Curriculum

Let’s say for a moment, that I actually bought into this misconception about African-American youths’ aversion to education; when the curriculum is viewed from our social studies, history and English classes across the country; it’s easy to see how education and "whiteness" becomes inseparable. No, I do not believe that education in and of itself should be viewed as white, but I am saying that I can understand why it may be viewed that way by some.

For example, most of the history classes (World & U.S.) focus mostly on people of European descent. Curriculum in our public schools continues to be either opposed to or indifferent about a more multi-cultural emphasis. Only a handful of our public school students know more than the customary African-American figures (Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman etc.) displayed in our curriculum. The study of world history usually begins with the Roman Empire (untouched is the study of the ancient Egyptian, Nubian or Ethiopian civilizations) and ends with modern Europe. Secondary U.S. History curriculum similarly omits any significant study of the institution of slavery or Reconstruction and their role in this country's history. These omissions become even more glaring when classes such as African-American studies are not required courses. English Literature courses may devote a few weeks a year (usually around February) to authors such as Langston Hughes, Alice Walker, James Baldwin or Toni Morrison; hardly enough time for the average student to become familiar with African-American history or culture.

Honors and Advanced Placement Classes

According to Harvard’s Civil Rights Project, African-American students are only half as likely as whites to be placed in Honors or AP English or math classes, and 2.4 times more likely than whites to be placed in remedial classes. Even when African American demonstrate equal ability with their white counterparts, they are less likely to be placed in accelerated classes. Students who take Advanced Placement (AP) courses in high school are eligible to take the corresponding AP examination and may earn college credit for scores above a minimum threshold. The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics found that the number of African-American students taking the AP examinations increased from 9 to 53 per 1,000 12th graders between 1984 and 2000. However, the number of African-American students who took AP examinations in 2000 was still considerably lower than Whites (180 per 1,000). This is due, in part, to the fact that on average, schools serving mostly black and Latino students offer only a third as many AP and honors courses as schools serving mostly whites. Another little discussed actuality is that quite a few African Americans are inconspicuously steered away from Honors and AP classes and into basic and general courses. As a result, the classes that represent our best and brightest minds become decidedly white.

Ethnicity of Teachers

Without debating the reasons for these realities, let’s take a look at the ethnic makeup of the faculties of our educational institutions. Data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (2003), showed that approximately 3 million of the nation’s estimated 3.5 million k-12 teachers (public and private) are white – that translates to about 85%. Post-secondary education is slightly different; 75% (2,148,845 of a total 2,883,175) of America’s college and university educators is white. A 2002 Independent Postsecondary Education Data System’s report on the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities further emphasizes these discrepancies. In collecting data from the 105 CCCU member colleges and universities, they found that there were only sixty-two African-American male faculty members – and of these sixty-two, 37 were part-timers. Only 7 African-American males held Executive, Administrative or Managerial positions. As I stated before, we don’t have to debate the reasons why these discrepancies exist; but the fact of the matter is they do exist.

As we step outside of the tangible statistics of our country’s teaching population; let us take a look at intangible aspects of teaching. When an educator stands before a classroom and teaches, they are not just transmitting facts, figures and data about English, math, history etc. They are also conveying their worldview, ideas and values – either consciously or unconsciously (as a teacher I understand this all too well). Too many times people like doctors, policeman and teachers are treated as if they are separate from (or above) our society, rather than reflections of it. The high expectations we place upon these individuals, somehow causes us to lose sight of their humanity. The same ideas and prejudices that Joe and Jane Q. Public struggle with, are the same ones our teachers struggle with as well. Unspoken and unconscious prejudices are no less real than vocal or conscious ones. Our thoughts carry attitudes; our attitudes carry vibes; and once that undeclared, discriminatory vibe is felt by that student of color, it can create very real barriers to their desire to learn and that teacher’s ability to teach them.

In light of the information found in these four categories, can you at least see why an African-American student might view education (even if you don’t agree with the assertion) as being white? Since the vast majority of whites in this country have never had to cope with these realities, they either doubt their existence or are totally ignorant of them altogether.

