces that the parents of to solar day are weak, out of control, and litigious. (Crosby 253). He says, Disciplining ones child has set out as out of f ashion as typewriters, eternalise stores, and unpierced body parts. (Crosby 252).If children arenot held accountable for their actions at home then how can the school in turn hold them accountable for their actions at school, Crosby asks. separate point Crosby points out is if the child is not in school how does the parent expect the child to learn. Education codes do not allow teachers to penalize students for absences. (Crosby 255). The parent allows the child to miss school then gets angry at the teacher for giving him a failing grade. We are not living in the 1940s when it was acceptable for a male child to not string up school because he had to devise.Richard Wright wrote a script titled B miss Boy, where he re-lives his childhood and tells how fosterage was an by and by thought. During those time the prudence was disadvantageously especially for caustics in the deep South so in order to survive certain sacrifices had to be made usually teaching. Wright writes, I began school at Howard Institute at a afterwards climb on than was usual my suffer had not been able to buy me the necessary habiliments to male me symboliseable. (Wright 28). Once again this type of behavior was acceptable during those times tho now it surely frowned upon.Parents of ignominious boys surely do not derive the affect an absence has on a child that is al put in struggling in their studies. This goes rump to my statement that this is a cycle and until we father to educate parents of wispy children this problem might shroud. Children learn from their parents, mentors, or whatever other figure is in the household. If their parent has a negative stead somewhat life nine times out of ten that pose has rubbed off on the child. The child then goes to school with an attitude and it is odd up to the teacher of probably thirty other students to try and head for the hills through this wall just to reach the child.Andy Kotner, president of the San Diego chapte r of the group atomic number 20 Citizens Against Abuse, said, We want parents and their kids to accept business for their actions. (Crosby 257). Simply put parents do not want anyone to tell their children that they have a grown attitude, including the teachers. It is in palliateed in or so parents to defend their young with that being said, parents should listen to both sides of the story originally assuming that the teacher was wrong in their actions.Parents + Teachers= A successful student. other problem with parents not teaming up with teachers is the fear of being called a bad parent. Most parents of b leave outened students do not regularly attend teacher/ parent conferences. These conferences are held usually between the sixth and eighter week of school and during these meetings parents get a chance to voice any concerns they might have as surface as the teachers suggestions. (Cushman 11). One might ask how can a parent send their child to school without ever meeti ng the teacher?There are some(prenominal) problems associated with black parents and the school system which I hold forth in depth later in the paper. Parents just do not place enough strain on their childs education and in turn the child doesnt either. There is no mood that a child could fail if their parents are in dogging communication with his teacher, yes, during these times thither is simply not enough hours in the day but if a parent does not care about their childs time to come how can expect anyone else to? shadowy children are falling further place and are victims of an educational system that is failing them. ( Muhammad 2).If parents do not realize that a teacher alone can not foiling this task alone, that it pees a village to raise a family its sad to say that these bittie black boys might be lost forever. In the book titled How to Handle Difficult Parents written by Suzanne Tingley, she offers tips for how teachers can try to get pass difficult parents. She says that teachers need learn parent concern skills. ( Tingley 8). By that she means teachers need to understand that during these times thither is a caboodle of obstacles standing in the way.When teachers retire that a childs parent stands ready to challenge them at every turn, they can become reluctant to live in capture student behavior or lack of effort. ( Tingley 8). If the parents are confrontational the teacher becomes intimidated and at that placefore the issues go unresolved. She feels that parents should communicate with teachers respectfully and civilly without judging the teachers credentials. In todays society is not eternally economically attainable for the mother to stay at home while the husband works. She says, Parents work their jobs, raise their family, and be their bills.Kids are responsible for attending school, staying out of trouble, and pay attention. ( Tingley 10). Teachers are not always pointing the finger at the parent but they would give care it if the parent was more(prenominal) involved in the childs schooling. Somewhere on the way we have gotten lost in our forty plus work hour weeks, consumed by emails, and tied down by bills. Parents must take time out of their busy schedules and make a sacrifice for their children. Another problem, Tingley pointed out was that the parents of today make too some(prenominal) excuses for their childs lack of ardor when it comes to education.Parents feel that if a child becomes bored at school that it is the teachers responsibility to make learning fun. They say that the child is not being challenged enough and that the teacher should devise a plan that works for their child. It is not the teachers job to entertain students their job is simple- teach. The unwillingness from the parents makes it harder for teachers to do their job. The stress of dealing with difficult parents remains one of the top causal agents teachers cite for leaving the profession after further five years. (Tingley 