The Miseducation of African American Children

[Cheryl]

The Miseducation of African American Children
by Cheryl Lacey Donovan

Nothing saddened me more than the fact that three of my African American female students had no idea what the term “lynching” meant. These were otherwise, decently educated young black women seeking a career in the medical field.

During our exploration of medical ethics, we were watching a film about the “Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment” which took place in the 1930’s. This experiment was responsible for the spreading of syphilis to thousands of African American people in Tuskegee, Alabama.

During the course of the film, the main character suggested that his brother had been killed by lynching. The students turned to me and asked what it meant. My heart fell to my knees at the thought that any African American child in the United States would not recognize what this term meant.

With a lack of understanding like this, it’s no wonder that Tiger Woods was able to blow off the comment made by the news reporter some weeks ago.

You see, the problem is that our children are sitting in classrooms with people who either don’t care that they learn or who have their hands tied by the system when it comes to how and what they teach.

In Texas, teachers spend a disproportionate amount of their time teaching to a standardized test. How on earth do you standardize one’s education? Every person learns in a different way and at different speeds. Some learn by seeing, some learn by listening, and some learn by doing. There are also those people who have testing phobias that prohibit them from doing well on any test. Yet the powers that be have deemed it necessary to gauge a persons intelligence using these standardized tests. They have even gone so far as to connect the teachers ability to get a bonus with the success of the students on the standardized test.

Field trips to the museum, symphonies, and other cultural outlets are few and far between because teachers are in constant fear of losing their jobs if their students don’t perform well. Therefore, many of them don’t even bother addressing a wholistic approach to learning which would include learning ones history, culture, and background.

It’s no wonder that these three young ladies had no idea what lynching meant. The issue here is that if we forget our history, we will be doomed to repeat. When the atrocities that were inflicted upon African Americans is all but forgotten, a new reign of terror is bound to come about: Jena 6, nooses hanging at prominent fortune 500 companies, a man dragged to death in Jasper, Texas.

We must begin to teach our children about their history and make it relevant for them today. If the schools won’t do it, we have to. We can no longer afford to relegate this most important task to people who could care less if we know what has happened to us in the past.

Let’s take every opportunity that we can, not just during black history month, to learn all we can about ourselves and our people so that we can share it with everyone we know.

[Daryl Grigsby]

I totally agree with the challenge and proposed solution. In some ways History is ridiculed as a useless major unless you teach, but I can say, as a History major (and proud of it) it is stunning to see the errors, fallacies, and crucial mistakes of people and nations unaware of their past. It was this very thought that led to my most recent literary project, the recently published IN THEIR FOOTSTEPS: INSPIRATIONAL REFLECTIONS ON BLACK HISTORY FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR. In the book i have daily profiles on black folk who sacrificed and struggled on behalf of their people. Nina Simone, Huey Newton, Fannie Lou Hamer, Barbara Jordan, Thurgood Marshall, Patrice Lumumba, Curtis Mayfield, Medgar Evers, the black Monks of South Carolina, Absalom Jones, Ella Baker and hundreds more. The idea is to expose the reader to the vast riches of black history - every single day. you can see reviews on Amazon

[Cheryl]

I would love to have you as a guest on my internet radio show. Let me know if this is something you can do.

[Daryl Grigsby]

i would love to be on your internet radio show. let me know how, when and where. my email is [e-mail], i have a Myspace page, and phone number is 425 765 1789.
look forward to working with you on this!

[Brent Mason]

I concur. When my daughter started to recite passages of books about non-black stories, the first thing I did was get a children's book about racial relationships and disparity. It's not that I want to challenge her young mind to choose between what she wants and what she needs, I want for her to invest just as much time in learning about where not only African American cultures come from, but where other less fortunate cultures come from as well (for as far as I can tell, all races are on the same track, some just got a head start is all.)

I remind my children and any other child for that matter, that in order for mankind as a whole to move forward, Our children need to learn just as much as Diasporic events of the world and not just about, Alexander's conquest, or Ghengis Kahn's kingdom.

That's partly why I wrote about Africa, to give my children a remembrance of where we come from and the great things that our past was made of. Selective teaching does not give the broad view that have encompassed trans-atlantic and pacific events.

If there is anything short of giving to our children to remind them of anything, then give them a book, a slave narrative, or anything written to remind them of how far the African American race has come.

As soon as I see a program come on about African/African American history, I gather my kids up and say, "Let's take a look at this."

Give the kids an alternative to Harry, Hanna and whoeva.

[slaine]

even thogh we are brought up in the system , we need to re-educate our children about there rich Afrikan history and culture.

[jawar]

Thank you for this post.

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