How To Prepare Your Black Child for College
The future of African American or young black youth depends upon us parents now. I hear lots of people in 2009 say that “hey, my moms never focused on college for me so I don’t know anything about it for my kid.” Interesting. It’s 2009. No more excuses. Leave the excuses to someone else. It’s time to get serious about your child’s education and take a super aggressive and active role in your child’s studies in elementary school and high school.
Black College Students graduating
You can no longer take the passive role and let your kid tell you what they are studying while you are so busy handling life that you don’t have time to sit and read or study with them. You must be active in their studies and be concerned about what they’re doing at school. I’m not just talking about yelling at the top of your lungs when they come home with a poor grade. This is not constructive and helps no one get ahead and do better. Just because you yell doesn’t make someone rush off to school the next day with a boat load of confidence with Algebra or Geometry.
Black parents must become hyper-active with school right now! Not tomorrow. Not two years from now because your son is in 4th grade and you have time. The time is now. You must enforce habits now that they can take on with them in college. Just getting them out of high school is so 1970′s. That’s crazy to have a goal of just helping your kid get through high school. If you can’t see the bigger picture of your life, come to my blog and read the post titled “Murder of the Middle Class”. You will quickly see that your kid does not stand a chance if they do not have real raw skills and a real education.
And, I’ll go there….your kid should not just go to college and get a BA or hit up a junior college and get an AA. Those two degrees that end with an A are nearly worthless in this economy. I know people with a BA who are bank tellers and who work at grocery stores. No disrespect to my teller and Publix friends at all but what was the degree for?
Prepare a list for your child that includes: Pre-SAT test locations, Pre-ACT test locations. The SAT and ACT are tests designed to let colleges know how well your kid can study and learn so that colleges will accept your child and put them in the right programs. Do not let your kid tell you when and where the exams are and then let them skate out of taking the tests because you had no active involvement in it anyway because you can’t relate. That’s unacceptable.
If your child is in middle school or high school start preparing them right now for college. If they are in a public school which is not a college preparatory school, try to get them in a school that has college prep classes. Again, you must take a leading role now or do not complain in ten years when they are coming to live with you because they simply cannot get a real job making good money.
Gerard Spinks is the CEO of Spinks Industries; a web content producer and marketing company in Atlanta, GA.
