Welcome to MEN on Higher Learning, the Male Mentoring Program of The Higher Learning Network,NFP in Chicago!
I am Tony Hogues, Operations Manager/Videographer and Producer/Host of MEN On Higher Learning Network TV Show on Channel 19 in Chicago.
We invite you to get involved as we do our part to stop the violence and give youth options. We are our brothers keeper! We educate young black men and boys to think in positive terms about opportunities, life skills and positive choices.
So
what do teachers think we need to do to ensure more boys enjoy
literature? Here are some of the best ideas from our community:
Find writers boys can relate to
"I
tore through books when I was a young child, but when I turned 12 or so
there was a real fallow period. I felt too old for the books I had been
reading and didn't yet understand more mature texts. Things have
developed a lot in the last 10 years with the rise of the young-adult
fiction market, but I still think that pre-adolescent gap is where a lot
of boys get lost to reading. .
Get dad reading
"The
best role models seem to be dads, sports coaches and athletes, men the
boys aspire to be. If they experience these men reading and sharing
their love of books (any kind of books) then reading is not seen as a
female occupation. "Dads and lads
sessions work where physical activity is balanced with shared
experiences of books and reading can also work. They involve campfire
cooking and opportunites to chill out, away from technology, with a good
book."
Be creative
"A
lot of the boys I teach are well below the reading level they should be
for their age. I work at a primary behavioural emotional and social
difficutlies (BESD) school in Hampshire. "One way to get boys engaged is by being a bit creative. I invited a Pets As Therapy
dog into the classroom to hear the eight boys in my class read on a
weekly basis. The children really enjoy reading to Perdy the labrador,
who offers a non-judgmental ear, and all the boys have gone up at least
two sub-levels in their reading. During the week, the children discuss
which books they think Perdy
Inspire boys at home
"Most
of us dutifully do the school reading with our children when they are
at primary school, hearts sinking at yet another deathless tale, but we
must ask ourselves how often do our children see us reading when they
are teenagers? Do we have shelves of books lining our walls? Do we take
time to visit the library? If we want our children to value reading then
we have to give books currency in the home.
Think about it like sport
"Explaining
to boys that improving their reading is like sports training or playing
an instrument can do the trick: they acknowledge the effort that needs
to go into these kinds of activities; knowing the brain is like a muscle
that can be trained can often help.
Build trust
"With
reluctant boys it's vital to establish a relationship with them if they
are to trust you. It takes time but if you can get to know what makes
them tick then there are ways to change their reading habits.
Join
The Black Star Project in Support of Father Michael Pfleger for a Peace
Walk on Friday, July 17, 2015, 7:00 pm, Meeting at St. Sabina Church,
1210 West 78th Place,
Chicago, Illinois
Join Us and Wear Orange for Peace
Please call 773.285.9600 to join us.
Time for a Second Reconstruction
"For doing nothing...I charge them!"
By Michael Holzman
July 9, 2015
Michael Holzman
In 1956 the House
Un-American Activities Committee held hearings in Los Angeles to
publicize efforts by "subversives" to repeal laws mandating imprisonment
and deportation of people who disagreed with those laws. On December 6,
1956, HUAC attempted to interrogate Frank J. Whitley, a Black real
estate broker.
To say that Mr. Whitley was not impressed by the committee would be an understatement of grand proportions:
Mr. Whitley. "Both of
my parents were slaves here in America, and I have been persecuted ever
since the day of my birth. And this committee or no other committee has
taken up my cause . . . They are killing me and my people all over this
country, and you know it. And you know it . . . What about Emmett Till?
What about Mr. Moore in Florida a few years ago? And I don't have to go
that far. I can start right in Los Angeles. The same thing is
happening."
Mr. [Congressman] Doyle. "You don't charge the United States Government with killing?"
Mr. Whitley. "For doing
nothing about it. That is why I charge them . . . It's been 90 years
since Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. They are
begging to go to school in Texas even, right here by us. What are you
doing? You are searching for some subversion you talk about."
For doing nothing... I charge them.
This
brings us to Atlanta, where Black teachers are now going to prison as a
consequence of an unprecedented application of the Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations Act. Now former Atlanta Supt. Beverly Hall,
who led steady improvements of the district, and teachers who worked
there, were charged with a conspiracy to improve test scores by
cheating.
Cheating is clearly unacceptable and absolutely wrong - a point Dropout Nation
Editor RiShawn Biddle has made several times in discussing what
happened in Atlanta. But it is hard to believe that the district
attorney there really thought that Hall's efforts to improve achievement
(as measured by test score growth) amounted to a conspiracy like fixing
a horse race or issuing sub-prime loans to unqualified home buyers.
While Hall retired and
shortly died, a highly emotional White judge handed out sentences of
astonishing severity to the teachers and educators who were still alive.
Actions that in other districts have been punished with reprimands or,
at most, termination of employment, were criminalized in Atlanta.
For doing nothing... I charge them.
This sort of thing is not
unusual or new in Georgia. Many African Americans were held in debt
peonage there, and in neighboring states, well into the twentieth
century. Compulsory schooling for Black children came late to the state
and voting by the descendants of enslaved Africans even later.
But
what is to be done about the police, the prosecutors and the courts?
The U.S. Department of Justice is overseeing some police departments.
This could be done more widely, more intensely. Similar actions could be
taken in regard to district attorney offices and local courts. There is
a precedent for this. It was called Reconstruction. It was effective in
the South until destroyed by those who regretted the Emancipation
Proclamation. Perhaps it should be given another try, this time on a
nation-wide basis.
Because when it comes to our criminal justice and education systems, America can't continue to do nothing.
Professor Marc Sims, seated in center, launched the Sunday
University Lecture Series with an outstanding presentation on
Understanding, Earning, Saving, Investing, Spending and Endowing Money.
Questions:
What if Black people could choose their own teachers and their own
heroes? What if Black people could focus on finance and
institution-building rather than sports and entertainment? What if
Black people taught their children about their history and culture
rather than the distractions and diversions of our society? Then you
would have:
The Sunday University
Learn about Historical Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Recreation of
Black Wall Street in Chicago, Illinois
with Professor Mark Allen
on Sunday, July 19, 2015
Mark Allen - Professor from the Streets to the Suites
Learn about the Best Arguments in Support of Reparations: Internal Reparations and External Reparations with Professor Kamm Howard of N'COBRA on Sunday, July 26, 2015
Kamm Howard - Professor of African-Centered Thinking, Logic and Action
From the first days of their freedom, freed slaves demanded formal
education. Legislation passed in 1829 had made it a crime to teach
Georgia slaves to read, and legislation and white attitudes discouraged literacy within small free black communities.
Yet
when schools for freed people opened in early 1865, they were crowded
to overflowing. Within a year of black freedom, at least 8,000 former
slaves were attending schools in Georgia; eight years later, black
schools struggled to contain nearly 20,000 students.
In 1870 the
state of Georgia made its first effort to create public schools and
found that, in the black community at least, the rudiments of such a
system were already in place. In America, Black people taking control
of their education is not a new thing. But we must remember it, again.
Please call 773.285.9600 to RSVP, for more information or to create a Sunday University in your city.
Back-To-School Bank Day
with The Monroe Foundation
Please call 773.914.1534 for more information.
Click Here to see some of the greatest work ever done by The Black Star Project
See
Keynote Speaker Attorney James Montgomery, Keynote Speaker Jasiri X,
Seneke West African Percussion Ensemble, the Pouring of Libations, the
Elders of the Village, The World Performance Drill Team, Reading
Warriors, 2015 Black Male Graduates. This ceremony must be in your city next year.
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