How effective are the standards of Education towards young Black males? Education has proven to be more challenging to African-American males all across schools. In regards to David E. Kirkland’s article, “Focus on Policy,” the current standards movement in English language arts (ELA) is distracting in the perspectives of the young African-American males. The ELA system fails to consider how Black males live and learn. Furthermore, this movement especially affects the engagement of English that Black people are struggling from. The problem that lies in education is that its learning system has not proven to be successful in hopes to earn the knowledge that everyone deserves, especially towards Black males. In efforts to resolve this problem, David E. Kirkland describes the possibilities that anyone can learn throughout the individual’s learning styles, the approaches to literacy, and the stories of the six young African-Americans that follows in education.
Throughout attempts to rediscover an individual’s learning style, Kirkland sets his sight on one particular person named Derrick. During his observations, it was seen that the young man struggles in efforts to comprehend the task at hand. In responses to the challenge, Derrick’s teacher gave him a new assignment, one that he might find interesting. As Derrick breezes through the assignment, Kirkland takes an interpretative approach to his actions and concludes that he is applying his own learning style into completing the assignment. After his observation, he overheard that the assignment Derrick accomplishes was found to be entertaining to him. This proves that implementing certain learning styles can promote engagement and entertainment towards an assignment.
For Black males, ...
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... as the students. Throughout many of his observations, he formulated new problems, theories, and solutions to the issues at hand. In order to engage its students in reading and writing, the problems must be resolved by drawing out the motivation of others that persuades in learning. How effective will a person’s learning become throughout working towards a specific goal that the person strives to achieve?
Works Cited
Kirkland, David E. "Listening to Echoes: Teaching Young Black Men Literacy and the Distraction of ELA Standards." Language Arts 88.5 (2011): 373-80. Web.
11 Nov. 2013.
Kirkland, D. E. (2011), Books Like Clothes: Engaging Young Black Men With Reading. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (2011): 199–208. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Kirkland, David E. A Search Past Silence: The Literacy of Young Black Men. New York: Teachers College Press, 2013. Print.
Throughout the years, the black community has been looked down upon as community of criminals and community lesser educated and poor and have a lesser purpose in life. Journalist Brent Staples the author of Black Men And Public Spaces takes us into his own thoughts as a young black man growing up in Chester, Pennsylvania to becoming a journalist in New York City. He tells us his own challenge that he face on a daily basis along with challenges that many black men his own age faced and the way he changed in order to minimize the tension between himself and the common white person.
The theme of the research is to discover why there is such a vast educational gap between minority and Caucasian students. Many American are unaware that such an educational gap actually exists among today’s students. This article informs us of alarming statics, such as of African American students representing a majority of the special education population, despite only making up roughly 40% of the student population. It also breaks down key events that contributed to the poor education that minority children are currently receiving. For example, in the past, it was illegal to educate African Americans and when it became legal to blacks were treated as second class students. They were segregated from their white counter parts and given hand-me-down textbooks. This article also discusses others factors that contributed to the poor education of minority students such as moral principles, socio-political, and economic stat. Despite the amount of time that has past, today’s schools are similar to the past. Minority children are still in second-rate learning environments while white students enjoy the comforts of first class school buildings and textbooks. In summary, the theme of this article was to bring attention to the educational gap among African-American, Latino, Asian, and other non-white students.
The Schott Foundations Report (2008) on public education does a great job spelling out the educational inequities in graduation rates and achievement gaps impacting African American males in the United States, particularly in the south. The Schott Foundation on Public Education mission is to develop and strengthen a broad-based and representative movement to achieve fully resourced, quality pre K-12 public education (The Schott Foundation Report, 2010). The Schott Foundation has been proactive over the years by evaluating the success of national, state and local public systems in educating Black males (The Schott Foundation Report, 2010). One of ...
Staples, R. (1982). Black masculinity: The Black man's role in American society. San Francisco: Black Scholar Press.
To conclude, the stereotypes that circulate in American society of young black men make it difficult for them to thrive and live peacefully in our society. These stereotypes cause issues in the business world, encounters with law enforcement and even everyday in the general public. It is unfair that young black men are only seen as statistics or stereotypes by the majority due to skin pigmentation. But as a whole, young black males suffer the consequences of the few imbeciles that play into these stereotypes. Though unfortunate and unfair but it is the duty of young black men to shift these negatives to positives. As well as, not play into these stereotypes and overcome.
