Succeeding in the City

A Report from the New York City Black and Latino Male High School Achievement Study

Professor Shaun R. Harper, et al

We acknowledged in the previous section that not every student lived in a dangerous community. Some declared the absence of crime was something they treasured most in their neighborhoods. Many of them had moved to the places where they presently lived from settings that were less safe. “We moved when I was seven because our ga – rage got shot up by an Uzi [submachine gun].” This young man very much appreciated that senseless gun activity was uncommon in the neighborhood to which his family relocated. Being able to walk down the street and talk on his iPhone without worrying that someone would take it was something another participant appreciated about the safer community to which he had recently moved.

Reply:

A friend of mine was jumped in high school for his Ipod. When my sister was in Junior High School, my mom often went to pick her up her because there was a group of girls who wanted to jump her based on how she looked, beautiful, tall, long black hair, and not shy at all. When I was in Junior High School I didn’t stick around after school because the 8^th graders from PS109 used to come to my school grounds and fight with the 8^th graders from my school.

As educators we try hard to help our students progress hoping that our own education and training can make up for the lack of equity in the school system. The dark realities that some of our students live in prevents many of them from succeeding academically. Very few students dealing with adversity at home, in their neighborhood, or even at school, make it through this school system that is designed for students who have no distraction, just love, food, clothes, and affection. I pray that one day the government sees that standardized tests don’t do anything for our society. If the youth are the future of our nation, then why don’t we train them to be politicians, teachers, businessmen and women, engineers, or doctors? Instead we train them to fill in a sea of endless bubbles. We feed them information that they can’t remember because they are too busy screaming under the boot of a thief, or thieves, or bullies. What do we do as a society? The weight can’t all be on us educators. The progression of a society takes the collaboration of society, as one, equal, people.

Many participants said that for as long as they could remember, their parents did not allow them to spend recreational time outdoors. For some, their only time outside was the weekday commutes to and from school – anything more was deemed far too dangerous.
(Succeeding in the city: A Report by the New York City Black and Latino Male High School Achievement Study)

When I was around the ages of 10 and 11 I remember wondering why it always felt like the boys in my class had so much more freedom. They were allowed to walk home by themselves, stop for food on their way home, and go to the store by themselves, but my mother would never let me do any of those things. At around the ages of 14 and 15, I began to realize that the same boys that had the freedom to go to the store were now calling their parents for, what seemed like, everything. They would have to call their parents when we got to the train, when we arrived at school, when we were leaving school, and when they got off the train. Continue reading A Breath of Fresh Air…. →

“… instead of repeatedly asking why 42% did not complete high school within four years, exploring what factors enabled 58% of them to graduate on time seemed sensible and important.”

— Succeeding in the city

I can’t agree with this statement more. Sticking to the failure only turns people down while exploring the success is the best way of encouragement.

Can you tell how differently students feel about when they hear “I’m sorry that half of you cannot graduate” and “Congratulation half of you can graduate”. The hidden message from both of them is “you are probably one of them” but the ideas conveyed by the two ways are different — one discourage students while the other encourage them to keep studying. They are basically talking about the same thing, but the message that students can gain from is straightly opposite.

Repeatedly emphasizing that almost half of students of color fail in high school only implies that they may be one of the “losers” and students may unconsciously give up themselves; however, encouraging them that more than half of them successfully graduate from high school gives them the confidence that they could be one of those graduates too. The way that an authority talks about a certain thing can lead audience to totally different path. In China, there are two famous quotes from a true story — “One who tried but always failed” and “one who failed but always tried.” They were talking about the same person, but people reacted differently towards the two sayings.

More importantly, what is the purpose of keeping asking why they fail? To tell them how bad each of them is in detail and to give them another hit? “See? This is why you can’t succeed.” Moreover, this may be one reason for the stereotype that “When they show up to school (which isn’t very often), administrators and teachers should expect them to be disengaged, disrespectful, unprepared, underperforming, and violent” (Succeeding in the City, 2014, P.5). While people are consistently exposed to articles and researches about reasons why SOME students of color tend to fail in high school, they may be influenced and tend to regard almost ALL students of color perform poorly at school. It is extremely dangerous if an educator has such opinions.

We should learn from success, not failure. Why not saving the time to research why the other half succeed and apply their useful strategy to those who are on the edge of failure?