Are You Raising One of the Next Generation of Hoodlums? Your Boys’ Chance for Success

The Schott Foundation for Public Education released a web-based, fifty-state report on public education and the Black male, and what it found is quite revealing, startling and should serve as a wake-up call!

The Schott 50 State Report on Black Males in Public Education reveals that the overall graduation rate for Black males in the U.S. was only 47 percent.  Half of the states have graduation rates for Black male students below the national average.

This information is indeed dire, but your son does not have to be among the Black males who make up the remaining 53 percent. Your intentionality as you parent your son is what will make the positive difference.

Analysis shows that the impact of the pandemic on K-12 student learning was significant, leaving students on average five months behind in mathematics and four months behind in reading by the end of the school year. The pandemic widened pre-existing opportunity and achievement gaps, hitting historically disadvantaged students hardest. Too many parents become concerned about this only after their son reaches high school or even middle school. Parental concern and involvement from day one are necessary. And by day one, I mean from the moment your son is born and ongoing throughout his life.

Too frequently parents have expressed their concern when their sons do poorly in middle and/or high school. But the fact of the matter is, if a child has failed to get the foundation, the necessary building blocks, in elementary school, chances are slim that he will be successful at a higher level that requires the absent foundation.

Most of us are aware that there are lingering effects of unfinished learning …due to Covid. But your constant involvement in your son’s life, including his education, can and will make the important difference in his life.

In all likelihood, your son is intelligent, and he will internalize your concern as he observes your involvement. You must make the effort to accompany him on an occasional field trip. You must make the effort to help him complete his class projects. You must ask him about his homework assignments and ascertain the necessity to check them so that he knows that your expectation is that he will always complete them at a high level. When you do these things throughout your son’s early years, he will have the expectation that you care enough to be involved in his life. And your caring is transmitted to him as love, which it is.

A son who knows that he is loved and that his parents are concerned and have the expectation that he will do well, will make the effort to not disappoint his parent(s). In fact, your love, concern and involvement are the most powerful motivation you can provide for your son’s success. Know that YOU are THE key factor in your son’s desire to succeed! Know that YOU ARE THE KEY FACTOR in your son’s desire to succeed!

To seriously increase your son’s chance for success in school and in life beyond school, get involved early in his life and make it a priority to stay involved!

You’re invited to visit www.untealthen.com