Leon Howard, III is the co-founder of the Muskegon Multicultural Beach Festival. In addition, he currently serves as a Residence Hall Director and Social Justice Educator at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.
Turning the living room into an extension of the classroom is extremely important and is the one of the greatest ways a parent can help their child be successful. This does not necessarily mean or translate to all A's but it does mean ensuring that that they are learning, reflecting on what they learned and applying what they learn. How learning is reinforced in the living room and how we make connections to what a child is learning in school to what is occurring in their home, community, immediate surroundings and the broader world is an important responsibility of parents. There should be reminders and symbols all around the home that reminds a child the importance of education, knowledge, and of their responsibility to self and others. Every opportunity and tool should be used to reinforce what they are learning in the classroom and to take it to the next step if possible, whether it is asking a child to write or reflect on a movie, TV show or video they watched, or by creating homework assignments for your child in addition to what the teacher gives. Especially, when they say they I do not have any homework. They should always have some type of homework which I whether call learning or reflection activities even on the weekend. A child should not go through a day without a parent or an adult in the home asking a child what did you learn or accomplish today. A child should not go through an activity or watch a movie or T.V show without them being asked to reflect on what they saw or asking them what did you learn from the experience. Notice I said parent not teacher. The parent is the most influential teacher a child will have. You do not have to be smart or educated to be a teacher, to help a child in school, to help a child learn or to help them be successful. You just have to know how to care, be involved in what they are learning, ask questions about what they are learning, and create expectations and structure in the home that requires the television to be turned off and the child mind turned on or through using what is watch on TV as a tool to discuss what is being learned in school. Whatever a child is learning or being taught in the classroom they should be ready to discuss it and to teach it to their parents and their siblings in the living room or at the dinning room table. The classroom and living room needs to be connected in order to created a learning environment that breeds success and that challenges and support children, parents, and teachers. This is one of the greatest roles a parent can play in their child life and development.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
A concerned mom....by LaQuetta S. Walker, MSW
LaQuetta S. Walker currently serves as a Research Assistant at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.
It is a fact in our history that there have always been the fortunate(whites) and less fortunate(minorities); the have and the have nots. The fortunate have been able to afford the best things in life while the less fortunate does whatever it takes to get by. That does not mean the less fortunate have not tried to make things better, it has been harder to make it happen. Slaves were punished for being able to read and write because it was looked down upon for a "negro" to be educated. Today, minorities share the opportunity with whites to be educated but the value of the education is still unequal. Many schools in the high poverty school districts do not have enough books for students to study in nor out of the classroom. This causes an increase in the lack of comprehension of the core academic courses such as math, science and reading and basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic.
In today's society, students need to be capable of operating various technological devices to keep up with the ever changing trends. However, it is practically impossible in the high poverty school districts to teach these skills because the school districts cannot afford to purchase the devices and parents cannot afford to own these devices in their homes. Children of all races need to have exposure to different things to enhance their learning and productivity. Teachers need to be compensated for their skills and abilities to academically prepare our children for the future. Teachers also need to be carefully selected according to higher standards than the current selection process. If children in high poverty school districts and communities are not exposed to activities in math and science they will not have an interest.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2010), the US is behind countries like China, South Korea and Finland in the subjects of math, science and reading due to the culture of the education. Teachers in China and South Korea are recruited from the highest levels of the graduating classes and are paid as much as engineers and scientists. In my opinion, the United States do not spend enough money on resources to provide a good education yet politicians complain about those who need federal assistance to maintain their household. If education was more of a priority than fighting an unnecessary war, then the poverty rate may decrease because more people will have access to a good education to obtain better jobs to provide for their families. If we spend more money on resources to provide adequate education for the children of our future then we would be able to score higher on these standardized test that in my opinion only reflect what can be done on paper and not in production of services.
Lee, Kurtis PBS NewsHour Extra, December 10, 2010 www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/us/july-dec10/education_12-10
Sincerely,
Educated Social Worker and dedicated parent of a 3rd grader
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Segregation and the Assault on Public Schools: Fast-forward to the Past by Cynthia Pinchback-Hines
Cynthia Pinchback-Hines serves as the Chief Administrative Officer for The National Civil Rights & Social Justice Speakers & Training Bureau. The National Civil Rights & Social Justice Speakers & Training Bureau empowers individuals and transforms communities for the benefit of humanity.
