| It varies. But the story goes something like this: A ship lands in the New World. People are seen coming ashore at a distance. Some linger aboard the ship and disappear below to haul up what they call the "cargo." Pretty expensive -- that cargo. And here they come, one by one -- men, women, and little ones. The shackles distinguish them from the people ashore and the people who are pushing them forward. The shackled ones -- eyes look ahead at the land. They stop walking. It is as if they had become stone, each one, for the handlers cannot budge them forward. They look at the ones who are different, and they look beyond and see others who look like them -- shackled too. They turn to look from where they came at the waters behind them. The water is calm. They look at the others and back to the water again. Shackles clank and clank some more until the Ibo from the land of Nigeria are walking toward the water. They walk. Feet touch the water, but they still walk, standing straight above the water. They are singing. Singing grows louder and louder as they grow smaller and smaller ... The Ibo from Nigeria -- "they go back home." All those on land with shackles told this story to others who had not seen or heard about this amazing landing. In the next generation, the women made sure to tell their children, particularly their daughters so they will remember to tell their children and grandchildren. Professor Alfred Tatum, a leading authority on literacy and the achievement of Black adolescent males, is a critic of the "standard reading assignments" under No Child Left Behind. According to writer Mark McGowan in his article, "NIU Literacy Professor: 'No Child Left Behind' Misses Students' Needs for Meaningful Reading," Tatum "wonders why the nation's schools choose such readings over the multitude of other works that are rich in detail, provocative in thought, and personally meaningful to adolescents living in troubled communities." Tatum explains that "text can be enabling. Enabling text moves students to do, be and act differently. Instruction devoid of meaningful text is low-quality instruction." "Standard reading assignments," one the other hand, prepare students for "achievement testing." An assistant professor in the College of Education at Northern Illinois University, Tatum, winner of the 2006 James N. Britton Award for his 2005 book, Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap, says that too much of what Black students are given to read is actually "disabling" because the reading material has no value in their lives. Worse, these "standard reading assignments" often "reinforce" the students' perception of themselves as struggling readers. "Students are eager for reading that reflects their lives ... and [they] want their teachers to guide them as they shape their own identities," says McGowan, summarizing Tatum's argument. "Rich, meaningful, provocative text will thrust them forward in positive ways ... and help them discover the power latent within them," Tatum says. The Winston-Salem Journal is urging Congress to look carefully at NCLB coming up for renewal next year because statistics show it does not work on behalf of all students. It would be difficult to reach all students, Dr. Gloria Ladson Billings says, if teachers are not familiar with reading material other than "Romeo and Juliet" or "The Scarlet Letter." Instead, she argues, "teachers are not teaching because they "don't know" culturally-specific reading texts. Dr. Billings, professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that there is nothing in the law that says students must read this or that material. "In some cases, people who are not very good teachers are limiting what the law can do because they do not 'make the most of pedagogy.'" "La Llorona is a story most Hispanic kids know," says Dr. Billings, yet, this story is not brought into the classroom to reinforce cultural knowledge and encourage student commitment to the learning process. While Dr. Billing does not agree with the barrage of testing under NCLB, she believes teaching would be more effective if teachers focused on pedagogy. The incorporation of the Ibo Landing and the La Llorono in the classroom would not only empower Black and Latino/a students but would also benefit all students and achieve a deeper understanding of other cultures and themselves. We are really talking about equality -- equal opportunity for all students themselves within the human family. These stories are the heritage of generations as they served to fuel dreams of the impossible. ... This is the way we told this story to inspire courage in the face of overwhelming odds. We relied on ourselves to pass it on. We knew its power to our dispel fears and speak to social and political conditions. |
| Voices/Dr. Jean Daniels The Ibo landing |
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