One of the challenges I endured as a young mother of three children was that I didn’t understand the education system. I certainly did not understand the system enough to navigate it and advocate for my children effectively. Some questions I had included: What is the responsibility of the school board? What is the relationship between the school board and the educators? What powers do the PTA/PTO have? What services are my children legally eligible to receive?
In the late 90s, I quickly discovered how important it was to understand these systems and services. My son was struggling academically. He was not struggling because of diminished intellect but because of boredom and being under-challenged. “Students who are under-challenged are not always gifted, but they are typically competent and very smart and do not always present that way” (Morin, 2020). My response was to give him more challenging work at home and involve him in after-school programming where his intellect would be stretched. I even challenged him to practice responding to some of the questions on my Law School Admissions Practice test, to which he always seemed to get the answers much quicker than I could. As a parent, I was becoming frustrated with the notes I was receiving from his teachers despite the additional support I was providing him at home. He continued to struggle at school, and his teacher was prepared to label him learning disabled. In his 7th grade year, he met a new teacher who looked like him, understood his cultural background and community, and most definitely understood how to navigate the education system. She took the initiative to engage me, as his parent and first educator, in a more in-depth dialogue about how we could better support my son’s k-12 academic journey. She told me about services that the school had available to support my son, which would test him so that we were sure that he was assigned to the correct level courses, and offered services that would support me. My son was eventually tested, removed from most of his major classes and into advanced placement courses, and, through the efforts of his teacher, was enrolled in Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. He was able to take his SATs in the 7th grade (scoring higher than his 11th-grade brother), scores that he was eligible to use to enroll in college, and thrived in a way that I could not have imagined if it had not been for his African American 7th grade teacher. Black students are more than 15% of the total student population, represent nearly 10% of the students in gifted programs, and are three times as likely to be identified as gifted if their teacher is black (Mullaguru, 2016). According to a study conducted in 2016, millions of students should be designated as gifted, and the reason that they are missing from the data is typically due to schools not identifying students as gifted and talented due to funding; additionally, they may attend a school identified as ‘high poverty, or be overlooked because they are Latino, black (like my son), or another underidentified group (Gentry, 2020). Under-motivated children rarely see an incentive to do the work and often complain about the classroom experience. They will often express that they already know what is being taught and, like my son, may even declare, “I am more intelligent than my teacher.” Children who experience this may be labeled as lazy or learning disabled, especially those who are a part of an underidentified group, and consequently are seen as “problem children”. “Due to systemic exclusion of minority students, gifted programs may exacerbate the racial achievement gap by further boosting outcomes for more privileged students…” (Cohen, 2022). Unfortunately for my son, it took seven years before he was provided the support he needed to thrive academically, and we are grateful for that gift from his educator. If you are/were lucky enough to figure out the system early, share the knowledge with other parents. If you are still struggling to try to find ways to challenge your young scholar, here are some things that you can do:
Today my son is a father, husband, and child advocate, and he still believes he is more intelligent than his teachers :) Danielle Y. Hairston Green WIsconsin Association for Talented and Gifted Board Member
5 Comments
Sheldon Jackson
8/18/2022 07:59:26 am
Well stated article. I’m an a black man who’s father, grandmother, uncle, and cousin were educators in the public school system. They have all voiced how quickly they’ve seen minority students labeled as “problem children”. Some parents, who did not explore other reasons or opportunities their child would struggle, would medicate their child without examining if there were other factors in play. Ritalin was the medication for a cousin of mine, who had been labeled prematurely as having ADHD. When, years later, was found to be an advanced student who was “bored” as well. Great read!
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8/18/2022 08:37:36 am
This reminds me of a time my youngest sister was in elementary school and during that time I remember my mom really battling the school system because parents were seeing an unusual number of students being placed on Ritalin and more than 90 percent of those students, if I can recall correctly, were Black students. This was back in the mid 80’s
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Ritchie K* Sutton
8/18/2022 01:21:41 pm
Danyell, this is an amazing newsletter, first of all I am very proud of you for being published I thought you Had already been published , but this article speaks volumes to millions of minority parents and it is my hope that families /parents across America have an opportunity to read this newsletter, I to was in the same situation as your son, even though I had two parents in the educational system, my mother put most of her effort into my brother Nathanael because he showed immediate scholastic gratification where I struggled, but I think this newsletter will help thousands if not tens of thousands of families navigate through the educational system and hopefully put their children on a higher plane, which will intern even the playing field for our children and minorities across America.
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8/18/2022 11:54:56 pm
Yep. I’m published in a peer reviewed journal. Thank you for reading and commenting. Please share our newsletter with your family and friends
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