The dilemma: ethical challenges and decision-making frameworks

¶ … Trouble with boys

I answered all the questions for this resource attachment in this paper.

In the article "Are Schools Failing Black Boys," the concept known as "the downhill slide" is the frequent occurrence of African-American student's grades systematically becoming lower and lower by the time they reach fourth grade. What makes this phenomenon all the more remarkable is the fact that when they are in the first and second grades, these students' grades were on par (or perhaps even exceeding) that of their non-African-American counterparts. There are a couple of factors which can explicate the downhill slide syndrome. One is the fact that in the early years of elementary school, there is a social aspect to the way ideas are taught. By the time students reach the fourth grade, that social interaction has been replaced with a staid, sedentary lecture-based approach -- which will largely follow the majority of these students through their academic careers.

The personal expectations of a teacher can greatly influence the performance and prowess of a student in scholastic terms. Students are astutely aware of what is expected of them. Thus, if teachers have low expectations of students, oftentimes they may not attempt to exceed those expectations. An interesting aspect of the aforementioned article is that it provides a number of specific examples in which teachers had low expectations of students and did not attempt to help the students to exceed those expectations. For instance, there was the example of young Keith, a fairly bright student who would stay after class to help his teacher and tell the teacher his goals of becoming a doctor. The teacher, however, discouraged the child's dreams and recommended he play sports, instead. There was also the example of the teacher who gave Dawn Holmes' son C's in math, and when she attempted to see what he could do to get better grades, the teacher informed her that C's were perfectly fine grades for her son.

The new segregation discussed in this article is the separation of school children from one another not based on race, but on purported ability. The article indicates that numerous African-American children are placed in special education and in lower level classes. Doing so effectively separates them from those other individuals in their peer group who are allegedly more advanced or smarter than the African-American students. At one point, formal segregation kept black and white children from being educated side by side. In contemporary times, special education and lower level classes provide the same degree of segregation -- the students are still not learning together as they were supposed to when integration took effect within this country.

The article also alludes to the fact that the supposed discipline issue among African-American students may actually be exacerbated by other factors. For instance, some people in the article allude to the fact that there is simply class and social distinctions between African-American males and their teachers, and suggest that the latter may have lower levels of tolerance for the former. There are also incidents in this article in which minor infractions result for severe penalties for African-Americans, yet not for their Caucasian counterparts.