Like the Ten Commandments, the key ideas and principles to ensure the success of minority students looks simple on paper, but will take soul-searching and tireless effort to implement. Here are my Ten Commandments to assure the success of minority students!
- Raise the bar. Have high expectations. Expect great things from minority students, instead of diluting standards, explicitly or implicitly.
- Elementary school is not just playtime. Lay a strong foundation. Do not treat students as if they are on an escalator that automatically moves to the next level. Instead work to ensure that the foundation is strong.
- Don’t treat schools with heavy minority populations as second class citizens. For all the talk on equality and importance of education, schools with heavy minority populations are shamelessly neglected.
- Invest in libraries. Read to young children. Reward them for reading. Make reading the nerve center of schools.
- Open their eyes to the world. Minority children need to develop a global view. Multi-culturalism and global competencies are keys to their success.
- Find mentors and role models. If there is one thing that has a long-lasting impact, it is having a mentor.
- Expose them to new and emerging careers. Many students still believe that nursing and fire-fighting are the only two careers available to them.
- Inspire the community to ensure that every minority kid is a success story. It takes a village to raise a child.
- Pay teachers well. Respect and honor them. The work they do is challenging and often goes unnoticed.
- Hold parents accountable. School is not a day time nursery and they have a role to play in the education and well-being of their child.
