The National Black Child Development Institute Stop
the Madness: Purging the Preschool Pipe Line to Prison had an article about
dealing with Mental Health Issues with preschool children especially those that
are African American. One thing that is relevant is preschool children face
expulsion rates three times higher than children in kindergarten through 12th
grade. African American preschoolers are 3 to 5 times more likely to be
expelled than their white, Latino, or Asian American peers (Gilliam, 2005).
Teachers don’t feel that they are adequately trained to handle children with
mental health issues, so they are sent home instead of getting the help they
need. I have dealt with making the decision to suspend a child from school
because of behaviors and teachers not wanting to put in the work to address
challenging behaviors. This website has a lot of articles that deal with
African American children and their families. As a young teacher, I would
become upset when I would see workshops, books, and articles that dealt with a
particular race, I found it insulting because I felt a child is a child, and
they all go through life the same. As I matured as a teacher and increased my
knowledge, I realized that because of our culture, we are going to respond to
things differently because we don’t all experiences.
http://www.nbcdi.org
Hi Sylvia,
ReplyDeleteYour post was sad but true. You are correct in saying that children of all cultural backgrounds have behavioral issues in school and they all need to be addressed given the same attention. You reminded me of a workshop I attended years ago and the program director shared a negative experience he had while he was the principal of a school. He went on to say that the child was an African-american girl and I couldn't understand why he needed to share her race.