The issue of African American performance in education received increased national attention after the publication of noted anthropologist John Ogbu’s book Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb. Middle-class and affluent African-American parents in Shaker Heights, Ohio, wanted to know why their children lagged so far behind their white classmates in what is considered the best school district in the state. Clearly, the achievement gap wasn't the function of poverty or an inferior education, reasons often put forth to explain the gap between black and white students across the country. The Shaker Heights parents, with funding and support from the school system, called in UC Berkeley anthropologist John Ogbu, a noted figure in the field of minority education, to find the answer. What Ogbu found in Shaker Heights mirrored what he has found in every country he has studied in his 30 years of research.

The under-achieving minorities in these countries, including blacks in the United States, all had one factor in common: They are what Ogbu calls "involuntary minorities."

Involuntary minorities are those who did not immigrate to a country by choice. They became minorities through enslavement, colonization or conquest, a status that continues to shape how they are treated by the dominant group and how they perceive and respond to that treatment. Involuntary minorities developed their identity in opposition to the majority group that had oppressed them. As a result, they are often suspicious of societal institutions run by the dominant group, including the schools, believing that the curriculum threatens and denigrates their heritage.

Voluntary minorities, on the other hand, are those who have chosen to immigrate in hopes of a better future. These minorities see education as a path to success in their new country. They are willing to embrace the new language and new ways, no matter how dissimilar to their own, in order to reap the benefits of an American education.

Ogbu points to the Buraku people of Japan as a comparison. They are ethnically identical to other Japanese. During Japan's feudal ages, the emperor designated the Buraku to be the laborers, the lowest class. They were freed from this designation in 1871; a few years after American blacks were freed from slavery.

To this day, the Buraku lag behind their Japanese counterparts in academic achievement. Yet when they immigrate to other countries, where they are seen simply as Japanese and not Buraku, the gap gradually disappears. Their school achievement rises.

Similarly, third-generation descendants of Koreans who had been forced into labor in Japan in the last century are among the poorest-performing students in Japan. But Koreans who immigrated to China in search of a better life are the highest-achieving minority group in China. Although Ogbu’s studies offer some compelling reasons for the gap between African-Americans and whites in education, he also cautioned that we should not allow our righteous zeal to fight discrimination (and to break down barriers in education and in the opportunity structure), to cause us to ignore the personal behavior and attitudes that are conducive to academic success.

In this writing I do not propose any excuses, but rather explanations. I suppose that is my chief criticism of the black pundits and personalities who disseminate this fallacious notion of African-American students’ disregard of education. They are so afraid that they will be viewed as excusing these educational issues and concerns, that they haven’t bothered trying to rightly explain them either. This too, goes to the heart of how we have failed many of our children of color. We have appropriately expended a great amount of time and effort trying to instill in them a respect for education, but we have failed at the equally important task of making sure that the powers-that-be in education values and respect them.

In the education of our children there are two vital questions that we must answer: Who is teaching our children? What are they being taught? The future academic success of our students hinges on our thoughtful and serious consideration of these questions. The issue of who’s teaching our children and/or what they are being taught has yet, in my opinion, to be fully addressed.  It is relatively easy and convenient to forget that the public school system in the United States has an explicit racist, sexist and classist history. As we view the current inadequacies in education within this historical context, it is important to remember, for example, the most widespread challenges to overtly discriminatory practices have occurred fairly recently. Yet, even in light of the "legislation-backed" desegregation efforts and racial, gender and socio-economic-based tracking, American school curriculum is still decidedly Euro-centric and male-centric in content and perspective. This deficit in curriculum is further exacerbated by the continually declining number of black educators as classroom teachers and administrators.

Of late, a great amount of time has been spent on the black parent’s role in education – this attention; by the way, I don’t completely disagree with. However, to belabor parental involvement without properly assessing our present post-Brown educational landscape is not only an incomplete stratagem, but an exercise in futility as well. We must take a closer look at the forces within education, specifically teachers and curriculum, which contribute to the success or failure of our black students.

"In the end, as any successful teacher will tell you, you can only teach the things that you are. If we practice racism then it is racism that we teach."- Max Lerner

Let me be perfectly clear, in this essay I do not propose to either applaud or decry the Brown verdict. My goal is an earnest attempt to answer some of the lingering questions that still plague us some fifty years later. To examine some of the side-effects of the decision that have contributed to the on-going inequities in our educational systems.

