Black Boys and 4th Grade Failure Syndrome
It is no secret that Black men are disproportionately uneducated, unemployed and incarcerated. Articles I’ve read in Noteworthy News and The Black Scholar toss out statistics that say that a six year old Black boy has a one in three chance of going to prison in his lifetime and the unemployment rate among young Black men is forty percent. To understand the issues affecting Black men, we have to understand the life experiences of Black boys which shape the attitudes and behaviors of Black men. These statistics say one thing to me: Black men are becoming more and more disconnected from society each day.
Where does this start? How can we prevent this? Is it a preventable phenomenon?
The author of Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys (an old book but one that I recommend nonetheless) tried to explain this phenomenon by performing a longitudinal study of test scores, general attitude toward school and self-image in a group of 80 boys, all in the same school, and all in the same class. What he found was alarming. Through first grade, the Black boys in his study express positive feelings about themselves and school. These feelings make a shift for the worse in second grade and by fifth grade the boys are outright cynical about the schooling process and their sense of self has degraded correspondingly. This shift in attitude correlates with a shift in performance. The author refers to this drop in enthusiasm and academic performance as Fourth Grade Failure Syndrome, the “poor transition boys make between the primary and intermediate division”.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhZzIx6aKqw&feature=player_embedded#!
The causes can be identified as teachers not understanding “Black Male Culture” which leads to boys feeling as if they are marginalized in class, that they exist outside of the culture of the classroom. The teachers in the study became less encouraging academically and more inclined to pushing Black boys disproportionately toward athletics. This is reinforced by the media and the fact that Black boys have limited access to positive images of Black men.
Second through fifth grade is a crucial time in any of our lives. We are building ideas of self at this time while trying to reconcile the different ways that people view us. If teachers positively reinforce athletic achievement in Black males more than academic achievement and the idea that academic achievement being akin to “acting White” among Black schoolchildren, then we have a confluence of pressure from teachers and peers to find success outside of the schoolbooks at an early age. To achieve academically then is to reconfigure ideas of self that are not consistent with those that society tends to impose on Black males.
By the time young Black men enter the intermediate stage of their schooling, they are left confused by notions of success and have constructed negative images of self. And if you ask me, that is the real Fourth Grade Failure Syndrome. The fact that Black boys enter the school system on par with their peers shows that there are no at risk kids, just at risk situations. If we can remedy the situations, then perhaps we can take a step toward improving the current condition of Black males.
Thanks for the correlation to the disturbing news I heard in New Orleans that planners use the # of 3rd graders who cannot read to estimate the bed space for new prisons. So sad. We got to do a better job of protecting our own!
Thanks for the correlation to the disturbing news I heard in New Orleans that planners use the # of 3rd graders who cannot read to estimate the bed space for new prisons. So sad. We got to do a better job of protecting our own!
Sheree, I’ve heard the same thing but I heard that it’s on a national level. So disturbing. All the more reason for us to take a stronger hand in our kids early education. There’s no reason we can’t curb this.
Sheree, I’ve heard the same thing but I heard that it’s on a national level. So disturbing. All the more reason for us to take a stronger hand in our kids early education. There’s no reason we can’t curb this.
We can educate our young girls and women all we want and we should because they are the first teachers of our children, but the African American community will not do well until we educate and train our boys and men. Doing this is not magical!
All of us who don’t spend our time, talents and money to see that our boys are developed socially and educationally are part of the “conspiracy to destroy black boys”
We can educate our young girls and women all we want and we should because they are the first teachers of our children, but the African American community will not do well until we educate and train our boys and men. Doing this is not magical!
All of us who don’t spend our time, talents and money to see that our boys are developed socially and educationally are part of the “conspiracy to destroy black boys”
“All of us who don’t spend our time, talents and money to see that our boys are developed socially and educationally are part of the “conspiracy to destroy black boys””
David, Kunjufu makes a similar point in his series. I couldn’t agree with you more. We have to take the time to make sure that everyone who comes in contact with our children nurtures and cares for their social and educational well-being.
“All of us who don’t spend our time, talents and money to see that our boys are developed socially and educationally are part of the “conspiracy to destroy black boys””
David, Kunjufu makes a similar point in his series. I couldn’t agree with you more. We have to take the time to make sure that everyone who comes in contact with our children nurtures and cares for their social and educational well-being.
We are dealing with a very strong belief boys should be strong in the information age, which is very much opposite of the more stable, nurturing environments we as girls and women enjoy. The lower the socioeconomic bracket and more time in those brackets the much more heavy the belief remains to make boys strong, much to their disadvantage in school. In those lower environments and time in those areas, the belief boys should be strong sets in place much more aggressive treatment of boys from as early as one year of age and increased they grow by parents, peers, and teachers. This creates very real accumulations (unlike our present, very inadequate definition of average stress) of many layers of unresolved mental conflicts along with many defensive weights, values, fears, preparations for defense, and anger. It creates much more social/emotional distance/distrust of parents, teachers, and other adults. Boys in those environments (also but gradually less in higher socioeconomic environments) are also given less mental, emotional, social, *verbal interaction or support for fear of coddling. Also the belief boys should be strong is allowing for a very large window of much more catharsis of anger and tension upon very young and older boys knowing society will look the other way.
As girls we are treated much better and so enjoy more hope and care from society. We enjoy much more care and support and care from society from infancy through adulthood and receive love and honor simply for being girls. This creates all of the good things. We enjoy lower average stress for more ease of learning. We enjoy much more freedom of expression from much protection that makes us look more unstable at times. Of course we can also use that same freedom of expression to give verbal, silent abuse, and hollow kindness/patronization to our Male peers with impunity knowing we are protected. We enjoy much lower muscle tension for more ease and ability in handwriting and motivation to write. We enjoy much more positive, trust/communication from parents, teachers, peers, and more support for perceived weaknesses. We are reaping a bonanza in the information age. The lower the socioeconomic bracket the much more amplified the differential treatment from infancy and more differentiated over time through adulthood. Now with girls and women taking over many areas of society, we are enjoying even more lavishing of love and honor from society, while the boys and men are now failing more so and are now given even more ridicule and abuse by society. Mind you, this is also now coming from many girls and women using our still protected freedoms of expression and more so with false feelings of superiority. My learning theory will go to all on request and provides tools all of us can use to continually change and improve our lives.