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From News & Observer Published: Jun 20, 2004
Modified: Jun 20, 2004 3:50 AM
http://www.news-observer.com/front/v-printer/story/1352985p-7476347c.html
Black males fight scholar bias
Low expectations at school sap effort
Brian Poulson, center, meets a friend, Camille Webster, at Chapel Hill High School to exchange yearbooks for signing.
Staff Photo by Corey Lowenstein
By TIM SIMMONS, Staff Writer
The woman sitting in the front seat of the car couldn't help but notice Darren Curtis as he walked across the parking lot of Southeast Raleigh High School. And Curtis couldn't help but notice the metallic snap of the car's power locks as he passed by.
A big kid with dark brown skin and a clean-shaven head, Curtis figures the woman didn't see him as an all-state lacrosse player with a solid academic transcript and a football scholarship at Western Carolina University.
"They see a large black male, the first thing they're probably thinking is trouble," Curtis said.
Academically, North Carolina's black males are in trouble. Only half score at grade level on state-mandated high school exams. Their graduation rates hover at about 45 percent. They make up 16 percent of the state's 1.3 million students, but they account for more than 40 percent of the children suspended from school.
Black males who succeed say those figures aren't likely to change much until parents, teachers and the boys themselves refuse to be locked out by society's expectations.
"Teachers may not recognize or admit that they do this, but when you step into the classroom for the first time, it's like they are already tagging you before you get started," Curtis said. "Then they put their effort into making sure you aren't a problem for them instead of putting effort into seeing if you can succeed."
John Modest, principal of Southeast Raleigh High, listens quietly as Curtis offers his view of the classroom. Modest sits just beyond the circle of nine boys he has called to the front office to talk about the academic successes -- and failures -- of black males.
Seven of the nine are headed to college. Two are upperclassmen in high school. If this is how the world looks to them, Modest, himself a black male, isn't about to argue.
It doesn't take much, the boys insist, to be pegged as a problem in the classroom. Large, dark lips. Hair worn in cornrows. Baggy pants. An angry outburst in the hallway or on the playground.
"A lot of people just don't push you -- don't want to push you -- to succeed in the classroom," said Pattrick Walker, who will be going to Fayetteville State University this fall. "It's more like, 'You're tall, go play basketball' or 'You're kind of big, go play football.'
"What you don't hear is, 'Here's a set of books. Now learn this or else.' So it's all on ourselves to push ourselves to succeed."
Modest believes Southeast Raleigh High offers an opportunity for academic success to every child, but in a later conversation he said he wasn't surprised to hear Curtis and Walker detail the challenges they face.
"That's how life is for black males in our society," Modest said. "That's how it is for me. We like to think that inside the walls of the school we create a place where expectations aren't different for anyone. We do a pretty good job of that, but we aren't perfect at it."
Awareness falls short
Almost five years after North Carolina identified closing the racial achievement gap as a state priority, most educators are aware of the challenges facing black males.
But being aware of a problem and having the disposition to solve it are two different things, said Marvin Pittman, director of school improvement for the state Department of Public Instruction.
"You have to ask yourself if you really expect black males to succeed," Pittman said. "You can't legislate people's beliefs."
Given the hurdles faced by black males in the classroom -- some erected by them and others by their teachers -- it isn't surprising that so many of the boys refuse to buy into the mainstream values embraced by educators, Pittman said.
"They don't see the relevance of it," he said. "They look at athletes and entertainers and anybody with money and they equate that with success. That kind of success doesn't always require an education, so they question their need to be successful in school."
At Chapel Hill High School, two groups of black males gather in the assistant principal's office. The students have never met Pittman or the kids at Southeast Raleigh High, but they offer strikingly similar accounts of what it takes for black males to succeed.
Among the first decisions they say they must make is whether they are willing to separate themselves from friends. The only place where race really doesn't matter is elementary school -- and even then they say it's fairly obvious children are being grouped and sorted by fourth and fifth grade.
