culture Book ver final 5 - Flipbook - Page 110
African American students, will not develop a culture of academic achievement. Without a
positive culture of academic achievement, students will not be motivated to do the work to learn
to read, and these schools will continue to underperform.
learning to read books and media activities.
Dr. Angela Duckworth has identified this
motivation as “grit”. Students with grit have the
tenacity to overcome adversity and persevere to
achieve academic goals. African American
students need to know their local and state
history African American iconic leaders that
overcame almost impossible odds to achieve
and give back to their communities. Our local
Linwood cemetery is filled with these iconic
leaders. The senior community griot leaders
have an ancestral obligation to do the research
to learn this local and state AA history and pass
it on to the younger generation. The younger
generation must learn why they have an African
American Ancestral Obligation to learn and
more specifically to learn to read at grade-level.
Young students, especially African American
students must be introduced and educated about
their local and state iconic leaders for them to
develop positive self-esteem and to have a
positive, purposeful, personal identity.
AA students must see themselves in their
State proficiency reading and language art exam prep lesson plans must be engaging and
culturally relevant. Knowledge of self and reading at grade level can ultimately fix virtually
everything wrong in the AA community. Children must see their image, their family image, and
their community image in the learning to read books and activities in public schools. They need
this for self-affirmation and inspiration. Otherwise, as described by many authors, AA students,
especially the boys, are completely turned off from school by the fourth grade. (They are simply
not motivated to want to learn. If there is no motivation, there is no substantive learning.
Macon, Georgia has the envious capacity to achieve the Beloved Community as described by Dr.
Martin Luther King. To achieve the Beloved Community all marginalized groups must have their
objective factual story presented, told and explained to themselves and the majority group in a
respectful, peaceful, non-threatening environment. One of the greatest resources to accomplish
this goal is our local library. The Washington Memorial Library is a wonderful resource for our
Native American and African American history. Our community is a filming industry location
site; we have a local film festival, creative writing education, and film technology education
available at the college and technical school levels.
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