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The Augusta News - Review December 22,1984
Developing positive self images and discipline in Black children
The problem of educating Black
children in the American context is
as old as the presence of Blacks in
this setting. The question is also as
complex as the experience of the
African-American.
Notables such as Dr.
W.E.B.Dußois, Bishop Henry
Turner, Dr. Carter G. Woodson,
Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muham
mad and Dr. Martin Luther King
have all addressed the issue or
education as being one of fun
damental importance in the
progress of African-Americans.
The example of Booker T.
Washington, Mary McLeod
Bethune, Dr. Benjamin Mays and
many others are legendary in their
commitment to developing in
stitutions for the express purpose
of educating Black youth.
Frankly, Black history in
America is completely inseparable
from the attempt to handle the
challenge of Black education in
this setting of historical oppression
and thwarted opportunity.
Many contemporary Black
scholars have continued to address
this same question of educating the
African-American child. „The
inescapable reality is, and always
has been, that the liberation of
African-Americans is dependent
upon an ettective education.
We emphasize “effective”'
because so much of our education
has been virtually useless in ac
complishing the objective of
liberation. The process of
“miseducation” as described by
Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1931
has continued to impede our
progress as an educated people.
Dr. Woodson’s conclusion that
the majority of educated Blacks
were all but “worthless in the
uplift of their people”, remains an
issue of deadly accuracy. His
analysis was that the seat of the
trouble was in what African-
Americans were being taught.
The ancient function of
education was to do no less than to
develop positive self-images and
discipline for the adherents of the
educational system.
The assumption that existed in
those times of greater illumination
than these was that the human
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being was already equipped
with the tools of enlightenment.
The word education did not
assume that critical knowledge had
to be imposed from without, but as
the word itself implies, it was to be
educed from within.
The method for educing
knowledge was done through the
cultivation of belief in oneself, ap
pieciation for ones resources and.
the cultivation of an inner
discipline which brought these
resources to the fore.
In ancient Kemit (called Egypt)
the original teachers cultivated
self-esteem or a positive self-'
knowledge by fostering an
(awareness of ones historical
(and/or mythological) origins
which gave insight into the resour
ces which each individual con>
tained by virtue of his Divine ana
genetic legacy.
The secret for sucn enlighte'
ment was the Ancient Edict of
“Man Know Thyself,” inscribed
by these ancient scholars on the
portals of their Themples (which
were simulantaneously univer
saties). The positive self-image,
emerged from the cultivation of
self-knowledge. The application of
the knowledge which was obtained
was manifested through self
discipline.
So the things most critical in an
educational system is to know
oneself, and to know how to
manage that self. This persisting
deficiency in the education of
African-Americans has created the
great difficulties of re-ascendency
which we have experienced as a
people.
Dr. Wodson’s identification of
our problem as existing in what we
were taught seems to still to be a
'quite relevant assesement of our
educational difficulties.
This problem described so ac
curatelyby Dr. Woodson over fifty
years ago is even more of a
problem as we enter the twenty-fir
st century and find African-
American youth being not only
“miseducated” but actually “de
educated.”
De-educated means that they are
being systematically excluded from
the educational system and/or
Page 2
being systematically destructed
within the system
This is an issue of great com
plexity and magnitude, and it takes
a thinker to considerable talent to
tackle the numerous dimensions of
this problem Jawanza Kunjufu is
such a thinker and this book ad
dresses the issue of Black
education in a very readable and
pragmatic way.
Jawanza Kunjufu organizes his
approach to Black education
around the issue of the importance
‘of positive self-images and
discipline as a prerequisite for the
effective education of African-
American children.
He takes a fresh approach to tne
age-old problem of self-esteem and
its impact on education. This fresh
apporach is one which begins to
analyze the source of self-esteem
problems for African-American
children anu begins to propose
some concrete resolutions for
those problems.
One of the intriguing things
about Jawanza Kunjufu’s ap
proach is that he lays a foundation
for the unique problems which
African-Americans face in the
educational system. He discusses
the political meaning of Black
education and the specific disrup
tive influences to effective Black
education, such as the media and
the school’s curriculum.
Then his solutions are ones
which have relevance to the
education of all children. What
he proposes as a relevant curriculm
and appropriate teaching
techniques are not approaches that
have any particular unique ap
plicability to African-Amfericans.
The major hindrances to effec
tive Black education, he apparen
tly views as consistent with the
problems of American education
in general.
He attributes at least part of the
Black educational problem to the
“banking concept” in education,
the “certainty principle,” rote
learning, and several other major
criticisms which non-Black writers
have advanced about contem
porary education in general.
The interesting thing about this
approach is that it sees the Black
educational problem as a specific
problem that is apparently
aggravated by occuring in the con
text of an educational system that
is already grossly inadequate even
for the people it has been construc
ted to serve.-
Despite this general analysis and
suggestions geared towards correc
ting these general educational
probleriis, he doesn’t neglect the
specific needs of the African-
American child within this context.
He addresses the unique cultural
and learning styles of African-
American chldren and the need for
the curriculum to take those styles
into account.
In addition to the problem of
self-esteem, Jawanza Kunjufu ad
dresses the other problem of
discipline confronting children in
general, and specifically discipline
as it relates to the African-
American chid.
Again, he draws upon the con
temporary issues of declining
discipline within the educational
and home enviornments while
demonstrating the unique meaning
of this problem for African-
Americans.
He maintains an analytical per
spective which views the African-
American child as emanating
from a cultural and value base that
is fundamentally different from
the European-American cultural
base.
This perspective gives Kunjufu’s
discussion a solvency which far ex
ceeds similar discussions by
educators who persist in seeing
African-Americans as “no dif
ferent” from Europeans.
At the same time, the arguement
put forth is neither pat nor
myopic. He identifies the interac
tive impact of being Black and
American.
Again, in addressing solutions
to the discipline problem, he draws
upon the best of the African ethos,
e.g., the importance of a spiritual
orientation as the foundation for
discipline.
He also utilizes the pragmatic
ethos of the Western world by even
suggesting uses for the behavioral
technology of Skinner.
Such freedom front ideological
constraint fives Kunjufu’s
proposed solutions a ability and
applicability which far-exceeds
more rigid aproaches.
The range of problems which are
discussed in this volume is vast.
From self-esteem to child
management by African-American
single mothers, the issues are as
contemporary as tomorrow.
The problems are not only con
temporary but are begging for
solutions as they threaten to disin
tegrate the future survival of
African-Americans.
Through Jawanza Kunjufu’s
ideas are far from complete in
resolving these problems, they can
certainly be helpful. The book is a
manual describing some
techniques which teachers, parents,
and others who plan and work
with children might apply in ad-
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dressing some specific adjustment
difficulties' of African-American
children.
The author seems to be
cognizant of the fact that these
particular difficulties exist in a
social matrix rooted in opresssion,
thwarted opportunity, violated
human freedom and European
ethnocentrism. He also recognizes
that these problems of African-
American youth are part of an
educational system that is too
materialistic, too individualistic,
and too mechanistic.
Though this context is clear, .he
succeds in going beyond the limits,
of what-cannot-be-done and shows
us some real things that can be
done until the oppressive context is
vanquished. This fact alone
this document a must reading for
those who ask: “But, what can we
do about it...?