Black Children: Their Roots, Culture, and Learning Styles

American educators have largely failed to recognize the crucial significance of culture in the education of African-American children, contents Janice E. Hale in the revised edition of her groundbreaking work, Black Children. As African-American children are acculturated at home and in the African-American community, they develop cognitive patterns and behaviors that may prove incompatable with the school environment. Cultural factors produce group differences that must be addressed in the educational process. Drawing on the fields of anthropology, sociology, history, and psychology, Hale explored the effects of African-American culture on a child's intellectual development and suggests curricular reforms that would allow African-American children to develop their interlligence, pursue their strengths, and succeed in school and at work.