After Brown, many blacks believed that there would be a brighter educational future for their children. The wall of segregation, that many believed prohibited them from access to a quality education, had been destroyed at last. But has the promise been fulfilled? How much has truly changed since May 17, 1954? Many scholars believe that the Brown verdict has not produced the desired impact because the letter of the law of segregation was addressed in an extremely obscure fashion and the spirit (attitudes) of the law of segregation has gone virtually untouched.

In 1954, about 82,000 black teachers were responsible for teaching 2 million black children. In the 11 years following Brown, more than 38,000 black teachers and administrators in 17 Southern states lost their jobs. These mass firings were made easier because during desegregation all-black schools were usually closed down – making black educators expendable even when their credentials surpassed their white peers. The National Education Association’s figures from this period show that 85% of minority teachers had college degrees compared with 75% of white teachers. So not only were black children left without the expertise of the more qualified black teachers, but a tremendous psychological and emotional void as well. Although segregation was an imposed and racist system, blacks were able to create a functional system in spite of it. Prior to Brown, white administrators were more than happy to allow black administrators to run the "black" part of the school system (as long as there were no problems). This semi-autonomy gave black educators an extreme amount of latitude in educating and cultivating the minds of black students. One of the most prominent features of the pre-Brown black educational systems was the belief in the worth of every student. Black educators would refer to their young charges as "Mister" and "Miss" – emotionally and psychologically important titles when you consider that during segregation these titles were denied black adults. I suppose it could be said that the isolation of segregation also provided insulation against many of the negative forces and racist ideologies that black students would later be inundated with in the post-Brown "integrated" schools (an offensive that our students are still struggling with).

An individual’s value is judged by what they contribute to their community, society or world (and let no one tell you otherwise). This same value assessment is used when dealing with groups of people. To largely exclude the record or achievements of Africans and African-Americans not only creates an obstacle or void that the black student must contend with, but it gives the white student (and whites in general) a basis to, at best, deemphasize the accomplishments of those of the African Diaspora or (at worst) disrespect them altogether. These accomplishments, by the way, have not only benefited the black community, but society and the world as a whole.

There are some who say that it is abundantly clear that there are cultural shortcomings in the areas of social studies, history and English, but that doesn’t account for the failings of black students in the areas of math and science. To that I say the whole of education is connected. If our black students are not validated and challenged in all aspects of their educational experience – if there is an indifference (or even downright antagonism) towards all things African or black – then their mastery of any of their subjects (including math and science) is at-risk. It also would be somewhat naïve of us to believe that adolescents and children will not carry a negative experience in one classroom into the next one.

In his essay, Cognitive Styles and Multicultural Populations, J.A. Anderson touches on this dynamic: "For children of color, biculturality is not a free choice, but a prerequisite for successful participation and eventual success. Non-white children generally are expected to be bicultural, bidialectic and bicognitive; to measure their performance against a Euro-American yardstick; and to maintain this orientation. At the same time, they are being castigated whenever they attempt to express and validate their indigenous culture and cognitive styles. Under such conditions cognitive conflict becomes the norm rather than the exception." In our schools’ history and social studies curriculum, through whose perspective are the terms "Manifest Destiny" and "genocide" interpreted? In our schools, who ultimately decides the focus, breadth and depth of our students’ core curriculum? The answer to these questions is fundamental to our black students’ self-perception.

What Can Be Done?

Parents: As parents, we should expect excellence from our children and do all we can to help them reach those expectations. Although parent-teacher conferences and making sure that our children stay on-task academically are important aspects of our involvement, equally important is making sure that our child’s educational experience is positive and just. There are still glaring inequities present in our schools. Recognizing, addressing and combating these inequities falls into the category of parental involvement as well. Challenge the schools that are educating your children to make a greater effort to recruit and retain black educators and to develop and implement a curriculum in which your children will see themselves reflected (and not just during February). If you haven’t already, or when funds and resources permit, invest in a computer and the internet (we must begin to look at these things as investments and not purchases). There is literally a world of information, which is enormously beneficial to the education of your child, within their (as well as your) fingertips.