Chapter 6 - African American Students

Summary

• Low-income children lack money, not intelligence.
• Do not give left-brained lessons to right-brained students.
• Do not expect black male students to act like white female students.
• To achieve academic success, students must select their friends wisely.

Commentary

I feel that African American students do have dynamic situations. Many low-income students are perceived by educators are unintelligent. It is very common for a students that are not understood to be placed in special education. My graduate concentration is in English as a second language (ESL). The concept of putting a student in special education because the educator does no understand him/her is very common for the ESL student. However, upon reflection on the reading, I suppose that it is very likely that some African American students placed in special education could be there because the educators do not understand the culture and peer pressures that surrounds the student. The author talks about much of the African American society placing little emphasis on education. I have never witnessed this personally, but I do see that many students (both black and white) look up to people that do not have an education - Britney Spears, 50 Cent, Dave Chappell, Mariah Carey - and this could cause the negative peer pressures surrounding education.