When Subliminal Messages Are Loud And Clear

Are you sure you know what's in your children's textbooks? Do you prefer to leave that up to their schools? Or their teachers? What are the hidden messages in the materials your child has access to every day?

I recall certain images that struck me as odd when I was in grade school. A lot of that was at the hands of some of the more religious imagery used to indoctrinate us into said chosen religion.

Nevertheless, this has nothing to do with religion. It has everything to do with the impact some of the earliest imagery that I saw in school and elsewhere, and how it helped to inform and shape some of my views.

In hindsight, I realize that the use of certain images were just a non sequitur used to induce fear and control. Little did they know that there's no logic in fear. So graduating fearful, illogical children was more important than vetting the books for their subliminal messages.

By no means am I advocating a grand conspiracy...but wait, I am.

We're talking about the impressionable minds of our children. What gets put in their heads and spirits, ultimately, will be visited upon the earth. So if we can stem some of the more negative belief systems that are developed as a result of manipulative brainwash, we can save the planet!

So I implore all parents to flip through your children's textbooks to get an idea of what type of conditioning might be taking place. It only takes a few minutes.

Imagine what you can do with a group of parents concerned about the content in a book?

You can change things.....

Does the color of your teacher matter?

Just recently I read a very interesting article about the impact of teachers of color on children of color in the classroom. It forced me to think about the important role models I had growing up in New York City. My first experience with a teacher was, Mrs. Henson, a black kindergarten teacher. Of course, I do not remember specific details about her, but I do remember how familiar she felt to me. Leaving home to go to school for the first time was traumatic enough. It was comforting to have someone guide me that wasn't alien to my existence and had high expectations for us as students of color.

After kindergarten, I went to St. Clement Pope School. It was our parish school that was full of nuns. They were white women dedicated to God, who I would like to think had our best interests in mind. What I do recall was the heavy-handed discipline at the hands of these women that, at times, bordered on abuse. I was too young to understand the implications of their treatment but had a firsthand purview of the 'difference' in treatment of the few white students versus the black and Latino ones. Please take my word for it...that's another blog.

However, it was Mrs. Bryant and Mrs. Franklin who had the strongest impact on us. They were two black teachers that I can clearly recall the impact they had. I'm sure most kids in this predominantly black Catholic School have stories of high expectations and no-nonsense treatment from these women who were aware of the world we lived in. Nonetheless, they gave us something that no white teacher could - they instilled a passion for learning, the beauty of our skin color and history, and incorporated many cultural references that provided direction and guidance. Their expectations were that we reach the goals they set, exceed them, and do even better in society. The most impactful things was - if they could do it, so could we!

Eventually my mother and aunt taught at St. Clements. There's no need to elaborate on that - they gave us everything we needed in and out of the classroom.

Our children need examples of what they can attain. They need teachers that understand them as well as have the highest expectations of them. Our children need teachers that will go the extra lengths to assure that our children reach their highest potential. From my experience, I will always know what can be achieved because I saw it firsthand in school!!

Here's an article that quotes studies on this topic.  http://bit.ly/X02ssQ

Is It Wrong To Create Higher Expectations For Students Of Color?

I just came across an article that posed the idea that by raising the expectations of students they will do better in school. If you look at the biases that enter the classroom with many teachers in communities of color as well as areas of poverty, you have to wonder what the answer to this is.

I've heard stories for over twenty years of students of color who were discouraged and blocked from obtaining something their white counterparts have ready access to - opportunity. They were told to apply to trade schools so they could 'make a living' and told they were unrealistic when they spoke of attending college. This is by their guidance counselor! I even have a friend that is extremely intelligent and talented who was told because of his height and color that he should play basketball instead of applying to college. Go figure?!

What's worse is a lot of the teachers not only have low expectations for these students, they have NO expectations. Therein lies a big problem. It's important for them to address their biases way before they enter the classroom and adjust their mindset to fit the situation.  

What do we do about teachers that enter the classrooms with these biases? According to the article,  “Teachers do have these low expectations for these types of students, and we know that these expectations are important. So what can we do to give educators both the tools that they need and the kind of culture that they need to make sure that they can reach out to these students? That they can give these students higher expectations that also then help those students reach those higher expectations?”

This is the challenge.

Read the article here:
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/10/study_raising_expectations_actually_raises_students_grades.html