Are We Raising Leaders or Followers

What is causing and helping to maintain the achievement gap?

There at least two things that we do know: frequently schools in low-income communities fail to teach children and parents are influential in children's academic progress. To expand on these knowns about failing schools; they often have the newest or the the worst teachers; books and teaching materials are scarce and in too many instances the physical plants of these school are in shambles---no heat in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer, no working toilets. We have also been told that children who do well in school usually have parents who read to them regularly and are in school e.g. going to parent-teacher conferences and attending PTA meetings, yadda, yadda, yadda. The key piece however that seems to have been left out the public dialogue is how important parenting styles are to academic success. How you parent your child may trump what's happening in their schools.

First before I go any further, I am in no way saying that reforming public education is not a priority. Public schools should be places of learning that expect the best possible outcomes for all students. To advance that goal public schools have to provide children with teachers ready and willing to teach them, a safe environment and the tools that they need to learn be those books, computers or lab supplies. What seems more and more clear to me however is that how parents go about "developing" their children may be equally or more important to their academic and life success than the school that they attend.

The book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life by Annette Lareau is an interesting study about the parenting styles of middle class, working class and poor parents. In short-- middle class parents practice "concerted cultivation" which exposes children to an array of enrichment activities and strongly encourages speech and language development. In comparion, working class and poor parent are more apt to have a more hand's off approach known as "natural growth."

Concerted Cultivation
Middle class children, through their activities, learn how to interact with other adults (almost as equals), they learn the importance of discipline and teamwork (and competition) and how to deal with public scrutiny of their performance whether it's a soccer game or a piano recital. Parents also talk to the children in a way that builds their vocabularies and encourages reasoning skills. Rather than giving a child a directive, middle class parents often ask questions or provide the "because" of why something should be done. Perhaps most important, the middle class parent is willing to intervene on behalf of her child with the school or with any institution that has some bearing on her child's life. Middle class parents have no problem going over teachers' heads if they deem a grade unfair or paying for outside consultants to dispute a teacher/school assessment. Middle class children usually are articulate and by watching their parents they learn how to maneuver in the "system" to their benefit.

Natural Growth
According to Lareau (and other researchers) working class and poor parents are more apt to employ the "natural growth" style of parenting. Natural Growth is pretty much, "let a kid be a kid." Working class and poor parents, frequently consumed with how to keep a roof over their kids heads and food on the table, do not get involved in planning or overseeing their children's extracurricular activities. This means kids play outside with neighborhood friends or family members in an unscheduled, informal way. Working class and poor parents tend to use less word and give their children more directives. The net result is that generally working class and poor children do not have robust vocabularies and since they are always being told what to do without an explanantion they may have less developed critical thinking skills. Moreover, working class and poor parents are less likely to be an advocates for their children with the schools. Certainly it is not that these parents do not want the best for their children, it is that they often feel intimidated in the school environment and ill equipped (because their own education) to make education decisions for their children. In general they tend to let the school "professionals" make the decisions about their children's educational needs.

Although Lareau takes great pains not to suggest that the parenting styles of the middle class are superior to those of the poor and working class, she is forced to concede that the lessons and modes of speech and behavior that middle class children learn through "concerted cultivation" are more valued in our society. While some middle class kids can be bratty and whiny, overall they do well on standardized tests and know how to conduct themselves on job interviews and are comfortable socializing with people outside of their family. So while working class and poor children are generally more respectful of adults and have closer family ties, these characteristics are not as highly valued by society and will not help them to navigate societal institutions.

Poor and Middle Class Black Parents
Programs such as Harlem Children's Zone is taking a holistic approach to educating poor children which includes programs like "Baby College" that help their parents be better and more informed parents. The thinking is that many poor parents would implement strategies, such as daily reading, if they were aware of the importance of these activities. I think that the premise is correct and that we need to see more of these type of programs around the country.

