Last week I ran across an article in the Washington Post by a teacher. In this article T.C. Williams High School teacher Patrick Welsh explains why he believes that the biggest factor in the achievement gap is not just race but is instead the lack of a father in the homes of his students. From the article:
My students knew intuitively that the reason they were lagging academically had nothing to do with race, which is the too-handy explanation for the achievement gap in Alexandria. And it wasn’t because the school system had failed them. They knew that excuses about a lack of resources and access just didn’t wash at the new, state-of-the-art, $100 million T.C. Williams, where every student is given a laptop and where there is open enrollment in Advanced Placement and honors courses. Rather, it was because their parents just weren’t there for them — at least not in the same way that parents of kids who were doing well tended to be.
In an example of how bad the fixation on race here has become, last year Morton Sherman, the new superintendent, ordered principals throughout the city to post huge charts in their hallways so everyone — including 10-year-old kids — could see differences in test scores between white, black and Hispanic students. One mother told me that a black fifth-grader at Cora Kelly Magnet School said that “whoever sees that sign will think I am stupid.” A fourth-grade African American girl there looked at the sign and said to a friend: “That’s not me.” When black and white parents protested that impressionable young children don’t need such information, administrators accused them of not facing up to the problem. Only when the local NAACP complained did Sherman have the charts removed.
In the article one student professed that other kids did well because they had a father who kicked their butts and made them do the work.
BMWK, are these kids right on point or are they making excuses for not doing the work? Is the educational gap more of a social issue instead of a white\black issue the way it’s normally categorized? What can be done to help these kids do better in school?
This is an interesting perspective from the kids.I think the answer is yes but no. Studies do show that in general children who have involved parents tend to do better than children who don’t. No question. However, studies also show there is such a disparity in the achievement gap that it can’t just be a lack of parenting issue alone. As an advocate of children and someone who spends a lot of time in the schools, there are also issues within the school that tends to exacerbate any natural disparities that may come from children who don’t have involved parents (note: I don’t think this is just not about having fathers in the home but either parent who is not there to support and advocate for you). For example, schools often herd children through the educational system without trying to make sure children have developed competency in subjects or that there may be gender or cultural issues to learning as well. Teachers and school officials understand that a child who doesn’t know that 1 plus 1 equals two should not be passed to the next grade level. But this is where the involved parent comes in because they understand that children should no some things before they enter school, they reinforce learnings taught at school and are able to catch the shortfall. As such my experience has been that it is the combination of schools herding students through like cattle and their one size fits all approach to learning and the lack of parental involvement that come together to make a horrific combination for some kids.
It takes a village to raise a child. Parents are the “chiefs” of the village. When all parents understand this and begin to take the lead in their child’s lives, our nation’s youth will make leaps and bounds in education. The notion that educational failure is based on race is only an excuse!
very timely for Us. We just made an appointment with our sons guidance councilor. The receptionist asked us what this was in reference to. I replied “My Son & his future”.
She insisted that we should wait to see if there was going to be some issue in his report card that we needed to address before making an appointment. Failing class’s, disruptive behavior or him needing extra help.
There will be NO issue with his report card. I did not START raising my child yesterday. I just want his 1st year in High School to be all it can be and that means making clear that his parents are behind him and involved with him.
I’m a single mother raising a son and I am a very involved parent. Although, I believe ideally every child should have 2 parents in the home I refuse to allow my son to become a statistic because he has only me. His teachers know me and even though he is only 5 and in pre-K I have him do homework Monday thru Thursday. ALL parents must be involved in their child’s education…mothers and fathers.
I listen to discussions like this from teachers, social workers, preachers, politicians, family and friends, and others from every sphere of interest — and I worry. The discussions have taken on the dispassionate tone of a laboratory. I am not encouraged by what I read, see, and hear.
We talk about “parents” as a bundle of recommendations, actions, parenting styles, skills, and the elusive “involvement” necessary to make a difference in achievement at school. We talk about “fathers in the home” like a missing link or puzzle piece. We lament the escalating violence as more children kill children in our urban communities.
We now talk about “families” in clinical terms — single parent families, two parent famlies, blended families, grandparent headed families, extended families, nuclear families, adoptive families. When two people create a child, the “three of them are a family.” When did parenting get reduced to “baby mommas” and “baby daddies” who are not committed to each other or the responsibility to raise the child they just created. They each go their way like rabbits. They don’t seem to grasp the enormous responsibility to shape another human life.
