The Need of the Hour - To Educate Boys and Young Men of Color

A nation is formed by the contribution of every single one of its citizens. It grows, flourishes, progresses alongside its people. In the same measure, it fails to achieve its optimal development when a section of the citizenry is denied the ability to give their best to their homeland. In the U.S., where the fabric of society comprises of many hues and textures, it is indeed surprising, even shocking, that young men of color are yet to receive their due, their fair share of the resources that the country has to give. This is most evident in the skewed educational landscape we witness. The facts about young men of color that are commonly known are:

• Young men of color enrolled in America’s urban schools do not demonstrate the academic excellence that paves way for successful higher education or lucrative career

• A disproportionate number of young men of color have low attendance at school and high dropout rates when compared with their counterparts

The Big Picture that is often Hidden

However, the big picture that emerges when you start exploring why this situation exists is not quite as well known or well publicized:

• Due to a variety of historic, cultural, social reasons, the families of these young men have been kept out of the more upscale, prosperous neighborhood, thus limiting their ability to enroll at the best urban schools in the country.

• Studies reveal that young men of color are far more likely than their peers to attend schools where the quality of teaching is below par, with fewer experienced teachers available and accessible.

• These young men are also far more likely to attend schools where educational resources are heavily limited and restricted, thus restricting their ability to take initiative for their own education in the absence of high quality teaching. These resources include science labs, libraries, athletic programs and so on.

• The schools they attend may also typically have a dearth of qualified, experienced counselors meaning that these young men of color have no one to turn to for guidance and support in making the right career choices. This is especially a huge challenge for first generation school students who come from a family where no one else has had an opportunity to study.

• A host of factors, including these prevent these young men of color from graduating from school with the necessary preparation to take up higher education at a quality institution. This means that the cycle is repeated, restricting the student’s ability to hone his inherent skills into professional qualifications that will get him a job where his full potential is utilized.

Young men of color are denied the chance to give their best to America

The situation is a very unfortunate one because it is not only these young men of color who are at the losing end. It is, in fact, the country that is losing out and quite significantly. Unfortunately, this is one aspect that does not receive the attention it deserves. The reality is that no country can progress as well as it should unless every section of the population is given the opportunity to explore their own talents and skills to the maximum. No country can flourish unless every such section has access to resources that let them discover their inherent skills and develop them. And no country can optimally develop and succeed unless every such section is integrated into its workforce in areas where their skills can be leveraged to the maximum. 

In an ideal society, every single student is given equal educational opportunities, has access to teachers and learning resources to identify the ways in which they can excel in life. This is a first step that lets students achieve personal success and position themselves as an integral part of society. It also puts a full stop to the vicious cycle of poorly educated adults failing to recognize the need to get their children educated, thus fostering yet another generation of young men of color unable to contribute to society and nation.

Education is Key to Safeguarding the Nation’s Resources

Young men of color face several prejudices, most common among them being that they are aggressive and more likely to engage in criminal activities. The statistics that show the immense number of young men of color engaged in unlawful activities only add fuel to this fire. However, explore the facts with a closer look at the causative factors and a very different picture emerges. If we are able to equip these young men with the education they need to succeed in a constructive career, we can effectively channelize their energies in the right way. These students can become the men who stand first in our line of defense, who build the businesses that will take America to new heights, who come up with innovative ideas that will position the country as a world leader. 

If we ignore that the country is failing these young men who have untapped potential, we also close our eyes to the fact that we are committing to reserve many, many resources to an unproductive cause. This is because the lack of education will force many of these current generation youngsters into the wrong path, prompting them to engage in anti-social activities. In later life, many of these young men may ‘graduate’ into more serious crimes, requiring the investment of state and national resources into identifying them, controlling them and incarcerating them to keep them isolated from society. 

