Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School & in Life

by Baruti K. Kafele

Book Overview

One of the most vexing problems confronting educators today is the chronic achievement gap between black male students and their peers. In this inspiring and thought-provoking book, veteran educator Baruti K. Kafele offers a blueprint for lifting black males up and ensuring their success in the classroom and beyond.

Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life offers proven strategies for getting black male students in middle...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416608575
• ISBN13: 9781416608578
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: ASCD
• Length: 111 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Every educator should read this book!

This book was an excellent read! As a newly certified teacher I can say that it changed my perspective on education and it was a great piece of valuable information. It's also refreshing to have a book about black males and education from a very active black male who is also an educator in the community. I'd love to see more people doing this type of work! We need more educators and more books like this.

A Must Read For Policy Makers & Educators

As the County Administrator for the largest, most diverse, and most urban county in New Jersey, home to one of the highest performing vocational school district in the State and sadly, the largest Juvenile Detention Center in the State, I found the insights and prescriptions in this book invaluable. It is a call to action with specifics for educators and policy makers who are committed to helping Black male students reach their fullest potential, thereby insuring that our communities can reach their fullest potential as well. As these young Black men go...so goes our nation. It's refreshing and heartening to see that an educational leader such as Mr. Kafele recognizes the truism and has given us guidance. We ignore this book at our peril.

Motivating my own

For those of you unable to hear the author in person, his book captures that same power, energy, information and intensity that he so eloquently delivers to his audiences. If ever your school district or community group has an opportunity to invite him to bring his book to life, I strongly urge you to do so. The book is a road map for parents and teachers who face the challenges of educating young black men. As a mother of two young black men, I found the book to be a helpful,useful and enlightening tool. It reveals down to earth practical approaches that can be applied by all for all. For those of us in the constant battle trying to keep our boys on the road to Yale and off the road to jail... it is a must read.

Excellent Information

Kafele has written an excellent resource for new and veteran educators. In these trying times, it is a welcome change to read material that can directly impact what we do in the process of educating and motivating our black and minority male youth. Theory is fine, but actual implementation of proven strategies and suggestions is an entirely different matter. Knowing what to do and doing it are far from the same thing. For many educators, it will take a total paradigm shift regarding the current instructional practices being implemented toward motivating the black male student. It will take a true commitment to gaining a true understanding of the cultural realities of these students in order to positively impact their becoming successful individuals. There is always room to learn more in order to be able to do more differently. This book offers insightful eye-openers for all educators at all levels of the educational spectrum. I am grateful for the easy to understand and helpful information included in this book. I highly recommend it. READ IT!

An Excellent Resource

The book is an easy to understand resource that provides tools to facilitate communication with black male students that ensures a positive relationship in the learning environment. It further propels one to understand that a true educator will take the extra steps to go beyond the book training and the philosophical class discussion to make real the promises of a quality education for these often disenfranchised youth. Resources such as this are rare but necessary to be sure we can reach every learner in our class. I especially find it helpful when I look into eyes that seem to challenge mine with new perspective and realize it is not disobedience I see but a posturing of sorts. The kind of behaviors one learns from mass media and the negative elements in their every day lives. Many times the disinterest in school is a direct result of the burdens of life and living which I previously has been oblivious to. Had I not read this book or kept it as a resource I might still be pushing students away instead of being proactive and more positive. Inside the book are strategies and suggestions that are easy to implement, monitor and assess the effectiveness of. They can be adjusted if needed and there are so many shared you can return to the book and find a new gem each time. The Appendix Ideas assist me to plan for my male students using more structure and consistency of practice. The ideas really work and they have helped me to piggy back to new ideas of my own. I keep a copy in my classroom so whenever my colleagues start to complain about a student they cannot control-I give them my copy. As the book teaches it is an educator's attitude, understanding and planning that build the bonds between teacher and student and overcome the too rough fingers of the world.