THE MINORITY CHILD AND THE SCHOOLS

...The curriculum of most schools is oriented toward the culturally advantaged pupil preparing for college...

...This far exceeded the migration to New York and Illinois, which totaled 282,000 and 189,000 respectively...

...But in the long run the expense becomes an investment because the alternative costs of increased crime, unemployment, and other social consequences of ineffective education are infinitely greater...

...The texts and illustrations should not refer exclusively to the middle and upper classes...

...The Banneker program in St...

...The rate of unemployment among non-whites continues to be about two and one-half times the rate among whites...

...One of the authors surveyed 116 basic and supplementary books authorized byjhe California State Board of Education for use in elementary and secondary schools, seeking to ascertain whether either the illustrations or the text reflect participation in and contribution to American life by minority groups...

...Louis* five districts, and is ninety-five per cent Negro...

...While it is not yet possible to determine precisely where the immigrants are coming from, our survey of "new entry" records in one predominantly Negro high school in Los Angeles, located in an area which receives a high percentage of the newcomers, revealed that the majority came from the South or from border states...

...James Conant's apt description of unemployment among youngsters (particularly from minority groups) as "social dynamite" has been repeated so often that one might think a massive effort were under way to meet this problem, especially in the public schools...

...The Negro or Mexican-American child is treated as an equal, in the sense that he is given access to the same texts and materials used by other pupils in the system, but there is no consideration of the substantial handicaps he must carry into the classroom...

...New criteria governing the selec-, tion of textbooks and other classroom materials so that each reflects a realistic cross-section of American life and culture...

...Formation of sufficient remedial reading classes in all schools where incoming pupils are below average in reading ability...

...The combined work experience-academic program of the schools, in which students work part time and also attend classes, is a boon to the Anglo-Saxon pupils, but both principals and administrators admit that it is of little value to the Negro or Mexican-American...

...Negroes, representing eleven per cent of the labor force, account for twenty-four per cent of all those unemployed for six months or more...

...Between 1950 and 1960, 354,000 non-whites moved to California, the vast majority locating in Los Angeles County...

...Talk with any public official, businessman, labor leader, or educator in a large metropolitan area, outside the South, and chances are that, given an opportunity, he will attack discrimination and give you assurance that his community or his organization stands firmly for equal rights...

...In addition, special attention to the history, culture, and contibutions of Negroes and of Spanish-speaking peoples in the United States can foster self-respect, mutual respect, and a sense of identification with the school and the nation among children who are now largely ignored in school materials...

...A decisive factor is the attitude of the counselor...

...Scolded by middle-class principals, vice-principals, or attendance officers...

...But the Educational Policies Commission has pointed out that "Reading materials and visual aids should take account of the backgrounds of the children who will use them...

...Other school systems throughout the country should do at least as much and, indeed, a great deal more...

...Vastly expanded adult education programs in minority-group areas...

...As time passed, the Klan fell into the hands of men who would use it for selfish purposes...

...While these arguments seem -to make sense, they contain hidden dangers and flaws: One—They suggest a permanent classification of the minority-group student on the basis of IQ and other tests which are biased in favor of the Anglo-Saxon with acquired verbal skills...

...Perhaps the greatest defect in vocational training for the minority-group youngster is the fact that the schools are unwilling or unable to do anything about the problem of job discrimination...

...Despite the presence of a vast array of "conferences" and "committees" groping for a solution, the problem grows worse...

...While this program represents a forward step, to the extent that the school system will now allow other jurisdictions to enter its hitherto sacrosanct preserves, it is hardly an adequate answer in itself to a problem of this magnitude...

...Coming from an "alien" cultural background, these immigrants, like the Puerto Ricans in New York, often meet as much hostility as do Negroes...

...the test shy, the emotionally disturbed, the unmotivated, the late bloomers, and the culturally deprived...

...Moreover, the results of experimental programs, notably St...

...Review of IQ and other testing measures to determine how much the results are influenced by cultural background and home environment...

...The accomplishments of "Higher Horizons" are equally impressive...

...The Negro or Mexican-American student seldom sees a member of his own group depicted as an executive, professional, or skilled worker...

...The reason the minority-group youngster needs special counseling thus becomes clear...

...But the disadvantaged youngster, besides getting neither motivation nor reading material at home, finds that he must make a cultural adjustment before advancing beyond his already retarded state...

...This same kind of built-in discrimination pervades the entire school system...

...Four—The vocational program of the schools may not keep pace with the rapid changes in industry...

...As the Los Angeles superintendent of schools recently explained, the function of education is "first, to transmit the cultural heritage of our society, and, second, to develop the individual—whether he be gifted, average, or retarded—to his greatest capacity...

...A joint committee of three national educational associations recently stated: "A standardized test overlooks those who for some reason do not fit into the test pattern...

...ers, mainly a younger group, from Texas and New Mexico...

...Two—The vocational emphasis is dangerous in an era of advancing automation...

...The predominant educational policy reflects what Professor Eli Ginzberg has aptly called the "inequality of equality...

