To read one example of such thinking, check out this article by Paul White,
long-time teacher at an alternative high school in Los Angeles and author of the book White's Rules (which is mentioned in the intro to CKCS). White maintains that the cause of failure among African American male students is simple: bad parents.What do you think of White's opinions/analysis? And what do you think of the concept of "moral poverty" as it relates to poor/African American/immigrant parents?
6 comments:
I really just have to say that I do not agree with much of what White said. First off there are young black males who come from good parented homes and choose to do what they want to do in this jacked up world and every stereotype that was listed as a characteristic of a black man was as negative could have been presented as statisics for any other man for that matter. When I read this artticle it made me think hmmmm.... maybe this is why young black men feel as if they cannot survive in th real world or they feel as if it is them against everyone else. I feel as if segregating them in to one school is not a good idea because they need to be able to work with others even if they are different and it would be giving them a false sense of reality if every one around them was a failure because of their skin color. Maybe if people were more positive towards black men they would have some confidence and they would be able to become good parents to prevent their own children form making silly decisions just to fit in. If others took the time out to find out why these young boy are the way they are in totally sincerity instead of some experiment , maybe the real cause of a young black man's failure would surface. All the assumptions need to stop because the article was even written by some one who probably could not relate at all.
I totally agree with what Keneisha said. I think that you cannot totally blame the parents for why their children fail. Society plays a factor as well. I did not agree with many of the things that White stated in his article.In the article, White states:"Rude, lazy, gang-banging, drug-abusing, disrespectful, law-breaking children come overwhelmingly from the homes of parents who tolerate that behavior." In some instances this is true. But in others society plays a role in making these kids turn out this way. I think that a persons future is based on the choices they make. You cannot solely base a students failure on his/her parents. I believe that in order to have a bright future, you have to be willing to beat the odds and take control of your destiny. You have to take an active role in your future. If you have many failures in life, you cannot blame this on your parents. Sure their parents may have played a role in the people they become when they grow up, but you cannot place the blame solely on the parents. I know many people who have had parents who do not seem invested in their futures, but they chose to succeed because of their own wills. I agree with White that we should not place these students in segregated schools because it does not prepare them for the real world. In the real world they will not only encounter people who are the same race as them. One thing that I did not like that White said: "The mother of the horrible child had raised a houseful of drug-abusing thugs, who dropped out of school, respected no one of any color, committed crimes, and were totally worthless." First off you should never refer to a child as being "horrible." The child may make some bad choses but those decisions do not define who he/she is. I do not think that a child should be labled as being worthless either. I think that people like White should take the time to get to know these students and they will discover these students' worth. No child is worthless, but they can easily believe that they are based on comments like Whites. Another of White's comments that I agree with is that successful parents teach their children how to become successful. I think that the lessons you teach your child during their childhood affects who they become in the future. But the child also has a choice in what they do with the lessons you taught them when they were kids. They can either use them for good or use them for bad. Ultimately the choice is theirs.
so...read his comments...read his bio...read the article on the NY schools... My first instinct is to completely dismiss White and begin to counter his arguments (a task which would be easily accomplished methinks).
Instead I got to thinking about another important problem that this article poses. While looking at the other recent articles that White has written it is apparent to me that while I do not agree with him, he is attempting to start a conversation about "a racially fractured America" (his quote from his article "For Whites Only"). Though his methods are not what I would choose to follow, and I would not follow his beliefs, I understand why he thinks what he does and his writing does not seem polemical in such a way that he would not be willing to have the debate/discussion/forum with which people could really find a way for change.
The real issue here is us. While I mostly agree with Keneisha and Tanika's comments i think that we could cause ourselves problems in the future by being polemic in our arguments. By this I mean continually arguing with one another and fighting over aspects of our arguments without actually sitting down to understand and discuss the points our opponents are trying to make.
For example, I think it would be unfair to ignore White's work with "challenging, difficult children" (qtd from his bio) and his 25 years in the education field. There must be something he is doing right because he is somewhat of a success. Perhaps if we could look at his methods, see what he is doing we could understand what it is that is working and then make a counter argument not based on our opinions, but based on an alternate interpretation of his data.
I would say that blaming the parents is a logical (though I would argue impractical and oft-times unethical) extension of the experiences White may have had. Though there may be other explanations which he might ignore or dismiss based on his values and ideology. This is not his failing, but rather his view, which is a valuable one, and which does contribute to the dialogue.
Unfortunately, it seems that so few people are actually taking part in this dialogue that it is almost completely antagonistic. All of us in the conversation are trying to help children, the problem is that we spend so much time fighting with one another that we lose the opportunity to work together to begin to make a difference.
I let myself walk away from this before posting because I was ready for a rant, and I've found that it didn't really help much. I generally think that so far, you all have given White a lot of credit for what seems (to me) to be a "worthless" article, to use one of White's own words.
