Education Talk

Way Back Jack · Guest

That's OK, Obama will dump more of your tax dollars on it.
___________

Why Shakir Can't Read
By Helen Cadogan
I was talking to a friend the other day who teaches at an elementary
school and has a student whom I shall name Shakir. Shakir is ten, and
he's barely literate. My friend's class is not a large one; she has
five to eight students. She also has a teaching assistant, and between
them, the kids receive a lot of personal, one-to-one attention.
Nevertheless, Shakir still can't read.

The why of this phenomenon is quite important; you see, there are lots
of Shakirs in the black community. For he is one of many kids flunking
his way through the educational system, even as he advances through
it. I think there are many causal factors for Shakir's non-performance
in school; amongst them are Shakir himself and his priorities; the
instability of his family; his community culture; and, the school
system itself.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, I am not going to point the finger
first at the school. After all, Shakir is not a receptacle whose lid
can be raised so that some teacher can stuff in the knowledge he
needs. Education is a participative process, you see. The school and
teachers have their part, and the kid and his family have their role
to play.

A large part of the problem is that Shakir refuses to do his bit to
educate himself. Given classwork in school, Shakir engages in a series
of acts of avoidance. He will disrupt, pick fights with his
classmates, curse, destroy objects in his environment, sleep, declare
that he will do nothing, or take the entire day simply to write his
name. No amount of cajoling, promises, or behavioral modification
methods can change Shakir's mind. For him to work for a little bit,
there must be some immediate object or event that he finds desirable
to attain or participate in. Even then, when the gain is weighed
against the effort required to work, Shakir may well determine that
the work is not worth doing to obtain the prospective reward.

At the root of all his disruptive behavior is Shakir's acknowledgment
that he cannot read, his frustration with his illiteracy, and his
stated unwillingness to use the kindergarten level materials that will
help him to read. Shakir will neither let his teacher nor her aide
help him --that requires him to work; plus, he has to represent before
his peers -- nor will he go to the kindergarten or the reading
teachers both of whom have offered assistance. Given homework that
will help him to solve his problem, Shakir either refuses to take it
home or, if he does, does not return it. Compounding the problem,
Shakir cannot get help at home.

Shakir's family situation is a significant part of his problem. He is
one of four children to a twenty-something mother who has three other
children by three different men, and she might well be pregnant again
by her current boyfriend. Shakir's mother is unemployed and on
welfare. She and her current boyfriend tend to have loud fights which
can become physical, and often her boyfriend, who can be a positive
influence on Shakir, will disappear for weeks at a time to avoid doing
violence to her. Shakir's father is currently in prison, scheduled to
be released some time later this year; his current stint in prison is
not his first, and I fear it is not likely to be his last.

The uncertainty of the shifting relationships in the boy's life is
compounded by the constant housing moves to which his mother subjects
the family. On welfare and a recipient of a Section Eight housing
grant, Shakir's family experiences a regular housing cycle from
apartment in a tough neighborhood to government-sponsored motel/hotel
and back before the cycle repeats all over again. What determines the
move from apartment in a tough neighborhood to a motel/hotel is his
mother. Given an apartment found by the proper authorities, Shakir's
mother will not pay rent, even though she receives money to do so.

Eventually, the family will have to move to a motel, and his mother
will acquire a new cell phone number along with a new address. Shakir
is deeply ashamed that his family lives in a motel/hotel, even
temporarily, and he avoids telling his classmates anything about where
he resides. If his teachers tell him they know how to contact his mom
when he misbehaves, Shakir will flare up and curse because he believes
that his teachers are putting his business on the street.

The instability in his home life, characterized by the constant moves
and the stress under which the child lives because of his shame and
fear, means that, for Shakir, education is not a priority. He has no
stable home with books, magazines, or trips to the library. His mother
is either a high school dropout or limped her way to graduation with a
poor academic record herself. She does not check his book-bag, makes
no effort to ensure that he does his homework, nor does she provide
any assistance with his reading.