The Great City Schools of America have already recognized that the roots of the problem lie in the formative years of young men of color. The 60 urban school systems have pledged to invest efforts into eliminating the inequities that hamper the growth of these students. It is up to every one of us to accept our share of the responsibility in ensuring that young men of color are given the impetus, the tools to become society’s most respected, most valuable assets instead of forcing on them a life that can only take them and the country, with them,

Making a Difference to Underachievers

Making a Difference to Underachievers Using the Feuerstein Method

 

In today’s educational landscape, it is quite common to see students categorized as ‘intelligent’, ‘average’, ‘unintelligent’, ‘underperformers’ and so on. The view that students have a pre-determined, pre-set ‘level’ of intelligence and ability to learn is quite prevalent and this is a widely accepted view as well. Academicians and educators across the country, even the world, really believe that not all students can achieve the same academic goals because of the differential intelligence levels that they are endowed with. This gives credence to the belief that intellect or intelligence is an inborn ‘skill’, with each person being gifted with a specific limit of it. This also means that there are only a select few who can truly excel even when the best teachers are employed and they are leveraging the most modern, most effective teaching techniques to impart knowledge.

This view is flawed in more than one way because there is reason to believe that the so called ‘underperforming’ student does not have the same intelligence or ability to grasp complex academic concepts as the so- called ‘intelligent’ student. Further, there is no scientific basis for the assumption that everyone is born with different intelligence levels, which cannot be enhanced or drawn out in any way as they progress through life and through different educational experiences. As Nobel Prize nominee, clinical, developmental and cognitive psychologist Ruevin Feurestein explained, ‘intelligence is not fixed but modifiable’. It is the responsibility of the teacher or academician to devise a teaching system or strategy that helps every student achieve higher levels of intelligence by drawing upon his or her own hidden reserves.

An overview of the Feuerstein Method

After fleeing the Nazi invasion, Feurestein leveraged his psychology degree to teach young survivors of the Holocaust in his new home in Palestine. The needs of these children prompted him to take up a career that would address both psychological and educational needs of refugee children. In the 1950s, Feurestein was involved in working with children from Moroccan, Berber and Jewish families and he found that those who initially scored low on IQ tests showed remarkable improvement when they were given special psychological and academic attention.

This encouraged him to start viewing intelligence as a modifiable characteristics rather than a fixed one, as the traditional view point held. He started researching various ways in which too ‘teach’ intelligence even as he expounded the theory that the students who excelled and who were believed to be intelligent were actually leveraging their ability to learn more effectively than others.

The prevailing means and tools for measuring intelligence were flawed and inadequate, in his view, because they failed to indicate that all students could be elevated to the same level of intelligence provided they were taught how to do it. As a new, more effective and more accurate method of evaluation, Feurestein came up with the dynamic assessment method, as it is known today. His focus was on identifying and evaluating the inherent cognitive flexibility in the child that represents the ability to learn. Once this evaluation is done, teaching methodologies can be tweaked so that these abilities are used optimally.   This view was dramatically different from what was commonly accepted then and it transformed the way people looked at ‘intelligence’ and its impact on academic performance.

Taking his study further, Feurestein began to devise methodologies to help children who were not performing well academically and work on their weaknesses, putting them on track for dramatic improvements. ‘Mediated relationship’, he discovered, lay at the foundation of meaningful teaching strategies. These methodologies have brought a ray of hope into the lives of not just poorly performing children but also children with special needs such as those affected by Down’s Syndrome, palsy, stroke or other conditions. 

The journey from ‘poor performer’ to ‘gifted’ status 

Feuerstien’s methods can be used with amazing success in every academic field to teach and engage urban students most effectively. The success of the methods hinge on our ability to understand and accept that intelligence is limitless. Most urban schools tend to look at students as deficits; they believe that the students can only advance so far. However, this is far from the truth that Feuerstien has proven beyond doubt. In my personal experience, wherever I have implemented Feuerstien’s method, the results have been simply dramatic and uniformly impressive.   I have taught several boys and young men of color with these tools and witnessed the improved academic performance from close quarters.

One important contributing factor for this impressive change is that a growth oriented mindset is essential. A tremendous amount of growth is possible when this correct approach is adopted to take a low performing student and turn them into a “gifted” student. This growth mind set is often lacking in academic environments where ‘underachievement’ is the expected outcome. Sadly, this is true of many schools where children of color are automatically tagged with the ‘underperformer’ label. The teachers may, inadvertently, believe that these students are incapable of improving their academic excellence and thus feel that investing more attention or time on them will not yield results. In reality, it is the opposite that is true.