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Los Angeles
Scholars of the civil rights movement may recall that, after the bus boycott in Montgomery, the bus system there never developed to the extent of bus systems in larger cities, because segregationists were so bent on denying Black people access to public facilities that they would rather see the transit system destroyed, than grant Black citizens the right to ride in the front of the bus. Sadly, the nation has come full circle as right-wing extremists have taken much the same stand, as did their southern White predecessors, by risking the fall of the U.S. economy, rather than allowing the country to get stronger under the leadership of a Black man. The call for “federal protection under the law” is being replaced by the cry of “States rights” where the people in power are doing the most crying. The politics are paralyzing the nation and jeopardizing our children’s hopes for a promising future.
Case in point, politicians have played on the heart strings of their constituents, convincing them that a public education yields an inferior education that is no longer worth supporting with tax dollars. Consequently, when it is time to vote on education matters, other public services—fire departments, parks, and even prisons—routinely win their campaigns for funding, while public school districts struggle to pass levies. What’s more, proponents of private and charter schools have helped siphon off funds that, otherwise, would have been used to support public schools.
Separate and Really Unequal
Decades of systematic neglect of civil rights policy and related educational and community reforms have led to a disturbing trend in public education—segregation (Orfield, 2009). According to a study released by the Civil Rights Project (Frankenberg & Orfield, 2009), public schools are more segregated by race, today, than they were when the civil rights bill was signed in 1964. Schools are separate and unequal—nearly back to the way they were when the Supreme Court handed down the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, designed to end racially-segregated schools (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954).
Pre-Brown v. Board of Education, Black students and White students in the south were forbidden to attend the same schools. Having grown up in a small, southern town where Jim Crow laws were enforced, I attended all-Black schools led by all-Black administrators, faculty, and staff. I never really thought about what it would be like to attend school with White girls and boys until my all-Black high school was forced to be integrated into the much larger, all-White high school. I managed to overcome the challenges of desegregation with the help of my caring family, church, and Black teachers. In fact, my story could have been very different, had I not been blessed with family and positive teachers who believed in me and encouraged me to dream big, study hard, and work hard.
Unfortunately, too many minoritized students do not have the support systems to help them overcome the challenges of today’s re-segregation. They suffer from “caring deprivation”—a syndrome that cuts or denies students the support systems that instill a sense of pride in their heritage or reinforce their attributes. The result is an education system that has flatlined for most minoritized students and has required life support for the rest.
Poison in the Policies
I contend that there is a correlation between the resegregation of schools and our nation’s decline in academic achievement. The fact that the U.S. California California
A Battle
Just as legislation that promotes segregation has aided in the systematic dismantling of public schools, it will take legislation to restore confidence in our ailing schools. Already, several states have taken aggressive measures to render public schools obsolete. For instance, unless Senate Bill 5 (SB5) in Ohio
Proponents of widening the chasm in education between the races not only deny the minoritized students access to equal education, but they also deny their own children access to acceptance of differences and respect for humankind, much the way that segregationists denied Black citizens access to equal seating on the buses of Montgomery.
References
Brown v. Board Education of Topeka , 347 U.S.
De Nies, Y. (2010, August 9). President Obama Outlines Goal to Improve College Graduation Rate in U.S.
Frankenberg, E. & Orfield, G. (2007). Lessons in Integration: Realizing the Promise of Racial
Diversity in America’s Schools. Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press
Geshekter, C. (2008, September 25). The effects of proposition 209 on California
Orfield, G. (January, 2009). Reviving the goal of an integrated Society: A 21st Century Challenge.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Brushes of Empathy on the Canvas of Multiculturalism-Derrick J. Jenkins, M.Ed
Derrick Jenkins is a Program Coordinator for the African American Cultural and Resource Center at the University of Cincinnati.
This article is written under the presupposition that most educators teach as a way of making a difference in the face of often insurmountable odds in order to educate the youth of our society, scaffolding a better tomorrow. Oftentimes, barriers such as culture or ethnic practices, generational values and overwhelming influence of popular culture hamper the true interaction between students and teachers within the critical process of educating (which I metaphor as a priceless painting). It is the intent of this short essay to make the readers aware of the magnificent canvas of diversity in our increasingly cultural proliferating schools, which is a wonderful reflection of the tapestry that we call our society. One medium which allows the vibrancy of student individuality and act as a refractor of the brilliance each child brings through individual intelligence and creativity is a teacher’s acceptance and understanding of one’s unique culture, which is summed up with the word E-M-P-A-T-H-Y. This word’s value is tested amidst ever-increasing challenges within the educational system and a chasm between a growing ethnic student population and an aging white female dominated educational workforce. Can this seven letter word be the artistic swatch that will develop masterpieces upon the waiting canvas, inspiring often misrepresented and misunderstood students – spreading the pigment of reciprocal care, understanding while tightening the bonds between students and teachers?
