Welcome
Welcome to Urban Academics, your one stop shop for all things urban as it relates to educating inner-city kids. Urban kids come in all shapes sizes and colors, and each child is an individual. However, the cookie cutter approach to working with this population must stop, but how?
Here you will find the best information, knowledge and cutting-edge resources for your entire family, as we know life is a continuous cycle of learning. At the point at which we stop learning, everything else will follow.
Taking Responsibility for Educating of Our Kids
My name is Patrina S Reddick, and I’ve been working on the front lines with children and families in some capacity for most of my life. While I am a masters level social worker by degree, my career path started in my local church, then expanding to the larger community.
I’ve worked in a number of different roles over the years, but I’ll tell you what frustrates me more today than anything else, which is also the driving force behind Urban Academics.
It saddens me – the number of young people who graduate high school without the necessary skills to compete in the world. Things are changing so rapidly that it will only get worse before it can get better. In today’s business sector, a General Equivalency Degree (GED) is worth more than a high school diploma.
How can you say that Ms. Patrina? Well, at least we know that you can read, count, and follow directions, which is NOT true for more than 60% of the inner city youth walking across the stage to receive diplomas next spring.
Parents should at the very least, check homework nightly and communicate with teachers at least once weekly. This small intervention will make a world of difference in your child’s academic experience. Just finding out what method of communication your child’s teacher likes will indicate that your child has a concerned parent who wants to be on the same page.
Parents are their children’s first teachers. If parents are absent, caring, considerate, ignorant, impolite, important, late, loving, neglectful, petty, prompt, respectful, smart, or talented their child is more likely to any or all those things. There are, however, occasions where children make decisions to be the exact opposite of parents as well.
Taking Ownership of Negative Behaviors
In practice, teachers and I converse daily with students who just happen to live in urban inner cities across the country. There’s a push to do better, but without an increase in parental involvement, I don’t know how much we can do.
Parenting is different than it was in times past when we fought for education and the right to guess what? Read, libraries, restaurant, and public restrooms. In many cases, I’ve seen parents respond faster to a teacher taking a cell phone than the phone call about negative behaviors expressed in a classroom of learning.
Have we become so comfortable with our things (outside) that we forfeit the fruits (inside)? I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I’m willing to start a dialogue with you – If you are here, please become an active part of these issues faced every day in our schools.
Little learning can go on if we’re always dealing with behavior. I believe in my heart that parents need to be more accountable to their children’s schools. It’s not enough to take kids from parents who can’t afford certain things. Some students who have the least learn the most – simply because they want to.
Disrespecting teachers and administrators on any level is inappropriate and parents need to be held accountable for the actions of our children. How else will this stop? If you have ideas, please leave them in the comments section below. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Becoming Partners with Teachers & Administrators
Parents must become an active participant in their child’s success in school and also learn to partner with teachers. Put short – A house divided against itself cannot stand! Why send your child somewhere just so they’re gone? There will be little success if any, if there’s no collaboration, with the child in the driver’s seat.
If as a parent, we don’t take time to listen to our children with “parenting” ears, it will be difficult to see them through “parenting” eyes. What I mean by this is the fact that there are far too many parents these who want nothing more than to be “friends” with their kids – QUIT THAT!
You were not chosen by God to be your child’s friend. There will time for that later in life after they’ve gotten their education. It is our responsibility to raise our children that they become active and progressive citizens of the world and able to take care of themselves through work or business.
Tip: Get yourself a professional planner, write down your child’s schedule and plan around which events you must attend and those that are optional. Your phone will not satisfy this requirement – you need something in your hand that you can both see and touch – at a glance.
Becoming a Village Once Again
Schools all over the world must subscribe to the “village” philosophy, because in a nutshell that’s what it is. There are many teachers, administrators, clerical folks, maintenance people all working to get the job of running a safe and productive school environment for our children.
The village philosophy, however, that I’m speaking of has little to do with bodies and more to do with concern. For example, if you have 50 people around but only 5 of them care, there’s not enough to go around.
I advocate regularly and sit in meetings that would make you cry. My recommendation for parents is to make appointments with school administrators (principals or guidance counselors). The purpose of this meeting is to formally introduce yourself as a concerned and loving parent who wants to partner with he/she and the school to make sure your child is successful academically.
Not every parent will do this, but those that do have a better chance at getting concerned teachers and administrators to look out for your child. I believe in the village philosophy so much, my son & I founded an organization called People Involved in Motivating Our Students Higher (PIMOSH.net). To support this effort, CLICK HERE!
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If you have concerns, questions or want to contribute to this article, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
Patrina Reddick, MSW,
Executive Director
Urban Academics