Books for African American Parents

Through Ebony Eyes : What Teachers Need to Know But Are Afraid to Ask About African American Students by Gail Thompson

Synopsis: In this book, Gail L. Thompson takes on the volatile topic of the role of race in education and explores the black-white achievement gap and the cultural divide that exists between some teachers and African American students. Solidly based on research conducted with 175 educators, Through Ebony Eyes provides information and strategies that will help teachers increase their effectiveness with African American students. Written in conversational language, Through Ebony Eyes offers a wealth of examples and personal stories that clearly demonstrate the cultural differences that exist in the schools and offers a three-part, long-term professional development plan that will help teachers become more effective.

Up Where We Belong: Helping African American and Latino Students Rise in School and in Life by Gail L. Thompson

Synopsis: In Up Where We Belong, Gail Thompson asked the students in a low performing school to be candid about their high school experiences. Using this information and relying on data from questionnaires and focus groups, Thompson discovered a huge gap in perception between how teachers and students view their experience of school. The book explores this disparity, and uncovers some of the reasons for students’ low achievement, apathy, and frustration. Most important, she offers vital lessons for transforming schools–especially for underachieving kids and students of color

What African American Parents Want Educators to Know by Gail L. Thompson

Synopsis: Thompson has gathered feedback from African-American parents pertaining to their children's schooling experiences, the results of which can help improve the schooling experiences of African-American children nationwide.

African American Teens Discuss Their Schooling Experiences by Gail L Thompson

Synopsis: For decades, researchers and policymakers have grappled with the issue of the underachievement of African American students. An age-old problem has been that these students on average lag behind their peers of other racial/ethnic groups in math, science, and reading. Recently, California, like some other states, has implemented a high-stakes standardized testing program that has revealed that when test scores are disaggregated along racial/ethnic lines, the scores of African American students continue to trail those of their peers. The study described in this book was undertaken in an effort to uncover schooling practices that are advantageous or detrimental to the achievement of African American students. The study was based on interviews and questionnaire results from nearly 300 African American high school seniors. Most of these students resided in a region that had a low college attendance rate and a high child poverty rate. The students were given an opportunity to discuss numerous issues pertaining to their schooling experiences, including teacher attitudes and expectations, the curriculum, homework practices, the quality of services provided by their high school counselors, racism at school, school safety, parental involvement, and their early reading habits and attitudes about reading. In addition to quantitative results, most chapters include detailed narratives describing the elementary and secondary schooling experiences of the interviewees.

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations about Race by Beverly Tatum

Synopsis: This insightful exploration of the varieties of Americans' experience with race and racism in everyday life would be an excellent starting point for the upcoming national conversations on race that President Clinton and his appointed commission will be conducting this fall. Tatum, a developmental psychologist (Mt. Holyoke Coll.) with a special interest in the emerging field of racial-identity development, is a consultant to school systems and community groups on teaching and learning in a multicultural context. Not only has she studied the distinctive social dynamics faced by black youth educated in predominantly white environments, but since 1980, Tatum has developed a course on the psychology of racism and taught it in a variety of university settings. She is also a black woman and a concerned mother of two, and she draws on all these experiences and bases of knowledge to write a remarkably jargon-free book that is as rigorously analytical as it is refreshingly practical and drives its points home with a range of telling anecdotes. Tatum illuminates ``why talking about racism is so hard'' and what we can do to make it easier, leaving her readers more confident about facing the difficult terrain on the road to a genuinely color-blind society. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Different and Wonderful: Raising Black Children in a Race-Conscious Society by Dr. Darlene Hopson
This exceptional, well-written book is the result of a study conducted by the authors in 1985-86 and presented to the American Psychological Association in 1987. Its purpose is to help black middle-class parents prepare their children to become positive, productive, and self-respecting individuals in American society. To that end, a series of self-evaluation tools interspersed throughout the text enables parents to explore their own attitudes about being black. The technique of positive parenting described is exemplary for all parents. Chapters focus on modeling, strengthening, and open communication of parents on such complex issues as racial identification, teenage sexuality, day care, and family relations during the developmental stages of childhood to adulthood. The stated goals empower black families to cope with still-racist institutions. A significant contribution is the network of resources (books, magazines, games and toys, and cultural centers) that celebrate black culture. The approaches of this work make it imperative reading for concerned parents everywhere. Highly recommended.
- Gayle S. Leach, Wayne State Univ., Detroit

Smart Parenting for African Americans: Helping Your Kids Thrive in a Difficult World
African American children face many imposing threats in today's world -- academic failure, drugs, gangs, irresponsible sex, and attraction to crime, among others. For the parents of these children, it takes knowledge, effort, and caring to effectively deal with such tough issues.