First of all, he has no statistical information or data to correlate parenting to school performance and arrests. His observation that he thinks proves his point is simply one example of how one child didn't achieve in an environment that was tailored to work against him. Call in Supernanny, it must be bad parenting that is ruining African-American kids, making them "rude, lazy, gang-banging...children."
I couldn't believe that White would try to make a point by calling a child "worthless." Perhaps the child from his school was not coming from a "perfect" family, but who is these days? What is he leaving out about this student? If he resisted school from the get-go, how did the school react, and what accommodations were made for him? Statistics we have learned in our class tell us that the most likely answer is that little or nothing was done to reach this child. By the time he reached high school, where White was his principal, he had learned his role, and had likely been told by more than one administrator that he would never amount to anything.
I also have a problem with White's representation of an African-American school in New York. He assumes that the curriculum will be inherently different from that of a public school. When I read the Times article linked in White's article, the impression I got was different. The article stated: "But some minority students, the black boys at Brookside, are set apart, in a way, by a special mentoring program that pairs them with black teachers for one-on-one guidance outside class, extra homework help, and cultural activities during the school day." That description seems to say that the students will be grouped for specific activities and extra help that will enable them to perform to their potential and make headway in the performance gap in their district.
I don't necessarily think that the program is a perfect solution to the problems facing these young African-American students, but it does not seem to elicit the "racism" or encourage "brainwashing" as White suggests. In a way, the school is even responding to what White thinks is such a problem in the first place. By giving the students positive African-American role models (although some may already have many within their families), they are showing students that they do have the abilities to reach educational and other goals. Perhaps this will be especially helpful for the students who do not have a father in their house for whatever reason.
Lastly, White's "unarguable proof that the cause of Black male failure lies primarily with poor parenting" is again observational, not statistical. He simply infers that because there are successful African-American adults in the community, they were raised by better parents. I don't know about anyone else, but I can find an argument there.
I am surprised by White’s opinions, but I think his analysis is well-informed. That old saying, “the apple doesn’t fall from the tree” comes to mind as I read the article. I believe it is common nature in American society to want (or need) to blame someone or something when a situation goes wrong. We are not apt to admitting to mistakes or defeat.
My biggest problem with White’s article is that he aims his analysis only towards African-American children and parents. There are plenty of white parents that are failing their children. I do not believe this is a black and white issue. There are certain cultural differences between African-Americans and whites, as with Latinos, Chinese, Japanese, and every other culture. (The discussion last week, “Who’s Included In the Urban Family?” opened my eyes to this.”)
I hate to bring this up, because it embodies so much more (or less, depending on how you look at it) than what White is discussing or what we are accomplishing in this class. But, being an die-hard fan, I can not help myself. Look at Britney Spears. The star who apparently has everything, has not seen her two young children since the very beginning of January. She, is failing her children. She is a white, multi-billionaire, who because she is so messed up, can not get it together for her children.
I recently watched the film, “The Boys of Baracka” again, and there is a scene that strikes me every time I see the documentary. A young boy goes to visit his dad in prison. That concept alone, boggles my mind, but it is a reality many urban students face. The boy looks at his dad in the eye and says he is going to study and get good grades, so he does not end up where his father is, prison. The boy is rejecting to be a product of his parents, rejecting to be the apple that does not fall far from the tree; however, he is young and has every factor, except his own drive and will, working against him.
The young boy attends a public school in Baltimore, Maryland, the worst in the nation. The streets are filled with violent gangs and many drugs. And his dad has failed him.
I do believe parents need to be held responsible for their children. But, like many of the topics we have discussed in class, it is impossible to not also include the many powerful factors that students face.
I was raised in a household with my father and mother. They would always ask how my day was, quiz me about at least one thing I learned at school, and watch and cheer me on at all my swim meets and water polo games. I know, even though sometimes I hate to admit it, I am a product of my upbringing.
I think that White is right when he says the best lesson parents can teach their children is to, “find a way to succeed, rather than looking for an excuse for why they failed”. The best way a parents can do this is my setting an example.
I think blame is a two way street or a four way street or as many streets that can intersect street. I partly feel that parents are to blame for some of the problems with students. However, these problems are present in suburban as well as urban schools. I feel that we cannot say that urban schools' parents are worse than other parents. That is an unfair assessment. I believe that many various issues effect a student's performance. For one, many urban families come from a poverty background. This alone can have sever consequences on students. Also, gangs in a neighborhood could effect students work. All these are factors that could be damaging to our youth. It is unfair to blame just parents. However, I do not believe that teachers should take on all the blame. Do not get me wrong, there are bad teachers out there. However, there are too many factors that effect a students performance in school. Teacher should never give up, and they should have high expectations from the community. We need to look more at the students' lives inside and outside of the classroom. This will tell us what is truly helping or hurting students. I hope that we get away from the blame game and focus on the important issues at hand. Lets focus on how to set these kids straight rather than seeking out who caused these kids to fail.
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