Developing Positive Self-Images & Discipline in Black Children by Jawanza Kunjufu

Now she’s working in an inner city school with a principal who did not properly provide her with culturally sensitive in-service training. The same teacher then student taught in a predominately White school, but unfortunately (for her) she was not given her first choice to teach in a predominately White school district. It’s not fair to blame a White female teacher who grew up in a predominately White neighborhood, who attended a college where the education department offered few if any classes on Black/ Hispanic history, culture, or learning styles. I have grown to understand and have compassion for their plight. Thus, I spend around three days a week nationwide primarily working with White female teachers.

Only six percent of America’s teachers are African American, and only one percent are African American males. Topeka school integration decision, there has been a 66 percent decline in African American teachers. The future of children of color lies in the hands of White female teachers. Eighty-three percent of elementary school teachers in America are White and female. Primarily I wrote this book for White female teachers.

Ironically, the same teachers that make derogatory comments about our children in the teachers’ lounge are the first to ask me for quick fix solutions to their students’ problems. In several of my earlier books on education, I mention that in low achieving schools the most negative room in the school is not where the students are. You’ll find that the strategies and activities I offer will not be effective if you have a negative attitude toward children of color. I can offer all the solutions in the world, but if you don’t like or respect children, if you don’t want to teach in a African American or Hispanic school, or if your first choice was to teach in an affluent school in a White suburb, you won’t be effective in a classroom with African American/Hispanic students. If you don’t know them, chances are you won’t like them.

I insist on providing context because I believe that to teach children you must know them. In fact, I offer many solutions but only after providing some context about children of color. I don’t need to understand the history, culture, values, and challenges affecting my children. Kunjufu, in this one-hour workshop, if you can just give me ten solutions, I’ll be satisfied.

It’s as if teachers do not want to understand theory, philosophy, values, or culture. Over my almost 35 year career providing school in-service workshops, I have been asked countless times to provide solutions to the problems teachers are encountering in their classrooms.

Developing Positive Self-Images & Discipline in Black Children by Jawanza Kunjufu