...Large numbers of Mexican newcomers also enter Los Angeles County each year, many from-Mexico itself and oth...

...Nowhere is the cultural bias more evident than in the textbooks...

...The findings are corroborated by the observations of the Educational Policies Commission of the National Education Association and the American Association of School Administrators that "The modern public school often bases its efforts on assumptions which are not valid for all children...

...Instead, many schools are, in effect, encouraging them to drop out or transfer elsewhere because they are regarded as incurably unmotivated or incorrigibly delinquent...

...In the light of wasted manpower resources, the most urgent need is for a special program, tailored to the problems of minority youth, in the field of counseling and guidance...

...There must be a sufficient number of full-time counselors, both vocational and psychological, to reduce the student-counselor ratio to manageable proportions...

...Children born into the culturally and economically dominant group have relatively few problems...

...One principal reports that the transiency rate in his high school- is 100 per cent...

...They are now at work on a major study of minority groups and technological change...

...An assistant superintendent in one school system remarked quite earnestly that he could see nothing wrong with Little Black Sambo...

...Professor Wilson Record, an expert on the counseling of minority-group children, has said that "Arbitrary assignment of Negroes to the lowest learning level, misuse of standardized tests given Negro children, ignorance of occupational and career opportunities for Negroes in a fluid job market, emphasis on adjustment to current racial patterns —all these and more are standardized operating procedures in the counseling of Negro pupils and their parents in many of our schools...

...The Negro or Mexican-American youngster in a segregated area is— Taught by middle-class teachers (predominantly Anglo-Saxon) most of whom live far outside the district...

...This last group, the culturally deprived, is estimated at ten per cent of the population and presents serious problems because it is difficult to measure...

...With unpredictable changes in the job market, the worker needs versatility and adaptability to qualify for a number of alternative jobs...

...Smaller classes arid more teachers in these schools...

...The references are seldom maliciously intended, but rather reflect the cultural myopia of the textbook authors and the school administrators...

...Employment of many more counselors, trained to handle the special problems of minority-group youngsters...

...The worker trained in only one type of work is at an overwhelming disadvantage...

...The costs of such a comprehensive program are admittedly high...

...The illustrations are populated almost exclusively by Angle-Saxons, and the texts rarely mention a minority group except in a traditionally stereotyped situation...

...After years of delay, the Board of Education has been persuaded to cooperate with the city and county and the State Department of Employment in a joint program to combat the dropout problem by specialized counseling and testing...

...Tens of thousands come from regions where they have been denied adequate educational opportunity...

...Thus, a large number of children and their parents, who normally would have received no counseling unless they became "problems," managed to...

...The correlation between the drop-out rate and the proportion of minority-group enrollment in the schools is almost perfect...

...These examples could be multiplied indefinitely...

...Once thrown out of a job, the minority-group worker typically remains jobless for an excessively long time...

...The answers, in practice, are provided by the majority, consciously or unconsciously to its own advantage...

...A program of action is essential in the urban centers into which Negroes, Mexican-Americans, and Puerto Ricans are pouring in large numbers...

...In New York, twenty-seven of the thirty-one junior high schools in the program were assigned full-time counselors...

...By 1961, Samuel Shepard, Jr., the program's director, working closely with parents, had raised Banneker medians to par and even surpassed national norms in some fields...

...Graded by IQ and other tests which reflect the cultural norms and experience of the majority group, and, in general, is expected to behave in the manner prescribed by his Anglo-Saxon mentors...

...If they are given the standard college preparatory program, they waste time in flunking or barely passing courses which do not effectively prepare them for any useful job after graduation...

...The results were shocking...

...Motivated to learn throughout their upbringing, and having access to books and other implements of learning, they find no conflict between the cultural pattern transmitted by the schools and the pattern instilled in them by the home and community...

...He is caught between two fires: On the one side he is expected to conform to the majority cultural pattern, but on the other side he is forced to remain segregated and any effort on his part to participate in the majority community is often rebuffed as an "invasion...

...They called for a new educational and guidance program, revised curricula, multicultural faculties, and further administrative support...

...Nor is this problem restricted to the Negro...

...Exposed to textbooks and classroom materials written entirely by and for Anglo-Saxons...

...work for the unskilled and the uneducated...

...But what is this cultural heritage, and what determines the individual's capacity...

...Initiation of a limited number of pilot projects depends on the provision of funds from the Ford Foundation and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare...

...The attitude of many school administrators is perhaps typified by a remark of a high school official who, when questioned about students at his school, replied contemptuously: "We have no 'students' here...

...The values of the teacher, the content of the program, and the very purposes of schooling may be appropriate for middle-class children but not for disadvantaged children...

...Indeed, the minority-group child is often expected to be "more Anglo-Saxon than the Anglo-Saxons," rigidly regulated as to dress, mannerisms, and appearance so as to conform as much as possible to the norms established in the majority community...

...get expert guidance...

...Louis' Banneker Group and New York City's "Higher Horizons," show that both the IQ and the achievement level of the culturally deprived youngster can be raised significantly...