What she will do, when school authorities call her to complain about
her son's behavior, is come to the school ready to curse and fight his
teachers. No matter how badly Shakir acts in school, his mother will,
in front of him, blame his teachers. Often, she will add to the lack
of stability in the boy's life by changing his school because she
thinks his teachers are out to get him. Thus, Shakir has been to
several schools in his district and has even gone to schools in a
neighboring state. Nevertheless, Shakir still can't read.

Community plays an important role in the behavior and priorities of
individuals. For instance, if a child belongs to a community in which
education is prized, then he will have an external force compelling
him to achieve in some way because he does not wish to be out of step
with his peers. Regrettably, in low income communities like Shakir's,
the external force compels kids away from educational achievement, in
spite of the efforts of some to turn things around. For many of
Shakir's peers, educational achievement is a mark of whiteness; thus,
the high achieving black kid has to deal with issues of authenticity.

If he does not sound ghetto, he experiences a loss of black identity.
More than that, he will be preyed upon by the gang-bangers and thugs
who will consider him easy prey. So, he has to be tough, and
educational achievement is not part of the toughness.

Shakir's peers are not focused on education. Instead, their everyday
talk is of gang-related activities, shooting with B-B guns, fighting,
or engaging in illicit activity. For instance, Shakir and his friends
are already gang members. That is the way of the community in which he
lives, when he lives there. Since his neighborhood is high crime, with
assorted toughs standing on the street corners, there is always some
sort of violence on a daily basis. Somebody gets shot, robbed, beaten
up. The neighborhood is not for the faint-hearted; big dogs in their
teens and twenties prey on the little dogs who are excited by
prospective gang membership. This is the life they know. For them,
there is excitement in talking about who got shot or assaulted. Some
of Shakir's peers express their disdain for quieter and more
residential communities because there is no action in them-meaning no
gun play and such.

Thus, neither Shakir himself, his family such as it is, nor his
community seem to have much interested in his education, in him
learning to read. So, then, what about the school system?

In the school system, Shakir, whatever enthusiasm he might have
started out his school career with, by the age of ten has none. He has
spent the years since kindergarten fighting, cursing, and distracting
away from his reading problems. Each teacher he has encountered has
made an active effort to help him. Each has been beaten by the
combination of forces outside of the school system and by the child
himself. Tired of his behavior, of his resistance and refusal, even
when he is held back, his teachers have passed him on to the next
grade where he is ill-prepared to do that grade's work because he
never mastered the content matter of the previous grades.

All across America, schools are confronted with Shakirs who either do
not show up for school or who attend school but hang out in the
hallways, bathrooms, and other hideaways. Even in well disciplined
schools, there are Shakirs who go to class and put their heads on the
desk. They refuse to work; the same way, their parents refuse to
attend parent-teacher meetings. They sleep, they disrupt, curse,
fight, and do no work. Many of those who do work, do it indifferently;
they go through the motions expecting to achieve high marks for
minimal effort. Moreover, even when these Shakirs have done no work at
all, they expect to graduate.

What can the schools do, confronted with thousands of Shakirs all
across America? Many schools are just passing the kids through, just
biding time until the kids are no longer the responsibility of the
school. Why Shakir can't read is the same reason many black kids in
America can't read: the kid's own lack of interest in education, his
unstable home life with a single parent who doesn't care, a community
that regards education as being destructive of black authenticity, and
school systems which are burnt out with the stress of dealing with
such kids.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the school cannot do it all; for,
education is essentially reciprocal. Therefore, the first three must
change before school systems can produce Shakirs who can read.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/06/why_shakir_cant_read.html

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On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:57:51 GMT, here@home (Way Back
Jack) wrote:

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On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:04:15 -0600, Nicklas@Click.com wrote:

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On Wed, 2 Jul 2008 13:30:14 -0400, "geno4321" <eugenefkent@fuse.net>
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On Wed, 2 Jul 2008 15:51:40 -0400, "V for Vendicar"
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