I attended the screening of a documentary, Beyond the Bricks, on Wednesday, November 18th at the Magic Johnson Theater. This event was truly amazing and I thought that the film was very powerful.
The film followed a two students, Shaquiel, a 15 year old who is still in high school and pushing himself to graduate even though he has had some familial difficulties and has had to go through the court system for truancy, and Eric, a 19 year old who dropped out of school after an altercation with his teacher and is now pursuing an alternative route to get his diploma.
In addition to interviewing these two young men and learning them, the film also brought in many experts, professors at universities, community leaders, directors of alternative high schools, and a mayor. All of these people were able to give valuable information about some of the problems that these students are facing and how hard we as teachers need to work to help them.
One of the things that really stuck with me was some of the statistics that were shared throughout the film. Although Black males make up only 17% of the student population, they account for 30% of suspensions and 32% of expulsions. Only 2% of this nations millions of teachers are Black males. 60% of Black students live without a father at home. 1 in 3 Black males are incarcerated, on parole, or on probation. These statistics were very shocking to me, and are clearly something that needs to be addressed.
After the showing of the film, there was a panel discussion (Dr. Adelaide Sanford, Dr. John Jackson, Dr. Ivory Toldson, and Khary Lazarre-White). The panelists touched on many different topics, but something that ran throughout all of their comments, was the need for a strong community built around our students, and the need for understanding teachers who know where the students are coming from and can be connected with their needs. During this discussion a group of students from Bushwick Community High School asked some questions and one of the students said something that really stuck with me. He said that even though their school was called a transfer school, they considered it to be a school of transformation. This statement was very powerful to me.
Again, I really found this documentary to be very powerful and if anyone gets the chance to see it, I would highly recommend it.
http://www.beyondthebricksproject.com/index.html
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Thanks for sharing your experience. I've heard about this event from a few people who went, including some of the teachers in my student teaching placement. Everyone that I've spoken to has said it was phenomenal.
ReplyDeleteI went to an event at NYU last week that also focused on the issue of the growing number of Black and Latino male students dropping out of school. Dean Mary Brabeck spoke at the beginning of the event. I didn't like all of what she had to say, but I thought she made one interesting point. She commented on how there used to be a strong focus on improving the opportunities and performance of girls in school, but now "we're really losing our boys." I wonder why these shifts occur. I don't think it's that either girls as a group or boys as a group will always excel more, I think it has to do more with societal expectations. Unfortunately, I don't think societal expectations for Black and Latino males are high at all right now. I think that if this changes, then the issue of the dropout rate will not be so pervasive.
Thank you for posting! I was so upset I missed this event it seemed like a really worthwhile experience, does anyone if it's possible to get a copy of the documentary? Regardless, what statistics! I couldn't help but think of the book, 50 Facts that Should Change the World, and it included pieces of information such as the African American men in jail. I think it's a really powerful thing for teachers to see, and begin to grapple with, because it will add such insight to what students do in their classrooms. It is up to help set the foundations that will keep students in schools, and with statistics like that, there is clearly something that needs to be changed.
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