In "Smart Parenting for African Americans," Dr. Jeffrey Gardere takes an honest look at the problems children face and stresses the importance of strong parent-child communication for fostering self-esteem.

He also provides the tools parents need to give their sons and daughters a head start in the earliest years, help them get the most out of school, and cope with the turbulent teens. Plus there's sobering advice on keeping children safe from sexual predators and on handling a confrontation with the police.

Here is a sensitive, no-nonsense approach to raising black children that will show parents how to be a source of support, love, and protection for their kids -- giving them the foundation they need to flourish for the rest of their lives.Learn to be a smart parent -- and help your kids thrive in a difficult world.

African-American children face many imposing threats in today's world -- academic failure, drugs, gangs, irresponsible sex, and attraction to crime, among others. For the parents of these children, it takes knowledge, effort, and caring to effectively deal with such tough issues.

In Smart Parenting For African-Americans, Dr. Jeffrey Gardere presents a savvy, realistic guide for today's black parents. He takes an honest look at the problems their children face and stresses the importance of strong parent-child communication for fostering self-esteem.

He also provides the tools parents need to give their sons and daughters a head start in the earliest years, help them get the most out of school, and cope with the turbulent teen years. Plus, there's sobering advice on keeping children safe from sexual predators and on handling a confrontation with the police.

Here is a sensitive, no-nonsense approach to raising black children that will show parents how to be a source of support, love and protection for their kids -- giving them the foundation they need to flourish for the rest of their lives.Jeff Gardere, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, is founder and Executive Director of Rainbow Psychological Services in New York City. He has hosted "Ask the Family Therapist" on America's Health Network and "Hit It" on WLIB in New York City and has appeared on other major news and talk shows.

Developing Positive Self-Images and Discipline in Black Children
This book explores the relationship between self-esteem and achievement, parental involvement, the lack of discipline in public schools and the importance of multiracial standards of beauty for children


Strength for Their Journey: 5 Essential Disciplines African-American Parents Must Teach Their Children and Teens
With over twenty years of experience to draw from, Dr. Johnson and Dr. Stanford have created the first comprehensive parenting book to provide realistic, discipline-based advice for African-American parents. This is the first book of its kind to offer the benefits of five different disciplines to help parents steer their children onto the right path towards adulthood.The result of more than twenty years' collaborative work focusing on the heart of successful parenting, the acclaimed five disciplines program developed by Drs. Robert L. Johnson and Paulette Stanford has helped thousands of African-American children and their parents cope with the myriad of social challenges they confront each day. Now making this special prescription available to all parents,Strength for Their Journeyoffers insight into five interconnected areas:

• Traditional Discipline: The Strength to Embrace Parental Boundaries
• Racial Discipline: The Strength to Negotiate the Realities of Being a Racial Minority
• Emotional Discipline: The Strength to Resist Negative Peer Pressure and Temptation
• Practical Discipline: The Strength to Excel in School, Career, and Financial Pursuits
• Mind-Body Discipline: The Strength to Maintain Positive Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Health

In a culture that often grants fewer safety nets to nonwhite children,Strength for Their Journey is a crucial book that African-American parents can turn to again and again, paving a path of confidence and joy for future generations.Robert L. Johnson, M.D., is a nationally recognized authority on African American youth and has been featured on numerous news shows, from "20/20" to "The O'Reilly Factor." He is also a member of the planning board for the U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Youth Violence, serves as medical and cultural advisor for "ER," and lectures extensively throughout the country.

Also a frequent guest speaker in the media and at workshops, Paulette Stanford, M.D., is the medical director of START, an adolescent-HIV program. She is also the principal investigator for a National Institute of Health research and study on high-risk adolescent behavior. Both authors live in New Jersey, and are professors at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ).