A recent T&D article titled "SCSU to help teachers create 'culturally relevant' classrooms" reported that Dr. Evelyn Fields had procured a $100,000 grant to help teachers "get more in sync with students" because "teachers can instruct students more effectively if they understood the cultural backgrounds" of black students. Fields suggests that focusing on cultural considerations in the classroom will decrease disciplinary problems.
While this seems to be an admirable endeavor, I do question if the underlying premise is inherently flawed.
Culture
John McWhorten, a black senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Stanford University, recognizes that black students from Africa and the Caribbean who attend U.S. schools perform very well. This suggests that something other than "racism" is the cause of low academic performance among African-American students.
In addition, David Horowitz, who formerly worked closely with the Black Panthers, notes that Asian immigrants "who struggle with both a foreign language and an alien culture" consistently outperform both black and white students.
Discipline
Fields references research suggesting that "African-American boys are very active and like to move around the classroom" and "forcing them to sit still in the classroom at that age is not conducive to learning."
I am particularly appalled at the idea that the expected standard of behavior for non-white students should be lowered because they simply don't have it in them to behave as well as white students. I can account first-hand, along with stories I've heard from countless other Native American men, of being perceived as a Native American male, and all the "savage" and "stoic" references that come along with it.
Being of both English and Choctaw Indian descent, and having lived, worked and worshipped closely with fellow Native Americans, I am deeply concerned that the very idea that nonwhites need "special attention" does more harm than good. And I say that as a Native American male who has earned a master's degree in business.
Juan Williams, a black author and one of America's leading journalists, once wrote, "One of the most damning of all is the acceptance of the idea that black people are weak and powerless victims of American society instead of heroes who prove the virtue of the American promise â¦"
Larry Elder, black radio and TV talk show host and best-selling author, wrote that "In the (private schools) authorities do not tolerate acting out⦠that child gets kicked out because if the teachers and administrators refuse to do anything about it, the other cash-paying parents will."
Intended beneficiaries
In her best-selling book, "Do-gooders," Mona Charen challenges "liberal thinking" that views all issues "from the perspective of a person with troubles." As she wrote, attempting to "compensate" minorities wholly ignores the fact that "special favors are not always good even for the intended beneficiaries."
Charen insists that such "do-gooder" programs are more about creating jobs for under-performing educators than helping the poor people they are designed to instruct, just as affirmative action programs benefit affluent minorities rather than poor minorities for whom they are intended.
Parents
Larry Elder insists that "when a students' classroom behavior is unacceptable, that's a student whose mother never bothers to come to a parent-teacher conference or whose father is not living in the home." As an African-American male, he makes no excuses in asking, "What about the simple fact that black kids fail to study as hard as many of their peers?"
I contrast this clearly with Native Americans today who insist that a number of their socioeconomic problems are the entire result of governmental policies both before and after Indian Removal in the 1830s.
We neglect to consider that in the early 1800s, many Native Americans in the Southeast were insistent that "education" be a prominent aspect of treaties signed with the United States government. These Indian leaders saw great promise in modern education. It is for this reason that even today they are referred to as "The Five Civilized Tribes."
My point is that there should be no excuses for not preparing oneself to compete in our growing global environment. Perhaps no one group knows this better than Native Americans.
American students, parents and educators might take note of the actions of southeastern Native Americans in the early 1800s. They insisted on providing their children with a modern education. And they refused to allow cultural considerations to stand in the way of it.
Keith Pounds holds an MBA with a concentration in organizational psychology. He is the author of "A Concise Encyclopedia of the Choctaw Indians" and the newly released book, "The Psychology of Management." His writings can be viewed at keithpounds.com. He can be contacted at Keith.Pounds@alumni.aiuonline.edu