Book Review

Black Children: Their Roots, Culture, And Learning Style

Janice E. Hale-Benson

The introduction of the book brings in the central concern and driving observation that the author has made—Black children are rooted in Afro-American culture and are being asked to succeed in an education system that is Euro-centric. From this realization an examination begins with the goal of honing in on the nature of and sources of Black children’s learning styles—to give, as the book shows, perspective on how to better build a curriculum responsive to the needs of Black children. The book’s chapters can be grouped as contributing to this examination in three ways—examining the sources of culture, connecting culture to its influence on cognitive development, and, in seeing such, the implications on what is needed for a culturally responsive curriculum. The chapters African Background Considered and The Humanities as a Source of Black Culture both reveal Afro-American culture as being intensely rich and unique—with many practices and traits being rooted in West African traditions. Another related chapter, Afro-American Roots: Interviews with Grandmothers, is based on the author’s survey Black and white grandmothers for comparison of child-rearing practices as another mode of influence on the child-development. The chapters How Culture Shapes Cognition, Play Behavior as an Indicator of Cognitive, and Culture and Child-Rearing discuss how culturally sourced behaviors and perspectives contribute to the cognitive reasoning of Black children. There is a distinction drawn between two types of cognitive reasoning—those being analytic and relational—Black culture encourages children’s development of the latter—while the Eurocentric system rewards most an expression of analytic cognitive reasoning. This cognitive conflict is a major source of conflict of the Euro-centric education system and the Black child. The final chapter, Towards a Curriculum Relevant to Afro-Americans: Implications for Early Childhood Education, provides suggestions for a curriculum that would take strides to address this conflict. The author starts by insisting that any new curriculum needs to address three components—political/cultural, pedagogical relevance, and academic rigor. With citation of other scholars, the author encourages an “education for struggle” that addresses the needs of black children as being the victims of colonialism and as needing to excel above their white peers in order to receive equal opportunity. There are many other suggestions, especially in the ways of incorporating the students’ culture into their learning, but the end result is a curriculum that sounds like that of a social justice education.

Though the book’s ordering did not reflect a deliberate streamlined process for beginning to derive a culturally relevant curriculum for children—I grouped and ordered them after reading—the model seems effective. Beginning with the observation—which I feel would be justified if it were only an assumption considering the inevitable struggle associated with culture and education—and noting the prominence of culture in the situation—I feel the author’s emphasis on first evaluating the contribution of culture is the right choice. The further conclusions derived from such, and connected to cognitive reasoning further shows the direct influence of culture on how a child thinks and therefore learns. The major question that stays with me is while there is an understandable emphasis on early childhood education—I assume the time when this culture-cognitive process is most relevant—do the findings change with the growth of the students? Is there an equalizing socialization process that takes place in school that makes a culturally responsive curriculum less relevant? If so, then is it worth the effort—the child’s experience will bring him/her to situations that are far from culturally responsive. If not—then could the same study be made with older students (say 7^th graders, cough) of a different culture?