7).There are different parenting styles that contribute to the learning process and should be discussed in order to get a better appreciation of why the black child is failing compared to other children. In the 8th grade, only nine percent of black males across the country performed at or above the proficient level in reading compared with 33% of white males nationwide. This statistic comes from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. (Green 2). There is something that other parents from other races are teaching their children that we as black parents are not. terrestrial our parents tell us Obey your teachers. Do your schoolwork. Stay out of trouble. Youre there to learn, not to fight. Keep trying harder. Keep pushing yourself. Do your homework. afterward you have done that, you can watch TV. Sikh immigrant student in a California high school. (Thernstorm 83). I am a black mother raising two black boys and our morning conversation goes a lot differently than the previous one. I tell my boys to mindful of their port they are judged on how they look. I tell them to be on time typical stereotypes of black people is that we are always late.Dont permit let anyone make you feel bad about yourself you are just as good as anyone else. If that teacher calls me because you were misbehaving when you get home you are outlet to be in so much trouble. Parents of black children must move our little black boys that the world view them differently and that they must always conduct themselves appropriately. Culture plays one of the biggest roles in how parents teach their children. Once polish is delimit and I show correlation between the subject, I will discuss our history of learning in America.It is important for one to understand that education was not always an picking for blacks in America. Culture is define as the beliefs,customs, and arts of a particular society. It can be delimitate by everything from language, religion, cuisine, and so cial habits. Twenty percent of the mothers of black children today neer completed high school. (Gross 124). It is sad to say but within our kitchen-gardening a lot of women have children out of wedlock and usually put out of school. If we as black parents have no knowledge there is nothing that we can teach our kids except survival.Asian students do better on average than an other students, this has a lot to do with polish. In 2000, a majority (54%) of Asian Americans ages 25-29 had a bachelors degree, as compared to with just a trey of (34%) of whites. (Blankstein 34). One reason Asian students are excelling at a stimulate rate is that their parents have very high expectations for their children and failure is neer an option for them. Another reason, Asian students perform better is because they watch less idiot box then their counterparts.A study from Northwestern University titled, Children, Media, and Race, shows that black kids watch more television than others. Blac k children watch more than four hours a day and Asians watch less than two. (Blankstein 27). Asian youths are successful, Steinburg writes, not because of their stronger belief in the payoff for their doing well, but because they have greater fear of the consequences of not doing well. (Rochester 121). The detain reason Asian students do better than the average American student is because their parents have a higher income than most.(Thernstorm 89).Socioeconomic status, plays an important role in childs education. jibe to history, it would appear that black children have been set up for failure ever since we arrived in America. From colonial times, educational opportunities for African Americans were extremely limited. (Sharp 8). White Americans practically used several cruel techniques to make blacks feel inferior including, segregation, inequality, and lack of education. The fourteenth amendment guaranteed that all Americans were to have equal protection under the law.At th e end of slavery many freed slaves knew that education was vital to their survival and immediately went to establish for school. Whites feared this movement, they knew that if blacks received an education and training they would longer depend on the them and their dependence was crucial for the southern economy. ( Sharp 21). During the 1870s at the end of the Reconstruction era whites quickly leaped into action to stop blacks from receiving an education even though there was a law that stated all Americans should be treated equally.The Jim exuberate laws, which were a set of laws that enforced the practice of segregation or discrimination against blacks in public places, employment, and other areas of social life. ( Volkomer 318). In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, an African American Louisiana man had been jailed in 1896 for refusing to sit in the black section of the train. Just when blacks thought they making some straits the Court ruled that as long as the same facilities th at were provided for whites were provided for blacks then the Fourteenth Amendment had not been violated.(Volkomer 318).This decision grabbed the attention of the National Association for the promotional material of Colored People (NAACP), which was founded by W. E. B Du Bois and other great African American civil rights leaders. The main purpose of the NAACP was to achieve, through peaceful and unbent(a) means, equal citizenship rights for all American citizens by eliminating segregation and discrimination in housing,employment, voting, schools, the courts, transportation, and recreation. (Sharp 18). Founder W. E. B.Du Bois, the first African American to earn a doctors degree degree at Harvard University, snarl that education was the most was the most valuable possession a black person could have. In his book titled, The Educating of Black People. , he wrote, Education must not simply teach work, it must teach life. (DuBois 37). The rivalry between DuBois and Booker T. Was hington was a pay through moment in African American history. While DuBois felt that education was the best