Vernard T. Gant, D.Min., Director of Urban School Services, ACSI
We are well aware by now how education can be used as an instrument of corruption. In communist nations, for example, education has served as a tool for political propaganda to promote the Communist Party line. Even in America, social engineers are striving to use public education as a vehicle for creating a society where humanism, relativism, and existentialism are the prevailing worldviews.
Not long after the establishment of chattel slavery as an economic institution, an educational system was put in place to ensure the institution’s success.
That education can serve as a political tool should come as no surprise to any student of American history. Not long after the establishment of chattel slavery as an economic institution, an educational system was put in place to ensure the institution’s success. Under this system, education would be used as an instrument for the intellectual underdevelopment of the slaves for the sole purpose of the economic development of the South and the prosperity of white slaveholders. The aftermath of this system is still experienced today. Instead of being a means for the personal attainment of African-American youth, the American education system has become an instrument of their social containment.
This deleterious system unfolded in three stages.
The first stage was the nonformal education of the slaves because of the economic and social threat that formal education represented to the whites. As an eyewitness, Frederick Douglass captured it best:
Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read.
Phase two involved an elaborate strategy of informal miseducation, a strategy that included two components. Part one was to teach the Blacks that they were racially, intellectually, socially, culturally, and spiritually inferior in every way to whites. The goal was simply to shackle the minds of the slaves in order to reinforce the physical shackles that bound their bodies. The other part, equally important, was to convince the whites that, no matter their social or economic status, they were superior to Blacks in every way simply because of the color of their skin. Finally, to seal the matter, both teachings were erroneously given the weight of Scripture in order to leave no room for doubt or refutation.
The third phase was naturally born of the first two—the formal undereducation of African- American children, particularly in urban centers. Initially, Black children were undereducated in the South to limit their occupational options. As a result, they were bound to work as sharecroppers and laborers to advance the farming economy of the South.
Today, several generations later, the system has become self-sustaining largely because of the widely held beliefs that African-Americans are intellectually inadequate. People experience a self-fulfilling prophecy when their assessment of their abilities, which is rooted in the way they feel about themselves, influences the level of their performance. Moreover, we can allow our assessment of the abilities of others, which is rooted in what we think about them, to influence the way they perform.
Years of research have clearly demonstrated the powerful impact of expectancies on performance. The expectations of teachers for their students have a large effect on the students’ academic achievement. Psychological studies under a variety of circumstances demonstrate that communicated expectations induce people to believe that they will do well or poorly at a task, and that such beliefs very often trigger responses that result in performance consistent with the expectation. There is also evidence that “reference group expectancies”—directed at an entire category of people rather than a particular individual—have a similar impact on the performance of members of the group. (Jeff Howard and Ray Hammond, “Rumors of Inferiority,” New Republic, Sept. 9, 1985: 19, 20)
Because of the Supreme Court decision of 1954, the legal grounds for undereducating African American children were outlawed. While laws have been enacted to remove institutional racism in education, there remains a “natural” racism or racialism to which urban minority children are still subject and for which there is no legal recourse. Racialism is based on the natural prejudices or affinity individuals have toward people with whom they are related and with whom they relate. It is also based on the introduction and orientation an individual has toward people of other races, classes, or cultures. That introduction shapes a person’s primary beliefs about other people. These primary beliefs form the basis for expectations and the communication of those expectations. In other words, the initial beliefs about another person (or another race, culture, or class) form the basis of what is expected from that person (or group) and of what expectations are communicated to them or to others about them.
Many teachers working in urban school settings are there because they want to make a difference in the lives of children. Although their intentions are usually noble and well meaning, these same teachers approach the classroom with a latent belief about urban children in general and African American children in particular. This belief forms early in the teacher’s life and creates the primary sentiment the teacher has toward the children. This sentiment can lie dormant for years. The teacher can attempt to suppress it or overcome it by a commitment to make a positive difference in the children’s lives, and thus the teacher can construct a secondary belief about the children, which is the desired belief—the belief the teacher endeavors to realize.
The problem arises, however, when the teacher’s primary belief is reinforced by a child’s performance or behavior. People have a natural tendency to equate inferior performance with inferior ability. In other words, the teacher observes how the child is performing academically and draws a conclusion—or has one reinforced—about the child’s ability. The secondary belief gives way to the primary belief.
This phenomenon is not limited to the child’s teacher. The children’s social contacts, which influence their self-perceptions (primary beliefs), are major contributors to their academic performance. Many inner-city children live in single-parent homes where the mother is undereducated. When these children demonstrate intelligence, their mothers have been heard to comment, “White people must have raised you.” The child’s peers, who exert significant influence, also have lower expectations for themselves and for their race. As a result, the child who is studious or excels academically is said to be “acting white.” The message is, If you are white, you are smart; if you are Black, you’re not.
American education has evolved into two systems—separate and unequal.
The media strongly reinforce these stereotypical beliefs. Therefore, the child has little opportunity to develop a secondary belief structure to overcome the debilitating primary beliefs sustaining their academic underachievement. Thus, American education has evolved into two systems—separate and unequal. One system, largely found in the suburbs, is replete with resources and is characterized by high-performing students. The other system suffers with what Jonathan Kozol calls “savage inequalities.” Its children are given fewer resources in inadequate facilities with the most poorly trained teachers. And, to add insult to injury, the children of the two systems are compared with each other and are expected to perform equally.
The academic gap has led to and continues to fuel the social attainment gap experienced by many African- Americans. For example, African-American youth continue to be overrepresented in special education classes, dropout statistics, and the juvenile justice system, but underrepresented in gifted classes, honor societies, and college enrollment and completion.
Today, a new generation of Christian schools is emerging to address the plight of academically and socially at-risk urban children.
Today, a new generation of Christian schools is emerging to address the plight of academically and socially at-risk urban children. These schools target and serve children who have the same socioeconomic status and live in the same neighborhoods as the typical urban public school student. However, the Christ-centered urban school starts with the fundamental belief that all children are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable intellectual abilities that enable them to perform academically as well as any other child in society. These schools also start with the premise that socio-environmental factors work against urban children. These factors include the marital status and educational level of their parents, the income level of their households, the community where they live, the schools they have attended, and the expectations society communicates to them. Moreover, children have no control over these circumstances. The question is, Must these factors condemn children academically and socially? The Christ-centered urban schools are responding with an emphatic, God forbid! The premise is that since environmental forces are working against urban children, an environment must be fostered that works in the children’s favor. Urban Christian schools represent such an environment. They know that just as “bad company corrupts good morals,” good company helps overcome bad morals. These schools are truly teaching to educate.
The Meantime Volume 1 Number 1