The United States places a great deal of importance on education and continuing to be a leader in the realm of education. If the United States wants to continue on this road it must take a good look at the achievement gap that has been created and growing. In a system where in high school 34% of black students are being held back, and are more likely to drop out before receiving a high school diploma it is essential to understand what has caused this gap and ways to help close it. When African Americans first came to this country becoming educated was not something they were allowed to do, they had to wait years and years to even learn how to write without there being consequences. When the opportunity did come along for African Americans to become educated and schools were created for them and by them, there have still being hurdles for them with chances of schools losing accreditation, and financial support for students. Policies, laws, and initiatives must really become priorities to help African Americans to ensure that they are allowed to succeed and achieve the same goals and lives as everyone else. Making sure there are able, understanding, and qualified teachers teaching students is also very important. Teachers play such a big role in the lives of students and helping them to succeed not primary and secondary school, but also continuing their journey’s into places of higher learning. This is a problem that can be fixed as long as we are serious about true equality and opportunities for
The author of Black Men and Public Space, Brent Staples, is an African American man who has a PhD in psychology from the University of Chicago and he is a member of the New York Times editorial board. Staples published an article that described several personal experiences in which he felt that the people around him were afraid of his presence. Staples’ purpose is to bring to light the prejudice that exists in everyday life for African Americans. In Black Men and Public Space, Staples appeals to pathos by using imagery and strong diction, and he uses a somber yet sarcastic tone to portray his message.
Stories have existed since the beginning of mankind. Going back as far as ancient Greece in history, or even further back, one can examine the many different types of stories that have been passed down. The Ancient Greeks wrote about gods and developed drama; the Romans passed down biographies of Caesars containing their life achievements as well as their failures; numerous stories questioning the institution of slavery were produced here in American. Usually by reading the work of an author one is able to find a message or a moral hidden beneath the storyline. In most cases, authors dictate their writings in their culture’s dialect for many different reasons, many reasons of which that would not conclude them as being racist for using it.
The most important aspect for a teacher to understand is that every student that comes through their door has their own experiences, history, and point of view. Mis-Education of the Negro is about how the euro-centrism-based learning has, in one way or another, crippled the African-American community and their pursuit for an equal opportunity in our society. Written by Carter Godwin Woodson in 1933, this African-American studies book is written so that everyone can understand what society has done and what they can do to correct their wrongs.
That lack and weak basis of education has not only a huge impact on black children’s future professional lives, but also an impact on their mindset and on them as growing and grown-up individuals. Since they don’t get a good education, it is more likely that they won’t succeed in high school, won’t get a good job, won’t build a successful career and won’t evolve their mindset. The majority of black
Meanwhile, as the pressure of schools losing their students due to dropout, it is important that the inner city students have the support they need in school or at home, because many years of oppression have kept African-Americans from having the will to do better. Now young African-Americans have that same oppressed feeling in the schools that they are attending. When the students give up it seems as though everyone around them wants to give up. In fact, “In many parts of the country, the problems present withi...
Even today, African American authors write about the prejudice that still happens, like Ta-Nehisi Coates. In his essay Acting French, Coates recalls when he studied the French language at Middlebury College. Despite all his efforts to integrate with his fellow students into French culture, yet another barrier reveals itself. “And so a white family born into the lower middle class can expect to live around a critical mass of people who are more affluent or worldly and thus see other things, be exposed to other practices and other cultures. A black family with a middle class salary can expect to live around a critical mass of poor people, and mostly see the same things they (and the poor people around them) are working hard to escape. This too compounds.” Because of the lack of black people available to look up to in scholastics, it makes it hard for black students to find the motivation to pursue interests in English or other
Knowledge is a primary factor in the attainment of personal freedom. This includes not only scholarly education but also awareness of historical heritage and familial legacy. The fact that African-Americans were held in human bondage cannot be forgotten; it has to be remembered and passed on through rememory. Moreover, literacy gives minority cultures a voice to reach out to others with encouragement and hope.
Learning is defined as a permanent change in attitude or behaviour that occurs as a result of repeated experience (Sims & Sims, 1995). Understanding one’s learning style has many advantages as it can help one to identify the learning method or activities that can help to optimise the learning experience. It has been suggested that the importance of one’s learning style has been identified through studies and research on how one can maximise the potential for success and further learning development (Honey & Mumford, 2006). Learning styles are unique to each individual and are developed in childhood (Chase, 2001). We all have different personalities; therefore we all have preferred learning styles that suit us best. The way one learns depends on preference. Some learn by observing, listening and imitating others and draw conclusions from their experience. There are several factors that affect our learning style; for example, background, culture, religion and environment can have a major influence on one’s learning.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2004) reported that Black students continue to trail White students with respect to educational access, achievement and attainment. Research on the effectiveness of teachers of Black students emphasizes that the teachers’ belief about the Black students’ potential greatly impacts their learning. Teachers tend to teach black students from a deficit perspective (King, 1994; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Mitchell, 1998). White teachers often aim at compensating for what they assume is missing from a Black student’s background (Foorman, Francis & Fletcher, 1998). The deficit model of instruction attempts to force students into the existing system of teaching and learning and doesn’t build on strengths of cultural characteristics or preferences in learning (Lewis, Hancock...