Monday, October 20, 2008

My Perspective: Here’s a Plan for Saving Urban Kids

A few weeks ago as I was searching for some urban topics of interest, I stumbled across an interesting article about a plan to save urban kids. The article is on a blog written by a principal from Ohio, Jawanza Kunjufu. He makes a good case about various strategies that could be beneficial to children and their futures. However, there is no mention of key players that form a sense of agency to buttress his suggestions. While the parents, educators and administrators understand the significance of agency in fostering quality education, he excludes it.

It could very well be that, Jawanza Kunjufu, excluded the sense of agency because it has not produced any tangible results from his perspective. I’m of course only making an assumption because there is nothing to support this premise. I have never read anything pertaining to education that he has written. Therefore I have no prior knowledge of his past ideologies but he does state in the theme of the article, “Here’s one plan for saving urban kids”, qualifying it with “one” may be the basis for non-exclusion.

With that said I think some of, Jawanza Kunjufu, list of suggestions are palatable and should be entertained in an effort to prepare children for bright and productive futures. Let’s face it, without any direction, children become educated by the media and they envision themselves in unrealistic future occupations such as, sport stars, musicians, and comedians.

I would like to analyze a few of, Jawanza Kunjufu, suggestions because I think they are worthy of mention and critique. I will list them in the order written in his blog, which are 3, 4, 6, and 10. They are the following:

3) Institute Looping

He favors looping which is keeping the same teacher with the same group of students. The teacher has the student from freshman to senior year.

He believes the student will form relationship with the teacher making the school seem or appear smaller.

4) Raise Expectations

Kunjufu says research has shown teachers lower expectations for
poor children, boys, minority children and kids who are unkempt.

He says schools must enforce high expectations for kids without
exception. If you expect kids to perform poorly, they will. If you
expect them to excel, they will too.

6) Reading must be treated as the most important subject

Whether you look at kids in special education or prison, you will
find a large percentage with major reading problems, he said.

In the majority of black schools, Kunjufu said too often the reading
materials are not targeted to the kids’ interests. He urges teachers
to consider the reading materials that they have and ask if they
would interest their students, especially black boys.

10) Teach kids capitalism

Urban kids tend to focus on unrealistic career paths, such as
playing pro basketball or becoming a famous rapper. Schools
should teach them tools for more realistic careers where they can
gain similar fortunes.

Schools, he said, should be teaching kids about the stock market,
entrepreneurship and real estate. These careers can gain similar fortunes.

He suggested making a senior project in which three student-
designed business plans would get $50,000 in seed money to
start the businesses. That sort of realistic incentive would
motivate kids to learn financial skills.

From my perspective these are valid proposals that should be evaluated from a pros and cons viewpoint. For instance, institute looping; may be good for students to develop bonds with the teachers over an extended period. The student will probably be less apprehensive about inquiry. At the same time the student is not being exposed to a dynamic environment, and therefore may develop a complex toward change. Nothing is as static as it was years ago and things change within our intellectual environment very rapidly. This may have some validity but there has to be some balancing so that the student learns to adapt to change.

Now let’s look at number 4, raise expectations, I think that this proposal is valid. Expectations should be the same for all children. They intuitively understand how they are being viewed. You should not vary intellectual material according to race, gender or ethnicity. Standardization for all is a must for equal education.

The next is number 6, reading must be treated as the most important subject. I concur with Kunjufu on this proposal. Literacy is the most important aspect of learning. If you cannot read then your level of understanding is diminished significantly. All content areas require a certain level of understanding for success. Students must read material of their interest to foster literacy. Reading, facilitates writing and language. Educators cannot over emphasize the importance of reading.

The last which is number 10, teach kids capitalism. It is important that students understand this because as he mentions, they can have unrealistic career expectations. Statistically the numbers are not in favor of most students becoming professional athletes. Educating students so that they are aware of real professional opportunities would clearly be to their advantage.

While I can appreciate some of Kunjufu s’ perspective it is not without flaws. Not once did he mention anything about parents, community, or extended family. It would be hard to foster this type of mindset without their involvement, from my perspective. Again maybe he intended to include them but assumed it was a given. He does make some good suggestions whether they are practical or not.

Kunjufu speaks of gender specific classes and that boys should start their education later than girls. He is contradictory because he states that everyone should have the same educational opportunity.

In a broad sense it is helpful to view the perspectives of educators on a national level. It can help shape and broaden your knowledge about the evolution of urban education.