The teacher has to actively believe that the students can excel and this belief should be evident every single day in the teaching strategy, technique and tools utilized.  This positive mindset, that the underperforming student is no different from their academically proficient peers, is the foundation block on which the students builds their new skills to learn more effectively and efficiently.

Another critical understanding for both teacher and student is that learning and intelligence are not two different aspects. Intelligence is the knowledge of identifying where knowledge can and should be applied, i.e.: a meta knowledge of sorts. This knowledge comes when the learner is actively involved in the learning process- understanding why they are studying something and where they might apply it. When the students make these connections, they can apply the knowledge intelligently to various situations. This is not all- they can also learn more advanced concepts easily because the grounding of knowing why they need it and how to use it is already present in them. This is how the transformation from poor performers to exceptional students takes place with the right teaching methodologies being implemented.

Back to the One Room School House

What We Can Learn From the One Room School House in Today's Educational System

Modern schooling is all about efficiency, and what better way to drive efficiency in a classroom setting than group students based on their skill levels (or age) and employs a set teaching solution that can be utilized year after year, right? While this may look good on paper, the varied learning capabilities of students and the general academic results say otherwise. Now if you looked at the other corner, you will find an entirely different classroom setting, one where students of different age groups and learning capabilities are encouraged to learn under one roof. Yes, we're talking about the classic One Room School house setting. The One Room School house seems almost as if a fable today, but their perks over the traditional classroom remain just as relevant. In fact, there are many lessons that we can pick up from the classic schooling module, let's take a look at some of them.

Challenging the teachers and students

The problem with a traditional classroom and syllabus is that educators are confined to a specialized teaching formula which is repeated year after year. Now unless an educator makes the effort to periodically reinvent their teaching methods and material, alongside stay updated with the latest advancements, they fall into the same teaching pattern that is neither exciting nor challenging.  In a One Room School, educators are constantly challenging themselves to come up with new teaching methodologies that can be comprehended by students with varied learning styles and skills. The educators are expected to keep students of beginner and expert level engaged whether it is through activities or other collaborative settings in the classroom. This makes the teaching role far more satisfying than in a traditional setting.

Often, students are enthusiastic about the idea of learning, but a dull, time-tested learning curriculum that does not match with their learning style may douse their enthusiasm. When the teaching style is more in line with their aptitude and different from the usual one-fits-all solution, the students are in a better place to grasp it, which no doubt bears better results as well.

In short, the One Room School approach is interesting and fruitful for both the educator and the student.

Encouraging individual learning

A One Room School House has individualized lesson plans for each student. This can go a long way in nurturing independent learning capabilities. In a traditional classroom, boundaries and benchmarks get in the way of the students' learning curve. Benchmarks on what students are expected to achieve may deter slow-learners from reaching their full potential, as there is a constant pressure from these expectations which takes the focus off the primary goal of education- to learn. Students who are able to adapt to a traditional curriculum do not look beyond what is being taught and constrict their learning view. In One Room School Houses, students are always pushing boundaries on what else can be learned. They are not judged based on how they fare with respect to their peers and equals, and instead know that there is always scope for growth and to learn more. This hits the nail on what education should be achieving in the first place.

A holistic learning approach

The thought of a heterogeneous-level classroom may seem slightly ill-planned and chaotic at first glance, but given the right approach, it can make learning a holistic experience for students. For instance, say you have students of different learning capabilities in a music class. Managing students with different learning skills and styles may seem somewhat of a difficult task, but once you have individualized lesson plans in place it gets simpler. The key is to also have a collaborative approach while teaching. So how do you bring a collaborative approach in such a diverse setting? You could try bringing in the high-level students to improvise and play on the spot, while the mid-level students watch them and try to pick up the chords that are being played.

You can then have the mid-level students try and play the same under the guidance of the high-level students. This also helps reinforce the basics in the high-level students, while they teach the mid-level ones. The beginner-level students can try getting the basic chords right, as the mid-level students tell them about the same. This is exactly how students with different learning skills collaborate under a One Room School House setting, making the learning experience far more interesting than otherwise.