By middle school, the divisions are apparent to anyone who steps inside a classroom. By high school, black males who excel say it's almost a pleasant surprise to find another black male in one of their honors or Advanced Placement classes.
"There are teachers here who teach honors sections without a single black male in the class," said Joanne McClelland, an English teacher at Chapel Hill High. "Now, how can that be?"
Taking easy way out
To Brian Poulson, who graduated this spring from Chapel Hill High, this is a rhetorical question. Black males take the easy way out because it's expected by too many people around them. They don't want to be accused of acting white. They don't appreciate the longer-term consequences.
But Poulson, who is going to the University of Virginia this fall, doesn't think that those who fail are somehow unaware of what they are doing.
"A lot of kids are just going to play to the stereotype," Poulson said. "So if you hear that so-and-so percentage of black males are going to drop out, you say, "Well, I guess that will happen to me anyway.' "
Black males struggle in the classroom for a variety of legitimate reasons, Poulson said, but nobody makes them drop out of school. That is something they decide for themselves.
"It's like your opponent -- if you want to call it that -- gets a 10-point lead, and you have to work twice as hard just to catch up," said Al Mask, a rising junior at Chapel Hill High. "It's not impossible to win, but it is harder."
But even success brings its own set of problems.
After Poulson was accepted at Virginia, for example, he found himself answering questions about whether the university followed affirmative-action guidelines.
"I worked my butt off for four years, and some people thought I was accepted because I was black," Poulson said. "It really made me mad."
At Southeast Raleigh High, Warren Perry II was thrilled when N.C. State University offered him a prestigious Park Scholarship. "The first person I told said, 'I bet you got that because they had to meet their quota.' I couldn't believe it," Perry said.
Angry at first, Perry eventually settled down and came to realize what he always knew.
"You just have to get beyond that kind of stuff," Perry said. "The world doesn't owe you anything. It's a lot easier once you realize that, but it's a real hard lesson to learn."
Staff writer Tim Simmons can be reached at 828-4535 or [email protected].
Modified: Jun 20, 2004 3:50 AM
http://www.news-observer.com/front/v-printer/story/1352985p-7476347c.html
Black males fight scholar bias
Low expectations at school sap effort
Brian Poulson, center, meets a friend, Camille Webster, at Chapel Hill High School to exchange yearbooks for signing.
Staff Photo by Corey Lowenstein
By TIM SIMMONS, Staff Writer
The woman sitting in the front seat of the car couldn't help but notice Darren Curtis as he walked across the parking lot of Southeast Raleigh High School. And Curtis couldn't help but notice the metallic snap of the car's power locks as he passed by.
A big kid with dark brown skin and a clean-shaven head, Curtis figures the woman didn't see him as an all-state lacrosse player with a solid academic transcript and a football scholarship at Western Carolina University.
"They see a large black male, the first thing they're probably thinking is trouble," Curtis said.
Academically, North Carolina's black males are in trouble. Only half score at grade level on state-mandated high school exams. Their graduation rates hover at about 45 percent. They make up 16 percent of the state's 1.3 million students, but they account for more than 40 percent of the children suspended from school.
Black males who succeed say those figures aren't likely to change much until parents, teachers and the boys themselves refuse to be locked out by society's expectations.
"Teachers may not recognize or admit that they do this, but when you step into the classroom for the first time, it's like they are already tagging you before you get started," Curtis said. "Then they put their effort into making sure you aren't a problem for them instead of putting effort into seeing if you can succeed."
John Modest, principal of Southeast Raleigh High, listens quietly as Curtis offers his view of the classroom. Modest sits just beyond the circle of nine boys he has called to the front office to talk about the academic successes -- and failures -- of black males.
Seven of the nine are headed to college. Two are upperclassmen in high school. If this is how the world looks to them, Modest, himself a black male, isn't about to argue.
It doesn't take much, the boys insist, to be pegged as a problem in the classroom. Large, dark lips. Hair worn in cornrows. Baggy pants. An angry outburst in the hallway or on the playground.
