State of the Black Child

As a rule I do not give recommendations for books, events, and other resources.  When I find provocative resources (either in a positive or negative way) I will share and excerpt and let the readers decide themselves.  However, today, and one more time next week, I am going to flat out recommend a book for your consideration. Today I am strongly encouraging you to take a look at the latest publication of the National Black Child Development Institute, Being Black is Not a Risk Factor:  A Strength-Based Look at the State of the Black Child (which can be downloaded for free on the NBCDI website).  In introducing this resource, NBCDI President, Felicia DeHaney observes... "This publication... is personal for me, and it should be personal for you too, regardless of your own skin color.  Our children will inherit this world together.  And we don't believe that some of those children — the Black ones — are wrong.  We don't think they are bad.  We don't believe they are doomed to failure.  We fully understand the crisis.  We work with our children.  We talk to the parents.  We read the statistics — the poverty rates the test scores, the health outcomes — and we are broken hearted. "But we also know our strengths and our successes.  We know the stories behind the statistics.  We may not have all the answers, but we, collectively, have some of them.  There are things that work — and there are things that don't.  You can't call a father an 'ineffective parent' and then wonder why he doesn't show up to your parenting education event.  You can't tell a child she's never going to amount to anything, and then wonder why she doesn't.  The words we use; the expectations we hold; the beliefs in our hearts — all of these things matter.  Ensuring that we provide sufficient and equitably distributed resources?  This matters too.  Morally, yes, but also because research says these things matter in achieving better outcomes for our children."

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.

© 2005 Child Care Information Exchange - All Rights Reserved | Contact Us | Return to Site