23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bad Boys, Good Book!, March 29, 2001
By A Customer
This is an excellent book and anyone interested in the future of not only black children but all children in the public school system must read it. Ferguson reintroduces us to a world many of us have long left behind and almost forgotten-elementary school. But more importantly she gives us a new perspective on the plight of young black men. Looking specifically at how the public school system constructs and imagines young black boys as troublemakers, Ferguson reveals how well intentioned educators contribute and reinforce negative and racist stereotypes about black men. Fegerson, however, is at her best when she demonstrates how young black boys through daily resistance (understood by teachers as making trouble) attempt to challenge a system that devalues their ways of knowing and expressing themselves. Read this book and give it to to a teacher, a mother, a father, a grandparent, anyone who is interested it making sure that all children get a quality education.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book, June 11, 2004
Bad Boys by Ann Arnette Ferguson was an amazing book. I appreciated the ways that the theory that I have been reading flowed out of it. The book reminded me of the experiences that I have had teaching, in particular the school I taught at last year. Last year I taught at a school which was attended by predominately African American students. Many of the children?s experiences that Ferguson described were extremely familiar to me. I thought that she did an excellent job of illustrating the ways that cultural and social reproduction is espoused in schools.
The descriptions of the forms of discipline within schools and the ways in which teachers are expected to regulate discipline were very familiar to me. In fact this book addressed the very reasons that it was hard for me to be a teacher within our current education system. The job description of ?normalizer? did not fit my personality. The pressure that I felt from the principal of my school was very much in line with the following quote from page 43.
One of the systemic pressures making for more oppressive, punitive relations for African American children is the fear that white middle-class families will increasingly pull their children out of the public school and send them to private schools. Pressure is felt by the student specialist and ?Jail Keeper? to contain, suppress, and conceal damaging behavior that could contribute to the school?s reputation as a hostile environment.
This pressure in my school was not limited to the people who had the specific job description of disciplinarian (which there were three of, not including the principal), it was put onto every teacher within the school. From an outside perspective everything had to have the appearance of running smoothly, even if that meant that children were not learning in the most effective manner.
The discussion of student?s resistance was interesting and slightly hilarious to me (in an ironic way). Some of the descriptions reminded me of students in my classroom and things that happened both in my classroom and in my school. Ferguson spoke of ?the rewards that children might actually gain from getting in trouble? (92) and reputations. In my second grade classroom I had a student named Diandre who was significantly below grade level standards in all academic subjects. In fact he wrote his first and last name backwards. Diandre was like Horace in the book who had a reputation that preceeded him. Students talked about the things he did, as well as teachers. Diandre had learned before he entered my classroom that if he ?acted out? he didn?t have to do his school work. My goal was to help him. However, other students understood my behavior in a way that I gave Diandre more attention because he was?bad?. As a result one student in particular started ?acting out?. When I sat down to talk to her I came to understand that she was doing what she was doing so that she could get my attention.
Overall I felt that the book was powerful and motivating. I also think that this book is an important piece of work in that it gives these African American male students an outlet to speak about their experience that they would not have had access to. I appreciated what Ferguson said at the end of the book on page 234,
My hesitation to propose solutions comes from a conviction that minor inputs, temporary interventions, individual prescriptions into schools are vastly inadequate to remedy an institution that is fundamentally flawed and whose goal for urban black children seems to be the creation of ?a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society?. I stand convinced that a restructuring of the entire educational system is what is urgently required.
This book gives an excellent account of the ways in which our society uses our education system to reproduce our children to fit the molds assigned to them. It specifically speaks of the experience of Afrian American male students and the systemic things that cause this. This book will either reinforce what one knows about this experience or open ones eyes to what is going on in our schools for African American students. I recommend this book to everyone!
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bad Boys Review, April 22, 2006
This review is from: Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity (Law, Meaning, and Violence) (Paperback)
I was excited to begin reading this book and to learn how the school system unproportionately suspended and disciplined African American males. I was not expecting to learn how the author related the concept of masculinity and discipline into cause and effect paradigm. Even though this class and other sociological classes have taught me to think for myself, ask questions, and expand on concepts presented to me, I am in agreement with the theories and evidence that the author, Ann Arnett Ferguson, presents in her book.
