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?