Dwight Jones in his campaign for office spoke at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce. He told the audience that all of the candidates for office agreed that the state of the middle schools in Richmond is a major concern. On Jan. 29 he addressed the annual meeting of the Venture Richmond Board of Directors and repeated that education and the plight of middle schools constituted the major challenge of his administration.
Granted, the onset of puberty and the change in human development will always cause difficulty in middle school classrooms. But I agree with the mayor.
What to do? Change the culture.
The initial issue of The Economist this year carried an article on the 10 best young economists in the world. Roland Fryer of Harvard was selected among that number. Fryer's ambition was identified as unraveling the causes of black underachievement in America, especially in education.
The reporter wrote that Fryer's "search for explanations extends beyond racism and poverty to contemplate the role of a self-defeating culture. He calculates that a black student who earns straight-A grades will have 1.5 fewer friends from his ethnic group" than a comparable white student.
Mayor Jones, you sought solutions. I hope others will recommend the celebration and fostering of two-parent families.
I suggest that the middle schools follow the example of the Carver Promise, Micah Initiative, and other mentoring programs in introducing college students and adults as volunteers to the middle schools.
The thesis is that the presence of large numbers of black and white adults in middle schools dedicated to learning, reading, work, family, and achievement will change the environment and raise the expectations of the culture, so that high-achieving black students are surrounded by friends with similar aspirations.
Jim Doherty is a commercial real estate appraiser and president of Elam & Funsten. He lives in Richmond, has an M.B.A. from Columbia, and has written four books.
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