Fighting The Failure Syndrome

By Susan Tifft

The signs of crisis are everywhere. Nearly 1 in 4 black men, ages 20 to 29, is in jail, on probation or on parole. Black men are less likely to attend college than black females or whites of either gender, and when they do go, they often drop out. Homicide, including fatalities resulting from clashes with police, is the leading cause of death among black males, ages 15 through 34. Says Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan: "When you look at a long list of social pathologies, you find black men No. 1."

To reverse this downward spiral, a vocal minority of black educators are pushing a radical idea: putting elementary-school-age black boys in separate classrooms, without girls or whites, under the tutelage of black male teachers. Critics of the proposal say segregating classrooms by race and gender flies in the face of more than 25 years of civil rights gains. But supporters argue that such concerns are less important than the urgent need to rescue African-American males from a future of despair and self-destruction. "The boys need more attention," says Spencer Holland, a Washington educational psychologist and champion of the black-male classroom concept. "The girls are not killing each other."

Advocates of this approach believe low expectations and low self-esteem are largely responsible for the poor academic performance of African-American boys. A recent study of the New Orleans public schools, for example, showed that black males accounted for 80% of the expulsions, 65% of the suspensions and 58% of the nonpromotions, even though they made up just 43% of the students. "Black boys are viewed by their teachers as hyperactive and aggressive," says Jewelle Taylor Gibbs, a clinical psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. "Very early on, they get labeled."

The absence of positive male role models may also cripple black boys' development. Nationally, 55.3% of black families with children under 18 are maintained by the mother, many of them living in inner cities. Moreover, most elementary-school teachers are female, leading black boys to view academic success as "feminine."

Bill Cosby, Jesse Jackson and other black celebrities are too remote to offer realistic models of responsible manhood. The adult males whom many black boys try to emulate come from their own neighborhoods, and in tough urban areas, these "models" are all too often involved in drugs and crime. One , lesson boys learn from such men is that doing well in school is for sissies or, worse yet, for blacks who are trying to "act white."

Three years ago, in an attempt to overcome these problems, a school in Florida's Dade County opened two classrooms for black boys with no fathers at home, one in kindergarten and one in first grade. The results were encouraging. Daily attendance rates increased 6%, test scores jumped 6% to 9%, and there was a noticeable decrease in hostility. But after only a year, the U.S. Education Department brought an abrupt halt to the experiment because it violated civil rights laws.

Since then, the closest thing to a black-males-only class is an effort in Washington, run by a group called Concerned Black Men. Launched two years ago at Stanton Elementary School, in the city's drug-infested southeast section, the program brings some three dozen black male lawyers, architects and other professionals into second-grade classrooms each week as teachers and mentors.

Although the classes include both genders, the main goal is to lift the sights and spirits of black boys, most of whom live only with their mothers or grandmothers. "The whole concept is to get the kids to look at themselves," says Albert Pearsall III, a computer security-programs manager at the U.S. Department of Justice who teaches black history, along with a traditional second-grade curriculum. "If I can work effectively in a professional career, why can't these kids?"

Some critics of the all-black, all-male classroom idea are concerned that separating students by sex and race could intensify black boys' feelings of anger and inferiority. Others argue that the notion's underlying assumptions do not hold up. If poor, female-headed families are bad for black boys, they say, then they must be equally disastrous for black girls and whites of both sexes.

Detractors also contend that there is no clear link between self-esteem and academic performance and that a variety of people -- not just black men -- can effectively teach African-American boys. "It's helpful to have role models from one's own group," says child psychiatrist James Comer, director of the Child Study Center at Yale. "But there's probably no need to have role models exclusively from that group."

Supporters counter that black males are more frequently tracked into special-education classes than black girls or their white peers and would be no worse off segregated for normal instruction. "Black boys are already in classes by themselves," points out Jawanza Kunjufu, author of Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys.

Such passionate debate makes it unlikely that primary-grade classrooms for black boys will become the norm anytime soon. Still, unless something else is done to make single-parent black homes more supportive of these children, or to help reduce their soaring dropout and suspension rates, the idea could attract more disciples -- ironically hastening the day when "separate but equal" may actually help black youths rather than hurt them.

With reporting by Bruce Henderson/Miami and Julie Johnson/Washington