However, the achievement gap would be less dramatic if we could say that only low-income Black children are affected, but that is not the reality. What more and more studies are showing is that although there is an increase in the number of middle class Black families (as represented by their incomes), their parenting styles still reflects their working class or poor roots. As a result, middle class Black children, despite their increased socio-economic standing are still not performing on par academically with their White and Asian peers. This means that middle class parents have to also be brought to the realization that they may need to re-consider their parenting style if they want their children to be competitive in this global economy. I think that the organizations that many middle class Black families belong to: fraternities and sororites; churches and civil rights organization need to really step up their involvement in the education and parenting discussion.

Black parenting styles that privilege following orders and being respectful have important historical rationales. There were times when a Black person's life and livelihood literally depended on whether or not they were deferential and compliant. Moreover given the poor treatment that Blacks received and still do receive at the hands of schools and other government institutions, there is no wonder that for some Blacks there is a lingering concern about dealing with them. All that being said, we have to all be willing to move forward, particularly as we prepare our children. We don't want our kids to be the whiny, disrespectful kids that we sometime see in the street, but neither do we want our kids to be consigned to the low-end of the career/life opportunity ladder because they are scared and ill-prepared to deal outside of their immediate community. We need to be preparing our children to lead and give orders, not just follow and keep their heads down.

Jay-Z: Man of Contradictions

Before I start, I have to give homage to Nelson George. I lifted the title of his 1992 book, Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos: Notes on Post-Soul Black Culture for this blog.

I thought that the title summed up my thoughts about the complexity of the "Black America" that I have experienced. So as I embark on this blogging journey, I will be sharing my observations about the various faces of Black Americans that I see regularly. Some of us are poor; some of us are rich; some of us are urbane; some of us are provincial; some of us a well educated; some of us are illiterate. My point is that while public dialogue seems to center on only one sector of "Black America," the other parts are also alive and well and contributing--whether for the good or the bad to our overall society. For my part I want to give every sector equal light.

To start it all off, I am going to talk about Jay-Z:

I saw Jay-Z on Charlie Rose the other night. He was articulate, poised, insightful and funny---everything that a rap artist is not supposed to be. He was talking about his CD "American Gangster" which is inspired by the film of the same name starring Denzel Washington.

This is not a music review, so I am not getting into the merits of the CD, or his body of work. I will say however that in my opinion Reasonable Doubt is a masterpiece.

One of the things that struck me about the interview (his second with Rose-- the first was in 2004) was that here was a guy from Marcy housing projects in Brooklyn who could now hold his own with a world class interviewer on an array of topics. What was apparent to me was that Jay-Z is ambitious and learned early on that learning how to maneuver in a world beyond Brooklyn did not put his"Blackness" in question. Moreover his willingness to learn new things, talk to different people and travel did not make him a sell-out. Even in the face of critics (which included a few White bloggers who felt he had no business on the show), Jay-Z is clear about where he came from and where he wants to go. With that confidence he did not need to shout about "keepin' it real."

Jay-Z obliquely talked about his drug-dealing past but did not dwell on it or glorify it. In the interview his background as a hustler served as the departure point to where he is now, president of Def Jam and multi-millionaire rap artist. Jay-Z, like many other people came to one of the many folks in the road---keep hustling or make music. He chose to get on the entertainment route. To his credit, he continues to work on develop himself, not feeling compelled to maintain the same ideas or lifestyle that he had when he lived in Marcy.

Jay-Z will forever rep Marcy projects, it's his roots, it is his foundation. I think that the Jay-Z can provide an important lesson to people young and old--- you don't have to turn your back on your roots in order to grow and thrive. Recently I was a panelist at the Executive Leadership Committee's Mid-Managers Symposium and got to hear Don Thompson, the youngish president of McDonald's USA. One the most relevant points of his speech was about the importance of being comfortable with your Blackness before you can be comfortable dealing with other folks.

Jay-Z realized that his being Black and from the projects were parts of his biography that were never going to change---the only question for him was whether those were going to be the only entries. Frankly I think that what Jay-Z, Don Thompson and countless other people can teach us is that there is no reason to run away from being Black (poor, minority, woman, old, etc), but don't use it as a crutch either for why you are not looking for and taking advantage of opportunities to get ahead and improve your life, economically, socially and spiritually.