Summer Circle of Fun

It's Time!

We all realize that our most precious gifts to the world are being marginalized and disenfranchised here in the Western Front. Black and Latino males are disproportinately finding homes in today's prison cells instead of the world's Fortune 500's. I am on a mission to help change the landscape of how we reach and teach our young men.

The report below gives us a taste of what we see in our schools. It also opens up our eyes to the level of work we need to invest to eliminate that Prison Pipeline all together.



For over five years, The Schott Foundation for Public Education has tracked the performance of Black males in public education systems across the nation.* Past efforts by Schott were designed to raise the nation’s consciousness about the critical education issues affecting Black males; low graduation rates, high rates of placement in special education, and the disproportionate use of suspensions and expulsions, to name a few.
The 2008 edition, Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males, details the drastic range of outcomes for Black males, especially the tragic results in many of the nation’s biggest cities. Given Half a Chance also deliberately highlights the resource disparities that exist in schools attended by Black males and their White, non-Hispanic counterparts. The 2008 Schott report documents that states and most districts with large Black enrollments educate their White, non-Hispanic children, but do not similarly educate the majority of their Black male students. Key examples:
More than half of Black males did not receive diplomas with their cohort in 2005/2006.
The state of New York has 3 of the 10 districts with the lowest graduation rates for Black males.
The one million Black male students enrolled in the New York, Florida, and Georgia public schools are twice as likely not to graduate with their class as to do so.
Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, and Wisconsin graduated fewer Black males with their peer group than the national average.
Illinois and Wisconsin have nearly 40-point gaps between how effectively they educate their Black and White non-Hispanic male students.
These trends, and others cited in Given Half a Chance, are evidence of a school-age population that is substantively denied an opportunity to learn, and of a nation at risk.
* Black students are defined by the U.S. Department of Education as “students having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa as reported by their school.” Data in the Report are based on information from the U. S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics and Office for Civil Rights, state departments of education and local school districts.

from: http://www.blackboysreport.org/

Brothers of Distinction

I believe that it is time that I revamp this blog and begin to chronicle the important moments of my history. Time is moving forward and I am evolving in the midst of it. My mission is to open up a Boys Academy so that we can educate, empower, and encourage our young men to become "distinctive" global citizens and leaders who will change the landscape of the world we live in. It is time that I and "like-minded" urban scientists collaborate and make the movement come alive!

African Safari

Education For All--Including the President

The International Reading Association's President, Dr. Pamela Edwards of Georgia (US), and first African American female president, charged us with looking at the Education For All (EFA)Goals for improving international education for all students.

Six internationally agreed education goals aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015.

Goal 1 - Expand early childhood care and education

Goal 2 - Provide free and compulsory primary education for all

Goal 3 - Promote learning, life skills for young people and adults

Goal 4 - Increase adult literacy by 50 per cent

Goal 5 - Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015

Goal 6 - Improve the quality of education

Link: http://www.unesco.org/en/efareport/

Now, we had a chance to travel with Dr. Pamela Edwards to Zanzibar, wonderful island outside of Dar es Salaam. We thought it would such an honor to spend time with a professional woman from the south who was just selected as President-Elect of such a prominent organization in education. However, her attitude and demeanor toward the people of Africa was less than digestible to say the least.

My mother told me that if I did not have anything nice to say..do not say anything at all. So, I am going to stop here.

However, I would love to meet with her again, in the future to share how her overall presence depicted a very poor outlook on the African American community and educational profession as a whole. For once, I can say I was truly embarrassed to be part of the African American community.

6th Annual Pan African Reading Conference

The 6th Pan African Reading for All Conference took place at the University of Dar es Salaam from August 10th thru the 14th. Teachers from all over the globe converged on the campus to strategize how we can create meaningful and effective opportunities for students to become more literate.

Here are some questions I took away from the workshops that I attended:
* How can you remain effective in teaching class sizes of 40, 50, or more?

* What is literacy? And how do we make it accessible to all communities globally?

* How do you educate a child that has endured severe human conflicts and still motivate them to want to learn?
* What does professional development look like for African teachers versus the rest of the globe?
* What will it take to get Africa on the same common ground, educationally, as many of the other nations?

As I spoke with many African teachers and listened to their stories, I realized that many of them wanted the government and communities to support them with parental involvement, supplying adequate textbooks and spaces for children to learn, and opportunities to empower teachers with effective practices that are appropriate for the children they serve.

One of the biggest statements or questions that I took away from my time in the conference was:

Who's Voice Are We Going to Listen To?

Our children have so many obstacles to learning. They wake up in their own experiences and fight for survival; enter our classrooms and are expected to absorb material that is foreign to their identities; and go back to their own multi-layered lives wishing that someone would take the time to just listen to who they are and what they want for their own world.

Dream Activated

I have to be honest... Before I came, I just knew that God was going to speak to me about my destiny. He has been at work for a great deal of time in my life. I came here on a mission to be opened up to what he has in store for me. I wanted to hear him. To quiet my soul just enough to find out what lies ahead for me.

I am strongly considering opening up an international school for boys (grades K thru 8). I know that Male/Boys Education is extremely important. More than ever, we are seeing males disenfranchised in the traditional classroom. We are not accomodating for the researched-based needs that they have. We label them as lazy, shiftless, or hopeless. I am a living witness that this is not a reality.

Being here, watching strong males nurture and guide tens of hundreds or thousands of minds to success and freedom made me realize that this too can happen under my watch. This is something I want to do. With God's help, this year I will travel around the country to visit schools and publish that article. (Smile @ God Mother).

Photo Gallery II: Kwala Village

Here you will see candid shots of the Kwala Village. What we consider "poor" in America has no comparison to what we saw here. However, when you think of the fact that these people may have no comparison to our daily living---they seem complacent.

I did talk to one gentleman who wants to come to America to "live the good life" and get a nice home for his family and explore the opportunities in America. How quickly do I take for granted these "opportunities" that lie in America. Many times, we complain about how we lack the supports necessary to live the "American Dream". But how many of us are ready to work to make it a reality. When foreigners come to our land, they have a true goal in mind to obtain that American Dream and they sacrifice and do whatever is necessary to make it happen. However, some of us believe that we are inherit of this dream and find that it may be deferred or a non-reality because the "white man" has us down. Well...in Kwala...this puts things in perspective.

The little or the much that I have will never ever be taken for granted when I think about my stay here.

Photo Gallery 1

It is a challenge to upload photos as quickly as I would like. Internet here is really really really slow! Please stay tuned for more shots soon!

In an Aladhe of their Own

Kwala Primary and Secondary Schools both have strong missions of “Education is an Excellent Asset”. And the proof is in the children running up and down the main road, bags in tow, headed to school. I saw a child as young as four or five walking by himself to a school that was about a quarter of a mile away from his home.

As you walk around both campuses, children clutch onto their education like a mother to child. It is essential to be present and acquire as much knowledge as possible…because it is integral to the survival of their community.

The schools, themselves quite humble with materials or even basic fundamental classroom offerings—are still abundant with passion and vigor for a strong educational foundation.

I was blown away with what I saw inside. And I am sure you would be too!