The inability of the American educational system to confront and successfully answer many of the cultural and intergenerational questions plaguing the process of education within the current educational system has been seen as one of the largest issues within American society in the latter part of the twentieth and persisting in the twenty-first century (Hopkins, 1997). As the new millennium came, the 2000 census painted a composite of a vastly changing social landscape where the number of students of color has increased from 29.7% to 39.5% between 1986 to 2003 (NCES, 2004) and is projected to grow from 49.3 to 52.7 million students by 2020 (NCES, 2009). This reflection of a growing population of ethnic students beckons the question if the educational force is culturally prepared for the demographic changes that are the reality of inner-city education in particular. Can an overwhelmingly white population of teachers address the individual needs of such a varying critical mass of students?
According to a study conducted by Harvard University, white teachers were the least likely to have had much experience with racial diversity and remain remarkably isolated (Frankenberg, 2006). In addition to this finding, white teachers, who on average attended schools that were 90% white, preferred to teach in schools that were majorly white and served with faculty that were 70% white. Another fact conveyed by the Harvard University report showed that both non-white and white teachers were more likely to contemplate switching schools or careers when teaching in poor minority populated schools (Frankenberg, 2006). These facts are alarming and pose a threat to the nuanced process of educating a child in lower income inner-city schools. What can and should be done to protect the integrity of student-teacher interaction and also stem the tide of abandonment both students and teachers feel while interfacing with the challenges of the educational system and an increasingly unfamiliar student population? The answer may seem overly simplified, but bears merit in the daily routine within the classroom. Teachers reinvesting in the rouge of empathy will go a long way in establishing educational bonds that are mutually beneficial to both teachers and students.
Irvine & York (1995) insist that student-teacher interactions are the places where learning really takes place. Furthermore, teachers are taught to make decisions based upon interactions, to build relationships with students, and to espouse authentically caring dispositions in the classroom. Teachers do all of these with the hopes of responding appropriately to the needs of students. Similarly, empathy is a utility of the human experience that enables observers to effectively and intellectually respond to the observed state of another person (Davis, 1994). The socio-cultural lens that the observers use filters their response to what they’ve seen and perceived. This lens validates previously-held belief systems and versions of the truth that have a significant influence on the type of response the observer employs. In other words, the observers’ unconscious response mechanisms implore them to favor particular social and cultural norms internally cultivated over a lifetime. As a result, the empathizers’ response to what they’ve seen or perceived can either improve the condition of the person being empathized with or worsen it.
Teachers of any race are more successful with students of color when they learn how to leverage the students’ frame of reference to better understand students’ lives. By doing so, they acquire intimate knowledge of their students leading to higher expectations for academic performance. More specifically, utilization of empathy help teachers to: maintain, maximize, and appreciate students’ cultural capital; constructively respond to the cultural differences of students by creating learning environments that embrace their specific learning preferences to ensure that they experience success; and cultivate student-centered classrooms (Howard, 2006; McAllister & Irvine). A great example of an empathetic teacher who was recognized for her abundant utilization of empathy is the forward-thinking educator who will go on to be portrayed in the human interest film Dangerous Mind (1995). Louanne Johnson taught inner-city youth high school English using Public Enemy lyrics. In the movie, she is portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, a teacher who displayed empathy by going above and beyond to help underachieving inner-city students achieve academically.
Teachers should consider themselves a finely-tipped paintbrush able to skillfully polish the portrait of young impressionable students eager to be understood and challenged. It is with the acrylic of empathy that the brush is able to meaningfully touch the canvas, creating a masterpiece unrivaled by any creation before it, because it is one of a kind – flawless in its appearance, for it was created with paint of empathy.
References
Davis, M. H. (1994). Empathy: A Social Psychological Approach. Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark Publishers.
Frankenberg, E. (2006). The Segregation of American Teachers. Cambridge, MA: The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.
Hopkins, R. (1997). Educating Black Males: Critical lesson in Schooling, Community and Power. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Howard, G. R. (2006). We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: White Teachers, Multi-racial Schools. New York City, NY: Teachers College Press.
Irvine, J. J. & York, D. E. (1995). Learning Styles and Culturally Diverse Students: A Literature Review. In J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds), Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education (pp. 484-497). New York City, NY: Macmillan.
McAllister, G., & Irvine, J.J. (2002). The Role of Empathy in Teaching Culturally Diverse Students: A Qualitative Study of Teachers’ Beliefs. Journal of Teacher Education. 53(5), 433-443.
National Center for Educational Statistics (2004). The Digest of Educational Statistics. Reviewed [8/12/11] from www.nces.ed.gov/programs/digest.
National Center for Educational Statistics (2009). The Digest of Educational Statistics. Reviewed [8/12/11] from www.nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/overview.asp.
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