The book begins with an introduction of the community that Rosa Parks Elementary School belongs to. Ferguson is conducting her research here for her doctorate. She has many forms of observing and gathering data needed for her thesis. Sometimes she is a "fly on the wall", a quiet observer. Other times Ferguson is more involved in participant groups, tutoring, and one-on-one interviews. She gathers the most information and insights through her interviews with the children that attend the school and their families. She credits the interview sessions as a valuable way to let the children ask her questions, gain her trust, and for her to develop a deeper understanding of her own strengths and weaknesses and those of her interviewees.
After observing the pupils of the school in the hallways, after school tutoring sessions, and inside the classroom, Ferguson makes an important discovery that becomes the foundation of her research. Her breakthrough came when she stumbled upon two small rooms in the school. These rooms provided discipline, punishment, and seclusion for students who were not following the classroom or school rules. The first room, used for minor infractions, was known throughout the population of the students as "The Punishing Room". The other room was reserved as a place for students who receiving in-school or after-school suspension, anywhere from one to three days. This space was called "The Jailhouse". Files with children's names on it were stored in these rooms to document that more frequent visitor's deviant behavior. While observing the caliber of students in these two rooms, it does not take long for Ferguson to see two important details: the students who are often in trouble are usually African American and male. Teachers that were interviewed notice this discrepancy as well but cannot offer any well substantiated reasons why this occurs. Over the course of her three years of research at Rosa Parks Elementary School, Ferguson comes up with evidence to explain this phenomenon.
Ferguson argues that rather than simply internalizing the negative labels bestowed on them by teachers and school personnel, the African American boys look critically at schooling as they dispute and evaluate the meaning and motivation behind the labels that have been attached to them. In a school were students are judged by their class, race, and gender, many negative labels and stereotypes are presented to students. It is up to the individual if they want to internalize these beliefs or prove the stereotypes wrong. A major conflict that lies within the male gender is that they feel compelled to exert and portray their masculinity. Their "reputations" center around whether they are "hard" or "soft", and this is very important to their self esteem and self worth. "[...] kids recoup a sense of self as competent and worthy under extremely discouraging work conditions. Sadly, they do this by getting in trouble" (Ferguson, 22). The author continues by arguing that sex as well as race are powerful markers of difference, and can be used as explanations as to why children act they way they do. Each race and gender category has different and unique expectations on how children should act and be disciplined. The expectations from family, friends, and school personnel commonly conflict and cause confusion and deviant behavior on the part of the children.
Ferguson's arguments are coherent and well-researched opinions on why school discipline minority male children in a stricter form than most of the student body. I especially agree with the author's ascertain that teachers can be held directly responsible for perpetuating negative predictions about a student's future. On page 227 Ferguson strengthens this point by saying, "[...] school personnel made predictive decisions about a child's future based on whole ensemble of negative assumptions about African American males and their life-chances". The beginning of the book cites examples of white and black teachers referring negatively to a student's chance of staying out of jail. Ferguson states that most boys she interviewed did not see themselves this way. Rather, they portrayed themselves in a positive light. This is one point that I disagree with. Ferguson states that she does not give much merit to the labeling theory. I hold the belief that when teachers voice the grim options of students, they perpetuate a self-fulfilling prophecy that harms that student's self esteem and contributes to their "need" to act out in school.
At the end of the book in the chapter labeled "Dreams", Ann Ferguson states that the inclusion of Black English would benefit the students who come from families where this language is spoken. She argues that this would lessen the hostile environment and feelings of disattachment that many African Americans face. Ferguson believes that this would increase the valuable social linguistic environment of the school and provide validation for black students, especially males. I am not sure I agree with this plan. I can see the value of the learning Ebonics and promoting it in the school system, but I also believe that learning proper English is more valuable for students, because it helps them to get jobs and succeed more in the future.
In conclusion, Ferguson's book is a valuable tool in discerning the unequal disciplinary action that plagues most schools. Understanding the mindset and background of male African American students will benefit teachers, school personnel, and more importantly the students' chances for success.
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