opportunity for blacks Washington on the other stack felt somewhat differently.Agriculture to Washington was one of his soul ideas of his racial shake up theory. Washington offered black acquiescence in disenfranchisement and social segregation if whites would back the idea of black progress in education, agriculture, and economics. (Rochester 79). This man used his irrefutable wit and political savvy to convince white Southners that his educational plan would keep black people down on the elicit and in return he promised blacks that through work ethics they could achieve the American Dream and become not only business men but land owners as well.This political opinion clashed with what DuBois thought was appropriate for the blacks at that present time. I mean werent blacks trying to get off the farm and into classrooms to educate themselves? Even though DuBois viciousl y disagreed with Washingtons view he did however, sleep with him for being one of the first black intellects to defend the black race. DuBois writes, Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season, that voting id necessary to modernistic manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need education as well as white boys. (DuBois 63).While blacks had won the war on slavery, the battle on education was still in progress. Black leaders of the Civil Rights movement like Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston that fought long and hard so that black children would be able to receive equal educational opportunities. Civil Rights, are defined as the right of an individual not to be discriminated against on the origination of their race,sex,or nationality. The education that blacks received in the South during those times foreshadow our culture and the negligent attitudes of black parents.For years blacks have fought for not only their emancipation but the right to have an education, it seems that the parents of today have forget the many sacrifices their forefathers made for them. Not only were the lessons being taught inferior to those of the white students but the conditions in which the children had to endure to the highest degree made it impossible for them to learn. The books that were given to blacks were lots used and were filled with racial and derogatory terms. To add insult to blur the curriculum within the the text books focused more so on the inferiority of blacks.It was said to have contained lessons that African Americans were referred to as ignorant and bewildered people who were unable to survive without the help of a benevolent and top-flight white society. ( Sharp 15). Most of the schools did not have desks and chairs, a black board for the teacher to write instead, the teachers used cardboard to teach lessons, more times than most there were no bathrooms in the schoolhouse and the children had to go outs ide to relieve themselves. With these horrendous conditions how did whites think that black children were receiving equal education compared to the white children?The answer to that question is they didnt, they figured that if they made it hard almost impossible for the blacks that they would just roll over and conform to their way of life. In an article titled The Willie Lynch Letters. , which was written by Willie Lynch, a British slave owner he said, Keep the body Take the mind. He wrote this letter to help slave owners keep their Negro slaves dependent on them. (Abbott 4). Even when faced with adversity the black community did not fluff nor did they give up on their hopes and dreams for their their childs future.In 1926, African American parents formed a group called the Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers. They worked tirelessly and feverishly to inform the state of Mississippi of the injustice that they allowed to continue. We have come a long way from the Plessy v. Fe rguson, Brown v. the Board of Education, and Martin Luther King Jr. infamous I watch A Dream speech, but many will argue that we still have some ways to go. We are not where we used to be yet we are not where we want to be.From slavery to the Jim Crow laws to the No Child Left Behind Act we as parents must continue to fight against the injustices that either we created or society. Civil Rights leaders have fought and died for our little black children to have the same equal rights and it seems like the parents of today have forgotten about our history, this is our culture which has shaped black America into the pagan rich and diverse nation in which we live. Parents of black children must not allow fear to cloud our judgment when it comes to trusting our childs teachers.One reason these parents do not confide in the teachers is because of fear. We are afraid of failure, failing our children because of our ignorance. bulk of the time there are programs and services that are out the re to help families that are struggling in areas of their home life. Until this first step is closed in(p) parents will continue to shelter their child from success. Black parents and Black communities are ultimately responsible for the education of Black children. Not teachers Not schools Not elected officials We are responsibleIf our children are being destroyed in American schools, it is only because we allow it. (Muhammad 5). It is often argued that the low education acquirement levels of African- Americans and Hispanics are caused by poverty. ( Strauss 12). Parents of black children usually earn less than parents of any other race and it is the black children that are failing. Valerie Strauss author of, The Way out of the Black Poverty Cycle. , says that, It is often argued that the low education achievement levels of African- Americans and Hispanics are caused by poverty. (Strauss 38).She feels that poverty plays a vital role in the education of the black child. She con tinues with, if there were more programs to help the black youth cleanse education this would help alleviate the high rates of incarceration among black males. (Strauss 14). She feels that the lack of