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Our Deepest Fear. American Boys Are in a Crisis. Are all American boys in crisis? Is this a myth?. American Boys Are in a Crisis. Here are some of the solutions people said back in 2006 according to the Washington Post.
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American Boys Are in a Crisis • Are all American boys in crisis? • Is this a myth?
American Boys Are in a Crisis • Here are some of the solutions people said back in 2006 according to the Washington Post. • What boys needed, the experts said, was time outdoors, rubbing elbows with one another and learning from male role models. • Boys are wired differently from girls, learn in different ways and may just need their own schools. • Boys, they say, are at a disadvantage in the many classrooms headed by female teachers, who are supposedly hostile to their sex.
American Boys Are in a Crisis • It seems that this is not all true. We do have a crisis but mainly among boys from inner city and rural areas. • The Urban Institute reports that 76 percent of students who live in middle- to higher-income areas are likely to graduate from high school, while only 56 percent of students who live in lower-income areas are likely to do so. • Although we have been hearing that boys are virtually disappearing from college classrooms, the truth is that among whites, the gender composition of colleges is pretty balanced: 51 percent female and 49 percent male, according to the National Education Association. In Ivy League colleges, men still outnumber women. • But among blacks, for every 100 males who graduate, 139 females do.
In 2003, only 55 percent of African American and 53 percent of hispanics completed high school. Now in 2009, 50 percent of all African American boys do not finish high school.
It is well-recognized that girls outpace boys in high school and are more likely to go to college.
American Boys Are in a Crisis • How can we encourage parents to be more involved? • What kind of school outreach can we do? • What do teachers need to do to help? • How can we get more men to become involved? • What extra-curricular activities can the community offer?
Here Are Some Facts • PARENT INVOLVEMENT: Parents and teachers need to be partners. Yet, even though participation is critical it’s not always practical: Many African American families have only one parent, and some of them are working two jobs to earn a decent living. • SCHOOL OUTREACH: “Often public school administrators don’t expect the same level of active involvement from poor black and hispanic inner-city parents that they would from middle-class suburban parents," says Gretchen Booth, a resource specialist in the Los Angeles school district.
TEACHER TRAINING: To improve the quality of education for all students-including black males-instructors will need continuous staff training around cultural, class, gender, and language issues. • MALE MENTORS AND INSTRUCTORS: The earlier boys are exposed to men in academic settings, the better. The sight of male teachers in the early elementary grades will help boys appreciate how important school is. • EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: Schools can’t solve all the problems that many boys face as they grow. Community groups and after-school programs that offer boys social, physical, and emotional outlets for their energy-track clubs, martial arts, music programs, leadership training, and the like-can ultimately help children come to school better prepared to learn. • SCHOOL REFORM: At the district level, administrators can stop the inappropriate use of ability (or tracking) in the classrooms, task forces can set up ways to make the curriculum more relevant to all children in the classrooms, and resource specialists can reexamine the guidelines for referring students to special education classes. In the end, such reforms could eventually help all students experience excellence
Coach Carter • The movie Coach Carter touches on how Ken Carter instills pride and self-worth to the inner-city teenage boys who valued playing basketball than education.
Coach Carter • In the beginning, Ken Carter takes over as the basketball coach at his former high school in Richmond, near San Francisco. He sets strict new rules for the players, insisting that they sign contracts agreeing to meet his standards, such as agreeing to remain at or above a 2.3 GPA, attend all classes sitting in the front row, and wearing a shirt and tie on game nights. Some players decide to leave the team.
Coach Carter • With Carter's intense coaching, the team begins the season undefeated, and wins a holiday tournament. However, Carter discovers that some of his players are not producing the agreed academic results. He locks the team out of the gym in the midst of their still-undefeated season, canceling practice and forfeiting games in favor of studying in the library.
Coach Carter This next clip is a brief trailer of the movie Coach Carter. Samuel Jackson plays the part of Ken Carter. This is based on a true story.
The school board eventually votes to end the unpopular lockout, despite dissenting votes from the principal and the chairperson of the board. Carter is about to quit, but he finds the players sitting at school desks in the gym, with teachers tutoring them. The players point out that even though the gym is reopened, the school board can't force them to play. Carter is heartened and decides to stay, thanking the players.
Coach Carter This next clip shows the teenagers sitting in the gym studying. With one teenager reciting the powerful and memorable poem, “ My Deepest Fear”
Produced by: Adris Swift Resources: Black Boys in Crisis in America Published by Pamela Gentry on Friday, September 25, 2009 Washington Post, The Myth of 'The Boy Crisis‘ By Caryl Rivers and Rosalind Chait Barnett Sunday, April 9, 2006 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Carter
