Modern day minstrel shows?

Madaboutx
Tue, 19 Nov 2013 08:02:34 +0000

I think there is something more cultural than subversive at work.

It’s a culture of low expectations. It’s alive and well in many homes in the black community and it doesn’t matter if that home is in an affluent neighborhood.

I hear many black parents that are very happy if their sons graduate high school, don’t do drugs and stay out of prison and gangs. These aren’t bad objectives but they are bare minimum goals. We need to start pushing kids to excel academically. We need to know when the best they can do is the best they can do.

Another part of this culture of low expectations is the idea that it’s up to schools to teach our children. I hear many in the black community complain about the failure of schools to teach their kids. More black parents need to accept personal responsibility for their children’s learning. It’s the parent’s job to read to their kids, teach the alphabet, encourage reading, review homework and stay on top of the teachers. A school is a place where we send kids to learn but a school is never fully responsible for ensuring that your child learn, nor can it be when thousands of kids go there. They teach and if learning happens that is good. If not, too bad.

There are plenty of exceptions to what I’m saying but not enough. Far too few homes where reading is a passion, education is seen as an escape from poverty and bad neighborhoods and expectations of academic excellence are encouraged, reinforced and enforced upon our children.