Motivation sought for African-American students
Trinity Standard - December 2007

TRINITY – Sports and family are the main motivators for African-American boys attending Lansberry Elementary School, according to a new study presented Monday night by Dr. Mack Hines.

Hines, a professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, has been looking for ways to help African-American boys in grades 3-5 enhance their academic skills.

In presenting his findings to the Trinity School Board on Monday night, Hines praised the local district and its teaching staff for their efforts to serve the needs of the students, regardless of ethnic backgrounds.

However, he recommended that all teachers be given cultural diversity training to help them understand some of the roadblocks that ethnic differences may throw into the path of education.

Hines said cultural and family influences can sometimes cause students to distrust teachers of a different ethnic background and teachers need to be aware of these problems in order to overcome them.

“The teachers here, from what I’m seeing, want to give their best to their students,” Hines told the board. “They want to be a part of the solution. Diversity training will help the teachers understand what they are seeing in the classroom and help them overcome those problems.”

Hines said prior to coming to the Lansberry Elementary School campus, he had conducted similar studies at inner city schools in Houston and was pleasantly surprised by the differences he found among the African-American students in Trinity.

“When I came here, I expected to receive a long list of disciplinary problems involving these students, but instead I found almost none,” he told the board.

“In the inner city, the students, even the elementary students, are in what I call ‘survival mode.’ They are faced with a whole list of dangers from the time they leave home until they reach school and they have learned not to trust.

“Fortunately, here in Trinity you have a much smaller, close-knit community where everyone knows everyone. The children aren’t faced with the same problems that inner city children have so they have a better chance of being able to learn,” Hines said.

He noted that many students in the inner city neighborhoods have indicated to him that they feel their only options in life are either to become drug dealers or fast food workers.

“Why is that their only option? We need to show these children that there are other avenues, other opportunities,” he said.

Locally, Hines said the African-American boys tended to identify most with professional sports figures or rap musicians because they see both those careers as possible.

None indicated they had any dreams of becoming things such as doctors, lawyers or college professors.

Hines also said that students also have been negatively influenced by their families, who in some cases have taught the children not to trust their teachers.

He told the board of one youngster who said his grandfather actually told him not to listen to his teacher because she was white.

“These are some of the things that we need to identify and overcome,” Hines told the board.

In his recommendations, Hines told the board that a similar study needs to been made of African-American girls at Lansberry Elementary.

He noted that while examining the boys, he noticed that the girls in grades 3-5 tended to be extremely “cliquish” and would not associate with children of other races.

Hines told the board while such behavior was not totally unusual, he was surprised to see it at such a strong level among such a young age group.

He noted that the African-American girls appeared to have developed a “mob mentality” against all other students.

 “A study needs to find out the underlying factors that caused these African-American girls to hate the other students based on their ethnicity,” he told the board.

Other recommendations in his report called for motivational studies at both the middle school and high school levels and for a special program to provide mentors to the African-American boys to help them understand the value of academics.

School Board President Dorothy Franklin expressed her thanks to Hines and said she also felt it important that the district attempt to work with parents.

“If parents are giving their kids these kinds of ideas, then we need to work on that,” she said.

Franklin, who is a retired Lansberry Elementary principal, indicated that the problem described by Hines involving the African-American girls was not a new issue and would be addressed by the district.

Other business
During Monday’s school board meeting, the trustees also:
• Approved a joint election agreement with the Trinity Memorial Hospital District that would allow the school and hospital district to conduct their next board elections using the same election officials at the same voting location. Under the agreement, both the early voting and election day voting for both the school and hospital will be held at the Trinity Volunteer Fire Department’s meeting room.
• Voted to change the date of the board’s December meeting from Dec. 24 to Dec. 17 due to the Christmas holiday.
• Approved a contract with Lawn Pros on the maintenance of school district lawns and athletic fields. The contract cost for the coming year will be $78,000.
• Approved contracts with Goodwin, Lasiter Inc. and Carter Design Associates for the drafting of plans on the renovation of the Old Red building into administrative offices. Superintendent Dr. Bobby Rice noted TISD has received a grant and a donation totaling $8,700 to cover the cost of preparing the plans but that the design work will actually cost $9,100. The board approved paying the additional $400 for the plans, which will be used to seek additional grants to cover the cost of renovating the building.
• Voted to divide the district’s votes to elect members to the Trinity County Appraisal District’s board of directors among the five incumbent members. Each of the members will receive 334 votes and include Hayne Huffman, Kathy McCarty, Ivy Evans, Jack Wade and Rudy Wilkison.
• Approved the special education operating guidelines for the district.