It's time for parents and teachers to talk. We sit and listen. Our son's elementary school math teacher wouldn't let him move up to a higher level. It had been done before. We gave them the results of independent tests that showed he was doing at a middle school level. The school had already given him a test and found that he was very smart. His teacher told us that he was just too young. Nothing could convince her otherwise. My wife and I were sure that our son wasn't as smart as she thought he was. Now that our son is a freshman in high school, we wonder if he will be able to handle all of these pressures.
Parents hope that the new school year will be good for their kids. But I wonder if, deep down, things will get better for the children of America. We hear a lot about bad students and students who don't do well in American schools. My talk is about the "good" kids, not the "bad" ones. In the 1960s, a white man named John Howard Griffin wrote a book called Black Like Me. In it, he learned about the dangers of being black. This changed the way he thought about black people. In the same way, I hope you will have a similar experience as we talk about the situation of children in America.
Young black boys grow up in today's society to be entertainers and sports heroes, not engineers, lawyers, or doctors. Young black boys are shown in the media to be dangerous, violent, and sexual. Does it really matter that Billy is as dumb as a rock if he can dunk a basketball or run a touchdown for our team? In general, most American boys aren't doing as well as we'd like. The storyline for black boys, on the other hand, is scary. Young black men are at the top of every bad statistic you can think of. Their test scores, dropout rates, and unemployment rates are the worst.
In many school districts, black male students were suspended twice as often as female students. Surprisingly, most people who get suspended are black, even in schools that are mostly in suburbs and where there aren't many black people. Even if they don't do well in school, they do better in the American prison system. From the way black boys are treated in society, it's easy to see that every major institution has failed them and let urban culture take advantage of them. With the help of the media, the culture of today bombards young people with conflicting values.
No matter how rich or poor they are, most involved black parents have problems with their sons. They have to deal with people who want their child to take medicine, go to a special school, or stay behind. Most high schools may not have many black males in their honours classes, but you can be sure that most of the special education students will be black males. Many teens don't do their best so they can fit in. Peers often pick on and bother students who are smart and try hard. The same culture tells them that going to school means you are white. Some people give in to cultural pressures and don't do their best. They have no one to look up to. In some school systems, a child can go from kindergarten to high school without ever having a black teacher.
Even though the situation is hard, a lot of people are still fighting for these boys. The 100 Black Men is one group that tries to make a difference. But more black men need to get involved in all parts of the lives of American children. Everyone can learn from a good male role model. Some think it's already too late. The author of America Has Lost a Generation of Black Boys, Phillip Jackson, says, "No more time. We have lost a generation of young black men in the areas of education, jobs, the economy, health, housing, and being parents."
America is in a very important time in its history. Low-performing students need to be fixed if the U.S. wants to be able to compete on the world stage. Does America really care what happens to young black boys? We all depend on each other. But it would be a terrible mistake for good people to do nothing about this coming danger. If that's the case, please forgive us for not throwing you a lifeline. Live or rest in peace (RIP).