How to Reverse the Effects of "Summer Melt"

Summer melt is a major problem facing students across the US. Summer melt occurs when a student commits to attending a college post high-school graduation and even pays a deposit to secure this commitment, but fails to turn up at the college following fall. This phenomenon is largely seen mostly among students from low-income households, ones planning to attend two-year colleges, and students of color.

There are a number of reasons that are attributed to summer melt. The top three reasons being: the cost of further studies, social anxiety and informational barriers.

Cost of funding college education

The biggest barrier for students of color from low-income households is the cost of funding education, stay, and other living expenses once they start college. College education can be expensive and living expenses added to it can become a major source of tension for students. Faced by this problem, they prefer to shut the idea of going to college altogether.

Providing finance focused counseling to these students can help them understand the ways in which they can fund their education and living expenses and lower their chances of melting. Giving financial aids and grants to these students might also help in getting them to college as there might be many students who are genuinely interested in getting a college education, but financial problems are hindering them from getting one.

Dealing with social anxiety

Transitioning from school life to college life is quite a different experience. Students are no longer bound to school routines and have much more freedom when it comes to social engagements. But this very freedom can lead to social anxiety as youngsters try to remove themselves from the shell and reach out to new individuals, groups, and communities and make new friends. Many a time, the thought of being unable to make new friends and belong to the new institution make students melt.

This can be taken care of by forming communities through social media platforms that keep students in loop and up-to-date about the events at the college and facilitate finding new friends and interact with students who are already studying at the college. This will help students mingle better, make new friends, and look forward to meeting them when they go to college the following fall. College developed social communities should make it a point to reach out to every registered student and have them connect with other students based on hometowns, majors, and common interests.

Informational barriers

Not being updated about the events and deadlines of the college also lead students to miss out on important dates. Colleges send out emails with reminders and other important information but due to many reasons- students not accessing their emails being one- the information is lost.

A foolproof way of sending information and updates to students is necessary. Colleges should find out a way to use social media and text messaging to reach out to students, as these are communication channels they follow up on a daily basis. Through these modes of communication, students can stay up-to-date about all relevant information and make sure that no melt occurs due to missing information.

How to Move from the 19th Century Education Model

Even though free public education had been declared for all 150 years ago in Massachusetts and over the next half a century almost every other state followed suit to provide education to everyone, the quality of education that is imparted currently is not of much difference from that of 150 years ago.

Science and technology took the world by storm and helped in evolution and automation of almost every industry apart from the education industry. We still live in a world where school or college education refers to students belonging to the same age group, sitting in a classroom, and being taught by the same teacher. The teacher’s discourse is one and the same for all students irrespective of their intellectual capabilities.

The factory model of imparting education

The 19^th century model of imparting education was inspired by the factory line model, where taking in large number of students and teaching them the same things altogether at the same time resulted in greater learning rather than giving personal attention to students depending on their learning capabilities. Just like factories did not support personalization, the same applied to schools. The structure also bore resemblance to the Prussian schooling model, where the idea was to build a common bond through national identity. Large number of students studying together would melt religious differences among them making them one and the same.

How to make the much needed change?

Given today’s educational scenario, a change is imperative as we now live in more complex and diverse environments with powerful technological capabilities and a broader vision for education. It is time to change the factory-model classroom, credit requirements and age-based grade levels. Using powerful technological tools, schools can introduce software that helps each student to learn at their own pace. It is important to align the way the software works to the way the teacher extend the lessons in the classes, as one model is highly personalized while the other more standardized. With different tools made available to schools, teachers need to adapt to the new ways of teaching, so that this change can be successful.

Education should be structured around the format of what we want the students to be able to do, the resources we have at hand and the immense possibilities that lie in front of us. By employing model providers who can use these ideas to create structures to impart education would be a great idea. Model providers may or may not handle the school administrative processes as well. Their primary task will be to provide new education structures to schools and oversee their implementation and customization based on each school and its needs.

Once these models begin to develop and take effect, state agencies will be able to analyze the impact of these models on the learning of the students. Based on their observations they can reward the models that are successful and have brought in good results while decertifying the ones that didn’t.

It is time for us to use technology in this much needed sector of education and make some positive changes that have been predicted for a long time but are yet to take effect.