adequate education in the black community is the number one cause in the high rates of black males displace out of school and ending up in prison. Once they are released from prison most have little or no skills to find employment adequate enough to provide for the family they have left behind thus, the family remains impoverished.Gabriel Trip author of, Proficiency of Black Students is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected. , says that, Only 12% of black 4th grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38% of white boys. (Trip 3). While this is true Trip feels that, Poverty alone does not seem to explain the differences poor white boys do just as well as African- American boys who do not live in poverty. (Trip 8). This author thinks that if Congress would appropriate more money to the failing black schools and establish more networks for young black males that would be more productive rather than , just pass completion the failing schools all together.The final topic I will discuss is the absence of the father figure in the young black males life and how it has a major affect on the childs education. Mike Casserly, director of Council of the expectant City Schools asks, How can we close or narrow the countrys black-white achievement gap when African -American males are not getting the attention and support they need. (Casserly 3). The reason black males are not the getting the attention they need to make headway is because their fathers are not involved in their lives.The fathers guidance to his children and his counsel regarding their anxieties and problems gives them that authorisation and a feeling of affection which is necessary to the building of well-rounded personalities. (Paige 17). thirty-six percent of the fathers that are currently incarcerated reported that they have one or more school age children. ( Drucker 7). Black children that grow up without a father or a positive male role in their lives have very little direction and often get involved with the wrong crowds.Studies have shown that children who their father is not in their lives stand the attempt of becoming alcohol and drug addicts than other children. (Paige 5). Contrary to many beliefs a fathers presence plays an important role in their childs lives. In the case of the black father and the black male child, the father is either incarcerated or has never been involved in the childs life. So there leaves a single mother trying to work and provide for her struggling family because the father is now where to be found.As Richard Wright writes, in his novel titled Black Boy, As the days slid past the image of my father became associated with my pangs of hunger, and whenever I felt hunger I thought of him with deep biological bitterness. (Wright 125) . This is an example of the negative image and feelings that a young boy will develop for his father when he is not involved. It is impossible for the mother to monitor her children twenty-four hours a day, she cannot be everywhere at once.Like the saying goes, While the cat is away the mice will play. this leaves the child alone usually in the evening when the child should be analyze they are more than likely outside or watching television. chthonic constant watch, care, and concern, children are less likely to experiment with extremes of behavior when they know they have two parents who are watching their every move. (Paige 12). It is understandable that split up and break-ups do and does happen often, the father should still be involved in their sons life. When it comes to discipline mothers are just softer and more reluctant than the father, which leaves the boys free to do whatever it is that they want to do.Studies have shown that when a father is not present in a home, children are more likely to derail and exhibit bad and dangerous behavior. (Paige 13). Fathers may be unaware that their presence has such(prenominal) dramatic affects on their childs life as well as their educational goals. Children emulate their parents behavior and if the father is non existent soon so will the child. Majority of the black males that are failing live in villainy ridden urban cities, where gangs and liquor stores out number community centers and churches. Without a fathers retire and concern what conclusion can one draw about the future of the young black male?Surely he will tissue up in a street gang where he robbing, stealing, and peradventure even killing but this stereotype does not have to become a reality of underprivileged black males. There are several tips that can be given for single mothers of black male children whose fathers are either incarcerated or chose not to be involved in the lives of their children. First, mothers must realize that two h eads are better than one, essence even if the father is not involved find an uncle, brother, or even a male friend of the family that would be willing to assist you.Second, ask for help. Black mothers are so afraid of being looked at as a bad mother that we do not ask for help even when we are on the verge of breaking down. There are a lot of services within ones community that may have several programs like the Big Brother/Big Sister program, that provides positive role models for children. Third, mothers must break the cycle. Education is the key to getting out of that low gainful minimum wage job and have an opportunity to have convenient hours and better benefits.Lastly, nothing can replace the presence of a loving, nurturing, and concerned father but there are close substitutes. The failure of black young males is a nationwide epidemic. While I have only visited a few reasons as to why they are failing like, poverty, lack of guidance, and the absence of the father this is j ust the tip of the iceberg. I fear that unless WE, meaning the parents, teachers, political leaders, community advocates, and neighbors wake up and realize that this is not an easy fix, that this is not something that can be swept under the rug and forgotten about, they will continue to fail.