Rich, black, flunking.
by Jeff
Cal Professor John Ogbu thinks he knows why rich black kids are failing in school. Nobody wants to hear it.
The black parents wanted an explanation. Doctors, lawyers, judges, and insurance brokers, many had come to the upscale Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights specifically because of its stellar school district. They expected their children to succeed academically, but most were performing poorly. African-American students were lagging far behind their white classmates in every measure of academic success: grade-point average, standardized test scores, and enrollment in advanced-placement courses. On average, black students earned a 1.9 GPA while their white counterparts held down an average of 3.45. Other indicators were equally dismal. It made no sense.
[...] The professor and his research assistant moved to Shaker Heights for nine months in mid-1997. They reviewed data and test scores. The team observed 110 different classes, from kindergarten all the way through high school. They conducted exhaustive interviews with school personnel, black parents, and students. Their project yielded an unexpected conclusion: It wasn’t socioeconomics, school funding, or racism, that accounted for the students’ poor academic performance; it was their own attitudes, and those of their parents.
Read and discuss.
This is tough. Even though we have come so far in the past 100 years in terms of racial integration and equality, the effects of stigmas and stereotypes will take even longer to dissolve. We’re so far from the exit gate. It does make a littel bit of sense, peer culture influences a LOT of what goes on in a childs life, I mean, how can ther be a 1.5 GPA gap (on average?!)? Thats incredible. I know I made some bad decisions in school, mostly because of my friend base, a large part of why I have returned to post secondary after almost blindly jumping into an original decision that lead me to nowhere…
Ok, first of all, when did scholastic achievement become the “white” thing? Achieving good grades, and a solid education, should be a feeling shared by all colours under the sun. So why does academic achievement, become labeled as a white thing? It’s probably due to the fact, that notoriety for intelligence is much lower on the “I care” scale, than nice rims, bling, and the flashiest clothing in fashion.
As much as this issue has become a black/white thing, how is it, that black people who immigrate from the Caribbean strive to learn Standard English, while most American black people refuse to accept this, as a model for education?
“There is an element of black identity today that sees doing well in school as being outside of the core of black identity. It’s a tacit sentiment, but powerful. As a result of that, some of what we see in the reluctance of many parents, administrators, and black academics to quite confront the ‘acting white’ syndrome is that deep down many of them harbor a feeling that it would be unhealthy for black kids to embrace school culture too wholeheartedly.”
So instead of overcoming this “white” stigma, and being labeled as a person who cares about their education – laziness and blaming the education system (of which has created many wonderful scholars) runs rampant – why? Because it is easier to blame someone/something for their results, than to take ownership of their actions.
Teachers are not babysitters, nor are they responsible for each individuals acadedmic achievement – they are providers. Providers of knowledge and education through a multicultural scope. They are not there to babysit kids from 9-3, nor are they the parents of the kids they teach.
For education to work, in must be a complete cycle: teacher-student-parent. If one of the two latter components ceases to do what it should, than there is a breakdown – but not from the education system, rather from the parenting system.
Bottomline: Students get out of their education, what they put into it. If acting “white” makes you achieve your scholastic goals, and possibly achieve, a higher level of employment, than that should be a great thing. But blaming the educational system for its colorful shortfalls, is an easy way out – and does not take honus of the student/parent responsibilities.
Sorry, but this article really pissed me off – a black person reported and studied the educational shortfalls, actions and behaviours of other black people in a community, and still the “white” man is to be blamed.