Club 2012 - Black parents push for black achievement

Continued at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...ed-in-school/2012/06/14/gJQAnEdZcV_story.html

 

Thanks for this, It's nice to read a positive Black folks story, to break up the constant barrage of negative ones.

 

You're welcome. This is the ultimate key to improvement of the black community. This article has motivated me to do even better in school for the fall semester.

 

Finally, a positive story.

I challenge Paniro and Iggy to post a story like this more often.

 

These are the kinds of stories that this forum needs.


Add me to that 3.7 GPA Club. Soon I will be a Bruin Alumni.

 

http://www.whitewomenblackmen.com/forum/showthread.php?p=686792#post686792

You should post in it.

 

Positive peer pressure. Need more of it.:wink:

 

Excellent post Mikey, this is what we need more of in the black communities as a whole when it comes to expectations placed on academic achievements.

Being a black nerd, geek, etc. should be heralded because these are the folks that have the abilities to become innovators, scientists, doctors, etc.

 

This last line is so true. When one has that guidance of the parents, an environment that encourages learning and the discipline instilled to excel, then its a positive start.

Growing up in the Caribbean culture and then coming to America, I was surprised at the difference in the approach to education.

In Guyana kids wanted the highest grades, wanted to go to the to the top schools. Which I got into but left to come to America half way through at the age of 12.

When I came here and entered an inner city Junior High school in Brooklyn, I was stunned at the lack of drive in academics. Only spent the 8th Grade there.

The kids were more focused on what kicks they were wearing, what brand name clothing they had on, fought everyday after school and just seemed unconcerned about education.

When I got into high school the next year, Boys and Girls High in Brooklyn, the principal, Frank Mickens now deceased, turned the school around dramatically. He made all the guys wear shirts and ties to school every day and the girls had to wear skirts. No jeans allowed.

If you acted up and started fights you were kicked out. No nonsense from him. He was a blessing for that school and helped me get into college.

I had heard horror stories about the school. I imagined something out of Lean On Me with Morgan Freeman, but the school turned out to be excellent thanks to the principal who demanded it from his teachers and students.

[YOUTUBE]ldYNQNStcOI[/YOUTUBE]

 

This was a very interesting read. It confirms what has been said all along about a child's academic success - parental contribution is essential. Even being wealthy and living in suburbia isn't a guarantee of academic advantage. Parents can't and should not pass their kids off onto the teacher alone.

I especially loved the notes to the teachers, the tours of the Universities, the adamant "act as if". These parents are a representative role-model for all American parents since we fall miserably short in academia versus other Western countries.
The only drawback which they rectified was the club's initial alienation of the Black female students, but a mother stepped up and took care of that. :smt038.

This was simply heartwarming.

 

Exactly. Most people are capable of learning irrespective, as long as they are in an environment that fosters and encourages it.

 

Thanks. All of Black America needs to be empowered and uplifted like this. Hopefully a national uprising could start from this kind of article.

 

Good.

 

Good to see.

I'm working with kids from the boys and girls club now; it's not easy, but hopefully I can help change their mental approach towards education. Break that negative cycle

 

Great to hear. Like you said it isn't easy but persistence is the key.

Even if one child gets the message, that is one more.