We spout slogans like “It takes a village to raise a child” as if it is the long lost holy grail. What is frightening is that it appears that many have lost the natural instinct to nurture and care for children. So, we treat them as objects — to be placed in day care centers, head start programs, special needs classes, and on drugs to control their behavior.
Our grandparents and proverbial extended families and communities of the past did not need classes, studies, drugs or “experts” with advanced degrees to tell them how to nurture and care for children. Now we say the “children are off the hook” and wonder why.
Wasn’t it natural to provide safety and protection to our children? To help our children to understand community and family values? Isn’t it obvious that they must learn and develop skills to cope with an increasingly complex world? I am frightened that for a segment of our population, we have simply lost our way. Children cannot raise children or become effective parents after they dropuout, stop learning, fail to complete their own education, or develop working skills. So now, their children are the subject of the next “expert of the day” to come along. How can they be “involved” when they can’t read, don’t have books in their homes, don’t attend parent-teacher meetings, and blame everyone else who even tries to correct their children.
Yes, parents affect a child’s education. But it is no more of a silver bullet than any of the other remedies when people are unable to do what comes naturally — love, care for, nurture, and guide children through their developmental years.
For children born into such a world, their future is dim indeed.
You make some powerful points, Thuso. It’s imperative that we as a people don’t give up, though. There is a remnant of families that are eliciting change not just within their home, but on the mainstream.
This is precisely why Lamar and Ronnie embarked upon their “Happily Ever After” journey…to put in the mainstream’s mind that there is still a strong community of families within Black America that are changing this type of negativity one child, one family, one church, one community at a time.
Thuso said:
I listen to discussions like this from teachers, social workers, preachers, politicians, family and friends, and others from every sphere of interest — and I worry. The discussions have taken on the dispassionate tone of a laboratory. I am not encouraged by what I read, see, and hear.
We talk about “parents†as a bundle of recommendations, actions, parenting styles, skills, and the elusive “involvement†necessary to make a difference in achievement at school. We talk about “fathers in the home†like a missing link or puzzle piece. We lament the escalating violence as more children kill children in our urban communities.
We now talk about “families†in clinical terms — single parent families, two parent famlies, blended families, grandparent headed families, extended families, nuclear families, adoptive families. When two people create a child, the “three of them are a family.†When did parenting get reduced to “baby mommas†and “baby daddies†who are not committed to each other or the responsibility to raise the child they just created. They each go their way like rabbits. They dont seem to grasp the enormous responsibility to shape another human life.
We spout slogans like “It takes a village to raise a child†as if it is the long lost holy grail. What is frightening is that it appears that many have lost the natural instinct to nurture and care for children. So, we treat them as objects — to be placed in day care centers, head start programs, special needs classes, and on drugs to control their behavior.
~~~~~~~~~~
One person can’t raise a child even if two ppl created the child. Some ppl are just not fit to be parents but we don’t have to apply for a license to procreate. I don’t see anything wrong with day care or head start. Kids need to learn to socialize. I see something wrong with the above mentioned when the kid is in day care 12 hrs a day Mon-Fri. I do agree that special needs classes need to intergrate so kids don’t have to feel seperated. Kids on drugs to control their behavior is a joke. some parents don’t take the time to realize that ppl, including kids have allergic reactions to certain foods or smells that trigger something in the brain to make them different. My daughters don’t like the smell of perfume and one does not like the smell of crayons, it triggers something. The crayon non liking chid had a episode waiting in line while I retuned Christmas gifts (for others last yr.) she had to look at things “that sparkled”. She said “mommy I will be at the jewelry case”. I think she may have played me on that one and wanted mommy to buy her a new piece of jewelry. LOL. I do know that my kids do not like the smell of perfume, crayons and play doh. Why do kids/ppl now have a allergic reaction to “nuts”. When I grew up we made mud pies, played in the rain and ate peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. If you tore a house apart in our growing up years you would find “mold, asbestes(sp)lead paint and our immune system managed to survive. LOL. Todays kids are dust free and fancy free and don’t know that their system is to be built up. The H1N1 is to build up our immune system to fight it off. I don’t want that mist/shot. To each parent their own. I still wear my perfume and eat peanuts and I may not have lead paint in my home but my kids just have to “get over it”. Now my grandbaby on the way will get what ever she likes. I will child proof and gut what ever I have to do for my grand daughter. I know I am a mess. LOL.
The man is right! There is a funny documentary about wild elephants in South Africa. Once the adult male elephants were removed from the population all hell broke loose with the young.
https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/08/22/60II/main226894.shtml
No more Baby Daddies!!!! Please.