Gloria Ladson-Billings and Ron Walker

Gloria Ladson-Billings-Absolutely Great!

I spent an hour and a half on Tuesday evening and 3 hours Wednesday morning mesmerized by Gloria as she explained what is needed to teach all children in our schools. I had read Dreamkeepers many years ago and felt then that this women "got it", and understood teaching. After listening to her over these past two days I've become a disciple. If everyone could read or hear what she has to say and then practice it, we would move beyond the achievement gap/education deficit and really reach our children.

There is no way I can reduce her presentations since she is succinct and direct in what she says and each aspect of her talk is carefully linked to earlier parts. The best I can do is share specific points she made exactly as she made them.
What she presented Wednesday at the all day session was completely different from what she said at Wheelock Family Theater on Tuesday.

There were some specific points she made in her first presentation. She focused on how schools fail to educate black boys by perceiving them as men, and therefore a threat. What follows is treatment of their behaviors in much more severe ways than the behaviors of white children, and eventually the loss of many of these young black boys to the educational system.

Here are a few special points:

When we talk about school reform in America, we are not talking about all schools, but the 20-25 largest school systems, urban and black majority. We are basically happy with our other schools.

Black boys are suspended with a much higher frequency than any other group but what is interesting is it is not for the violation of specifically stated rules but rather of " implicit interactional codes," i.e. things that students have to figure out on their own that these are violations of the system.-disrespect; excessive noise; threat; and loitering.

there is a love/hate relationship between America and Black boys. On one level Black culture, dress, music, style are pervasive worldwide and Black athletes and entertainers are revered, but the anonymous Black man is seen as a threat, a problem to be solved. Black boys are not seen as students but as athletes and entertainers, and any Black person who is successful is considered exceptional and not really Black.

Schools see Black boys as a group to fear and that needs to be controlled. Gloria pointed out how white suburban schools have far fewer rules for the kids behavior in free space than do schools with Black populations

The dichotomy for Black males in school is infantalization to criminalization. When they are young they are seen as cute, sweet, charming but by age 9 they are seen as men and are treated with adult expectations.

Ladson-Billings says there is a different standards of "boys will be boys" when it comes to a school's treatment of black and white boys.

Teacher in urban schools often have a tacit agreement with Black male students. You don't disrupt my class and I won't
expect any work from you. They are taught with Martin Haberman's Pedagogy of Poverty.

The feminization of schools has greater impact on young Black males-demand for silence;demand for stillness;demand for respect without reciprocity; demand for responsibility without freedom; and demand for compliance without positive engagement.

Dr. Billings ended by saying schools need to move Black boys from childhood to young adulthood, not from boys to men!

During her discussion she had mentioned the number of Black men in prison and the rise from 100,000 in 1990 to over 1,000,000 in 2001. In response to a question, she pointed out that if schools throw kids out, there is no longer many manufacturing jobs in this country so they can't find decent jobs and the only place left for them is prisons