"A lot of people just don't push you -- don't want to push you -- to succeed in the classroom," said Pattrick Walker, who will be going to Fayetteville State University this fall. "It's more like, 'You're tall, go play basketball' or 'You're kind of big, go play football.'
"What you don't hear is, 'Here's a set of books. Now learn this or else.' So it's all on ourselves to push ourselves to succeed."
Modest believes Southeast Raleigh High offers an opportunity for academic success to every child, but in a later conversation he said he wasn't surprised to hear Curtis and Walker detail the challenges they face.
"That's how life is for black males in our society," Modest said. "That's how it is for me. We like to think that inside the walls of the school we create a place where expectations aren't different for anyone. We do a pretty good job of that, but we aren't perfect at it."
Awareness falls short
Almost five years after North Carolina identified closing the racial achievement gap as a state priority, most educators are aware of the challenges facing black males.
But being aware of a problem and having the disposition to solve it are two different things, said Marvin Pittman, director of school improvement for the state Department of Public Instruction.
"You have to ask yourself if you really expect black males to succeed," Pittman said. "You can't legislate people's beliefs."
Given the hurdles faced by black males in the classroom -- some erected by them and others by their teachers -- it isn't surprising that so many of the boys refuse to buy into the mainstream values embraced by educators, Pittman said.
"They don't see the relevance of it," he said. "They look at athletes and entertainers and anybody with money and they equate that with success. That kind of success doesn't always require an education, so they question their need to be successful in school."
At Chapel Hill High School, two groups of black males gather in the assistant principal's office. The students have never met Pittman or the kids at Southeast Raleigh High, but they offer strikingly similar accounts of what it takes for black males to succeed.
Among the first decisions they say they must make is whether they are willing to separate themselves from friends. The only place where race really doesn't matter is elementary school -- and even then they say it's fairly obvious children are being grouped and sorted by fourth and fifth grade.
By middle school, the divisions are apparent to anyone who steps inside a classroom. By high school, black males who excel say it's almost a pleasant surprise to find another black male in one of their honors or Advanced Placement classes.
"There are teachers here who teach honors sections without a single black male in the class," said Joanne McClelland, an English teacher at Chapel Hill High. "Now, how can that be?"
Taking easy way out
To Brian Poulson, who graduated this spring from Chapel Hill High, this is a rhetorical question. Black males take the easy way out because it's expected by too many people around them. They don't want to be accused of acting white. They don't appreciate the longer-term consequences.
But Poulson, who is going to the University of Virginia this fall, doesn't think that those who fail are somehow unaware of what they are doing.
"A lot of kids are just going to play to the stereotype," Poulson said. "So if you hear that so-and-so percentage of black males are going to drop out, you say, "Well, I guess that will happen to me anyway.' "
Black males struggle in the classroom for a variety of legitimate reasons, Poulson said, but nobody makes them drop out of school. That is something they decide for themselves.
"It's like your opponent -- if you want to call it that -- gets a 10-point lead, and you have to work twice as hard just to catch up," said Al Mask, a rising junior at Chapel Hill High. "It's not impossible to win, but it is harder."
But even success brings its own set of problems.
After Poulson was accepted at Virginia, for example, he found himself answering questions about whether the university followed affirmative-action guidelines.
"I worked my butt off for four years, and some people thought I was accepted because I was black," Poulson said. "It really made me mad."
At Southeast Raleigh High, Warren Perry II was thrilled when N.C. State University offered him a prestigious Park Scholarship. "The first person I told said, 'I bet you got that because they had to meet their quota.' I couldn't believe it," Perry said.
Angry at first, Perry eventually settled down and came to realize what he always knew.
"You just have to get beyond that kind of stuff," Perry said. "The world doesn't owe you anything. It's a lot easier once you realize that, but it's a real hard lesson to learn."
Staff writer Tim Simmons can be reached at 828-4535 or [email protected].