...Within the social and educational framework imposed on the school, therefore, it presumably makes sense to assign them to vocational courses and require them to take only a minimum of academic subjects...

...The discouraging truth is that, with some notable exceptions, the volume of talk far exceeds the amount of effective action...

...By these and other mysteriOus doings, by strange signs, and sometimes by violence, they frightened Negroes away from the voting places...

...Mexican-Americans in the West and Puerto Ricans in the East, concentrated through discrimination and inadequate training in the lowest-skilled jobs, carry a disproportionate burden of the unemployment created as, technological change eliminates PAUL BULLOCK and ROBERT SINGLETON are members of the Staff of the Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California in Los Angeles...

...Counseled by middle-class counselors who often have little understanding of the specific needs of these students or the job pattern in the total community...

...The arguments of school personnel in behalf of their vocational emphasis are superficially impressive: The youngsters coming into the school are deficient in the academic skills, through no fault of their own...

...A text published in California in 1956 describes the Ku Klux Klan in this way: "Mounted Klansmen, dressed in white robes and hoods, paraded silently and at night through village streets or along country roads...

...Many counselors have little aptitude 'for their job and no understanding of the needs of the Negro or Mexican-American youngster...

...The search for submerged discrimination uncovered some significant facts...

...Department of Labor figures for 1961 show that more than one quarter of work-seeking Negro youngsters under twenty were unemployed...

...The special problems of these youngsters must be attacked directly and boldly...

...The Mexican-American youngster is further disadvantaged by a bi-cultural background which encompasses a foreign language, plus geographical proximity to the country of origin...

...These recommendations have received little implementation...

...Ironically, the Negro or Mexican-American student may be more restricted in observance of these norms than the Anglo-Saxon, who is freer to experiment with unconventional attire and the like...

...The Banneker Group of twentyTthree elementary schools comprises one of St...

...Provision of regular opportunities for cultural and educational experiences outside the school and immediate community: concerts, art exhibits, scientific demonstrations, visits to industry, and special lectures...

...Los Angeles is a community that should be especially concerned with development of a comprehensive policy to meet the educational needs of immigrants from other areas of the nation...

...One hundred fifteen homes with parents who could not attend school meetings received a total of 171 visits...

...Three—Lack of a rounded education and absence of a college degree will often prevent the worker from rising into the supervisory, administrative, professional, or technical ranks, precisely the occupations that will expand most in the coming decades...

...The vice-principal in a Mexican-American school snorted to us that he thought it was perfectly natural for textbooks to represent only the majority culture, and could see no reason for any effort to insert references to or illustrations of minority groups...

...The Minority Child and the Schools by PAUL BULLOCK and ROBERT SINGLETON Pick up almost any popular maga- zine these days and you are likely to find an article on the social impact of minorities on American life...

...Mindful of the general view that effective education of minority-group members is essential to a solution of the basic problem, the authors of this article recently investigated the public schools in the Los Angeles area, concentrating on the treatment of Negro and Mexican-American children...

...In 1957 it scored a year to two years behind the national norm...

...Sometimes they gather around big bonfires and sing and dance...

...Numerous books depict the conditions of slaves in almost idyllic terms: "The slaves of a good master have many happy times after their hard day's work is done...

...The premises of this study were that the motivation and vocational choice of minority-group students are much influenced by the kinds of images offered them in and out of the classroom, and that a great deal of "unconscious" discrimination in textbooks, materials, pupil classification, and teaching impedes the progress of those youngsters by saddling them with a cultural background different from that of the Anglo-Saxon majority...

...Thus, the emerging student may find himself well prepared, but for types of work which have, or will soon, become obsolete...

...Louis and the "Higher Horizons" program in New York City have shown the way...

...These children's experiences at home and on the streets do not prepare them for a school established for another kind of child . . . If the school insists on programs or standards that he regards as unrelated to his life or that doom him to an unending succession of failures, he is likely to leave at the first opportunity...

...Privately, a great many educators admit that special problems exist for these youngsters, but few will accept personal responsibility for action...

...Viewing everything in the context of their own limited experience and vision, they little understand the feelings of a Negro or Mexican-American youngster or parent...

...Instructors may have been away from industry for many years, and the schools may be unwilling or unable to invest heavily in new equipment and machinery on which students may be trained...

...In Los Angeles, a Committee of Mid-City Principals issued a joint statement last year indicating the special needs of their schools, each with a large minority-group representation...

...Some of the statements found in history and social studies texts verge on the incredible...

...Forced by segregation into the worst housing areas of the central city, with the children streaming into already overcrowded schools, the newcomers are often disdained as "problems" by the community and, particularly, by school administrators and teachers...

...Few of the minority-group pupils in a segregated school, however, are considered as academic material...

...A minimum program must include: • Elimination of all discrimination in employment and assignment of minority-group teachers, counselors, and administrators, and communication of job opportunities in these areas to potential applicants in schools and colleges...

...His is a schizophrenic conflict which the school system does little to alleviate and a great deal to magnify...

...Moreover, learning about progress in Puerto Rico or about contributions of American Indians and Negroes is appropriate for children of all backgrounds...