MINORITY GIFTED STUDENTS: THE UNTAPPED AFRICAN AMERICANS

As an educational psychologist, I often see students, from kindergarten through high school, whose academic potential is not being recognized, in some instances by their parents and more so by their teachers. It is very troubling that, in spite of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that desegregated public schools (Brown v. Board of Education) African-American children continue to be deprived of equal educational opportunities to maximize their potential. 

The remedy must incorporate resources from the home, school and community to ensure that each child’s unique academic needs are fulfilled. There are many bright, gifted African-American students who could likely be another Mayou Angelou, Tony Morrison, Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey, Charles Drew, David Dinkins, Bill Cosby, Ronald McNair, Mae Jemison, Spike Lee, Michael Jordan, Debbie Allen, Ben Carson or numerous other talented African-Americans. Yet, a tremendous number of young black students are "slipping through the cracks" due to inadequate educational motivation, preparation, and challenges, beginning in the home and continuing through elementary and secondary school. Recent studies have shown that too few students are adequately developing the intellectual tools required for the 21^st century, the age of technology. By the year 2010, America will experience a shortfall of 560,000 science and engineering professionals. 

The National Science Board Commission of Pre-college Education concluded that American education must return to basics, but the basics of the 21^st century are more than just reading, writing and arithmetic; of necessity, they include critical thinking and reasoning skills, scientific and technological literacy - the thinking tools that allow us to understand the current world around us. Therefore, all students should receive firm grounding in a well-rounded curriculum that is blended through parental and teacher instruction. The result? The uncovering of a new population of talented, creative and high achieving young African-Americans.

Education, formal and informal, begins at home. Whether the child is an infant, a toddler, a preschooler or a student in elementary, junior, senior high school or college, parental influence is an important factor in the child’s academic development. The earliest learning begins at home with the parents’ basic communication with their children. Even before babies begin to understand spoken or written language, parents should talk to them in standard English, as if they understand the highest order of the language. In this way, the child begins to learn the differences between many letter sounds, intonation patterns, as well as syllables and words. Therefore, as the child moves from his or her early language of cooing, babbling, first words, and adding new words to first sentences, this becomes the foundation for developing longer and more complex sentence structures. Also, parents should read to their children beginning at an early age so that the child can begin to make the connection between the spoken word and the written word. Thus, the first direct influence on a child’s talents comes from the home environment.

When the child enters preschool, individual differences in achievement can become apparent; these differences often parallel the child’s early experiences with language before preschool. For example, some children enter school with what is called the "hidden curriculum," i.e. they have already learned many things at home that the school is teaching and they are academically advanced in skills such as the alphabet, counting, word recognition and basic grammatical structures. Depending upon the school’s curricular program; the child entering with more advanced skills will be further advanced in learning future skills, while the child who has not learned the basics at home will need to learn those skills when he begins school, putting him at a distinct disadvantage.

Language skills, therefore, become a critical element for success in all subject areas and children who have basic skills intact can readily move on to use critical thinking and reasoning skills - interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of information. At each educational level, whether it is preschool, elementary or secondary, parents should work along with the teacher, and if they think their child is not achieving as he or she should be, the parents can request ability and achievement assessments. This evaluation will determine if some intervention is needed to get the child back on track to meet their full potential. Also, if the instructional process in school is deficient in terms of teaching strategies to accommodate individual differences, many potential high achievers will be academically weak, not only in their ability to read and comprehend well but also in their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Children must perceive their parents and teachers as a team guiding, supporting and encouraging them toward achievement and success throughout their educational careers. Parents should always stay abreast of how and what their children are learning in school, especially in meeting each child’s individual needs. Teachers should be open to the challenge of pushing each child to stretch himself to do more than he thought he could do. These concerted efforts are especially necessary to tap the covert talents of many African-American students.

James H. Williams, Ph.D., Educational Psychologist (jwilli1126@aol.com)