Black, Hispanic students closing race gap
Study shows gains at elementary level
“African-American and Hispanic students at the elementary school level are catching up with their white counterparts in reading and math, but…”
Hold it right there!
I saw this story the other day, but I neglected to highlight it because like many of you I got too distracted with the word “BUT“. It seems like with every mention of achievement by US in the media, there always has to be equal emphasis on how far we have to go. In the end, the “good” news always turns out to be yet more bad news.
When my kids learned how to count to 20, I did not tell them “That’s good, BUT you still have to learn how to do calculus in the future.” Talk about discouragement!
What if a person who is on a diet looses one pound after a hard first week, and I come along and tell them “Well, you’re still fat compared to…”. That would just be straight up ig’nate! This is exactly how many of us view progress in the black community. No need to wonder here why it is so hard to encourage our kids to move beyond the status quo.
Make it a point to celebrate the milestones we have achieved as a people instead of dampering them with comparisons of what others have already done. As a people, we had to endure a lot more setbacks and injustice than most other groups—yet still, we are here and achieving in areas our forefathers could not even imagine while they endured slavery and later Jim Crow. Think about that for a moment.
There were plenty of times in my college days where I would study for an exam for days and still get a lower grade than many of my classmates. Like most, I would go through the usual emotions: getting angry at myself, the teacher, the textbooks, etc. Then it occurred to me that unlike all of my classmates at the time, I was one of the few in the bunch that worked a full time job, drove about 60 miles home after class, studied until 2-3am, got back up a few hours later to do it all over again. The way I saw it–I was doing my best. Maybe I didn’t get the grades I wanted, but the lesson I learned during those days has greatly helped me throughout my career and life in general.
What is unfortunate is that there are many out there that are still stuck blaming the “professor” and the “books” (wink, wink–are you getting it?) for not achieving success.
The other day I ran into this young Hispanic woman who was a mother of two girls (I think one was 5 and the other was seven), and she worked as a security guard (you can only imagine the amount of her salary). She told me that she like her job because while she sat in her security vehicle she would use that time to study for her high school diploma. When she was not working, she would take care of her kids (I am pretty certain she told me she was a single mom) and attend classes about twice a week.
Now what would it had looked like if I had said to this young woman “Good for you, chile’ , but you know that white women your age are in college and are working a much better job…”. Pretty tacky, not to mention very discouraging. She was not only doing the best with what life had to offer to her at the time, but she was increasing her chances on getting much better employment. Comparing the progress of this young woman to that your typical white woman of the same age is simply an inaccurate measurement not to mention the fact that it just produces anger and frustration.
So do yourself a huge favor, don’t compare yourself to others. Comparison can be a healthy thing at times because it can provide you with a rough assessment, but it rarely takes into account the unique differences and circumstances of individuals.
Kick “But” in the butt and celebrate the achievement.
Oh, if you want to read the rest of the article, click here.
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