Black People and The Education of Their Children

My response inspired by this post: http://blackandmarriedwithkids.com/2011/05/04/house-hunting-for-education/

felt like such a needed wake up sentiment to too many folks out there that I've decided to make it its own blog post:

I'm glad this is posted because I find black people in America incredibly ignorant as parents of the aggression and ambition they need to have on behalf of their kids to ensure a successful educational experience. They seem to think sitting in the hood waiting on an A-class school to fall in their lap is their God-given right. Um no, find where the good schools are and get in the zone. Next set of ignorance are the ones that don't even know what a good school looks like. Don't know how to analyze the data, don't know that schools will game the system to get an A rating and as you said it's about looking at how the school has performed over the years, not just the last year or two. I would say since schools now game the ratings, be specific and look at what PERCENT of their students are passing the reading, writing, math, and science state-wide standardized testing at or above grade level. Most of the answers to that should be 90% and above. If a school falls below 80% minimum in any of these areas...they are not an A school! Our children can't produce 70% on something and get an A, 70% is a C, so grade the schools accordingly. Most of the black schools in the last county I analyzed, were in the 50% to 60% range...and lower. That huge chunk of kids NOT learning, what are they doing? Being a menace to the rest of the class and a bad influence on MY child. Um, no. I'll pass. Because one of the biggest problems is not weapons in schools but BEHAVIOURS in schools. And I have seen enough of some of these parents to know where they get it from. I have friends who are teachers who are getting told by the kid that his parent will "whip her ass" and when she calls the parent, the parent is saying the same thing! Excuse me? If all the teacher's energy is drained controlling/raising problem children like that, there is nothing left over to truly teach and instill or reinforce a love of learning in children who are brought up much better than that.

Black people need to get over waiting on the government to solve all their problems and get SMART. In a more technical and fast paced world it is going to take SMARTER more INTELLIGENT parents to get these kids ahead...and unfortunately a lot of parents are dumb and raising kids dumber.

My Response to Discussion on Law Coming to End Corporal Punishment in Jamaica's Schools

I came across this on dancehallreggae.com and had to add my take because it is such a CHERISHED tradition among Western blacks to spank (including beat within an inch of life) their children despite a lack of lasting POSITIVE results from it!

'Don't flog children' - Law coming to end flogging of children JA

'Don't flog children' - Law coming to end flogging of children
House to debate corporal punishment ban
BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Senior staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, January 20, 2011


PARLIAMENT will next month begin debate on a Green Paper which is expected to lead to legislation abolishing corporal punishment in all public schools, Education Minister Andrew Holness announced yesterday.
The announcement by the minister came in the wake of a Sunday Observer story which highlighted the plight of 11-year-old Tajoery Small who lost sight in one eye from a strap wielded by a fifth-grade teacher.

MORE BELOW:

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...ildren_8304814

Book by a London judge, child of Jamaican immigrants.
Recounts physical and other  childhood abuse.

THE DISCUSSION:

 Originally Posted by kgn12 

Mi tink dem did dun dat long time. Dat be de case, this law is way overdue. There are many other ways to enforce discipline other than to physically abuse children.

 Originally Posted by MR HYPE 

never saw the use of flogging...

yea it made me more cautious but i still did the same damn things

Actually while I can see spanking as a necessary evil on RARE occasion, it clearly does not work because Jamaicans spank and get spanked regular and the place is getting more violent and more unruly, not LESS...

If it reach the point where you have to spank a child who can understand English...it means whatever you were using up to the point of spanking failed and you need to find another way to get what you want done, or not done, to sink in.

Jamaican schoolchildren

People can argue this but fact is IT'S NOT WORKING di pickney dem a behave badda dan EVA...wutlissness increase an spanking and flinging out nah fix nutten.

So if what you been doing for dog years not working, it's insane to keep doing it hoping something will magically change. Try something DIFFERENT obviously.

That is all.

 Originally Posted by roti_shop 

I know if I had kids I would feel ah way if I found out is flog dem get flog at school...but lookin at it from a different point, in the U.S. the youth seem lost, they feel they run shit because dem aint get brought up, dem get drag up. The amount of times I see the parents of punks who are bullies and all defending their child, telling people: "don't tell me bout mi child, im the parent" and so so so, well you feel di boy dont see dat? Obviously he go feel like he could get away wid anything in life...I'll tell you what, there might be plenty crime in the Caribbean, but me never see child talk back to their parents and grown folk outta road like how me did see it on my trips to the states.

yeah they talk back to EVERYBODY ELSE. You need to use a form of discipline at home that can be used by ANYone who must put up with your child in your absence, else while the cat's away the mice WILL play cause dem know no beatings coming...and the beating beating at home not working if the children misbehave the second you turn your back!

Uniform discipline at home and at school reinforces each other and discipline does not mean spanking alone it means discipline. A routine, and a known way of handling yourself towards your responsibilities, your peers, your superiors...and a known set of progressive consequences.

Jamaican schoolchildren

What is also stupid is telling a kid "don't do that" and not giving them what they SHOULD do the next time xyz situation comes up. Or not giving them a positive motivation to internally WANT to do the right thing or not do the wrong thing...something or some outcome they will want MORE than whatever benefit they were getting from what they were doing/not doing previously.

Jamaican schoolgirl who became parish champion in Spelling Bee...more here.

And nah i didn't read it in a book i thought it through. Different children are different and so i had to think to make a difference with both of mine. I spanked my son and then realized when a teacher tells me he was talking in class or something, i can't tell them to spank him if they already told him to hush up once...so I need to be doing something at home that the teachers can use at school when i am not around. Same with daughter though she just getting into pre-K. But i learned the lesson before she came along. I threaten a spanking but rarely had to do it, and the goal is to get to the point where i never do it.

Taken from a 2007 (well before the new legislation!) article on a child abuse treatment/prevention program.

More time the spanking is less about any discipline instilling in the child and more (or all) about the parent vex they can't figure out how to control their child's behaviour or worse, vex bout something else, bad day at work maybe, and taking it out on the child.

Jamaican schoolchildren

It takes a lot of work to swallow frustration and vexation and get through a stubborn moment without giving the child ONE slap...and sometimes I do lose patience, but i have found more and more what works. For my daughter she likes being thought of as a good girl and she likes seeing me smile. I make a big deal of frowning and sounding mad when it's something i don't like, and making being a good girl sound like being royalty. I get much less fuss and get results asking her if she wants to be a good girl, and when she says yes, tell her she has to put that down to be good or stop running...as opposed to just slapping her the next time she does it, she bawls, my ears burn from the decibel levels, and everybody is tense and miserable...and if she go out nobody can stop her from doing the same picking up tings or running cause they can't slap her!

That's why we have bebe's kids and teenagers who doan tek talking...cause only their parents can slap them silly. That's also why so many guys (especially with no fathers) only respect folks who can BEAT THEIR ASS or KILL them! Cause that's the only people they were taught to respect.

Yeah it bothers me the lack of progress with the spanking thing and how we still blindly hang on to it as the only solution for everything. Cause more and more I see what someone said about this beating into submission ting coming from slavery. We're turning into overseers on our own children and look what happened to them in Jamaica's history: we RISE UP and MURDER DEM! It DIDN'T work den and it NOT working now so take the time to RAISE your child and know that it takes different things to raise different kids even if is both or all your blood!

From A Brief Excerpt on Slavery & Punishment in the Caribbean, found here.

ok so i lied that wasn't all. sue me. lol

Child in Jamaica's flag colours...the black in our flag stands for hardship.
Time to put some hardships we been through behind us!