So You Don’t See Color? Part 3

By

Keith L. Anderson, Ph.D

My desire for these articles become tools that will initiate better communication / better teaching, between White teachers and students of color, by initiating communication between teachers and administrators. If administrators do not understand the communication problem between White teachers (over 80% of teachers in America's public school system are White) and students of color (over 40% of students in America's public school system are students of color), teachers have very little chance of getting the help they need. Therefore these students have very little help of becoming educated and escaping poverty. Improved communication between administration, teachers, and students of color will help to reduce the drop-out rate amongst students of color. In-turn, better communication between White teachers and students of color will help increase post-secondary rates of students of color.

There is no doubt in my mind; education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty in this country. To not educate or to not effectively educate any group of people, in this country, is nothing less than social, economical, psychological and moral lynching. The slavery system in America's history is an example of my point. The main ingredient for keeping the slave system in place was to keep the slave un-educated. This ingredient is present in today's educational system. Although the victims and the perpetrators aren't always aware of their roles, today's system is just as effective as the plantation system. There is also no doubt in my mind, there are many in the field of education who understand this social, economical, psychological and moral lynching, yet they and shut their eyes. At the same time they try to convince the American public to see education in this country through rose colored glasses, which distorts what is truly going on.

I cannot go any further without mentioning another situation which adds to the problem of in-effective students / teacher communication. The mentality in education has not kept up with the ever-changing mentality of the students within the educational system. One of the reason for this is the educational system re-cycles the same mentality within its new teacher education system. University systems teach future teachers the same things, the same way, using the same type instructors; they have been using them for decades. This is because the system believes only former principals and district superintendents can educate new teachers. While the population of students within the public school system is change, the teacher education process keeps turning out the same kind of educators, who have very little opportunity in their teacher education process to learn to communicate effectively with classrooms filled with students who represent a multitude of cultural demographics.

Another reason the educational system has been able to continue, as in-effectively as it has is because it is not responsible for making a monetary profit. Any profit-making company with the record of the percentage of failure the educational system has been allowed to have, would have gone out of business decades ago. Let's look at another sports analogy to clarify my point. The National Football League is in the business of turning a profit. All the records for passing, rushing and receiving are fine and dandy, but the bottom line is winning, which in-turn, turns a profit for the owner or owners of the team. Not many of the current NFL head coaches actually played in the NFL. Teams have learned to hire head coaches who can produce a winning team. They're not stuck in the mentality of hiring only former NFL players. The want a coach who can "reach and teach" players and turn losing teams into winning teams, which produces a profit. Owners are not in the business of having cool uniforms, a super star player and cheerleaders, while losing money.

The educational system needs to revamp their teacher educational system, if they expect to keep up with the significant changes in student demographics. The system needs to look at the big picture. It needs to admit to seeing color. The fix for a lot of the problems involved in the educational system requires a commonsense approach. Here is the problem / commonsense solution in a nutshell: Problem - Students of color and students from diverse backgrounds are dropping out of school. A majority of those not dropping out of high school are not going on to a postsecondary education. One of the reasons for these situations has to do with a communication problem between students and teachers. The communication problem has to do with race, culture and poverty. The number of teachers of color is inefficient. Solution #1- Hire more teachers of color. This solution will not work anytime soon. Most students of color with the ability to succeed in college have a desire to go into a career that will make them money. Solution #2 - Teach current teachers how to communicate more effectively with students of color and students from diverse backgrounds. At the same time incorporate within the teacher education system more courses on communication, race and culture.