Does our skin affect our brain? Examining the achievement gap
By Melissa Pfeffer
EDI 600 Psychological Foundation of Education
School of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
February 11, 2009
When a child around the age of three or so first starts school he or she is usually on equal footing with all the other kids in the class. This is taking into account a child’s race, gender, and ethnicity. However, as time goes on these factors do begin to have an impact on a child’s learning and development in school. While skin color does not directly affect a child’s brain (a brain taking up less than 1% of the overall human body), it does affect student’s ability to mature in both psychological and social ways. Race, ethnicity, and gender become much more prevalent in revealing intricate differences as children reach a certain threshold.
A significant portion of this problem can be attributed to reality itself. A minority child is living in a world where White Anglo-Saxon Americans still in most of the positions of power. Even with newly elected president Barack Obama (the first African American ever to have the position) minority children are not getting support from either their family or the media that they can be nearly as educated or as successful as Caucasians. The images they constantly see in the media are of Caucasian males who comprise the top 10% of society.
The rate of minority high school dropouts continues to grow at an alarming pace as it doubles and sometimes even triples the amount of white students dropping out of school. For instance, in 2005 the high school dropout rate for white students was 6% percent compared to a robust 10.4% for black students and a striking 22.4% dropout rate for Latinos. There seems to be something wrong with society since minorities are not getting the support they need in either their home life, education system, or from the media. All of these factors have contributed to rarely affect minorities in a successful way that would encourage them to stay in school.
One point that was brought up in one of my other classes was that a professor of mine taught in an inner city school not too long before President Obama was elected. She asked the students: “What would you like to be when you grow up?” There were only two answers given: rock star and basketball star. She said to the class of about 30 students: “Only two of you at the most will achieve this dream, but I am not sure about the rest of you.” Not one of these students provided the answer of doctor, lawyer, or veterinarian. The problem here as I mentioned before is that these careers are not reflected as a minority vision, thus these children can not emotionally believe this is something they can achieve.
When looking at one side of the spectrum you do need to see the other side, and see the successful cases.
Long Island University, C. W. Post
February 11, 2009
When a child around the age of three or so first starts school he or she is usually on equal footing with all the other kids in the class. This is taking into account a child’s race, gender, and ethnicity. However, as time goes on these factors do begin to have an impact on a child’s learning and development in school. While skin color does not directly affect a child’s brain (a brain taking up less than 1% of the overall human body), it does affect student’s ability to mature in both psychological and social ways. Race, ethnicity, and gender become much more prevalent in revealing intricate differences as children reach a certain threshold.
A significant portion of this problem can be attributed to reality itself. A minority child is living in a world where White Anglo-Saxon Americans still in most of the positions of power. Even with newly elected president Barack Obama (the first African American ever to have the position) minority children are not getting support from either their family or the media that they can be nearly as educated or as successful as Caucasians. The images they constantly see in the media are of Caucasian males who comprise the top 10% of society.
The rate of minority high school dropouts continues to grow at an alarming pace as it doubles and sometimes even triples the amount of white students dropping out of school. For instance, in 2005 the high school dropout rate for white students was 6% percent compared to a robust 10.4% for black students and a striking 22.4% dropout rate for Latinos. There seems to be something wrong with society since minorities are not getting the support they need in either their home life, education system, or from the media. All of these factors have contributed to rarely affect minorities in a successful way that would encourage them to stay in school.
One point that was brought up in one of my other classes was that a professor of mine taught in an inner city school not too long before President Obama was elected. She asked the students: “What would you like to be when you grow up?” There were only two answers given: rock star and basketball star. She said to the class of about 30 students: “Only two of you at the most will achieve this dream, but I am not sure about the rest of you.” Not one of these students provided the answer of doctor, lawyer, or veterinarian. The problem here as I mentioned before is that these careers are not reflected as a minority vision, thus these children can not emotionally believe this is something they can achieve.
When looking at one side of the spectrum you do need to see the other side, and see the successful cases.
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