Instant Download Cultural Competence in America S Schools Leadership Engagement and Understanding 1st Edition Bruce Anthony Jones PDF All Chapter

Full download test bank at ebookmeta.
com
Cultural Competence in America s Schools

Leadership Engagement and Understanding 1st
Edition Bruce Anthony Jones
For dowload this book click LINK or Button below
https://ebookmeta.com/product/cultural-competence-
in-america-s-schools-leadership-engagement-and-
understanding-1st-edition-bruce-anthony-jones/
OR CLICK BUTTON
DOWLOAD EBOOK
Download More ebooks from https://ebookmeta.com

More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...
Cultural Intermediaries Connecting Communities:

Revisiting Approaches to Cultural Engagement 1st
Edition Phil Jones (Editor)
https://ebookmeta.com/product/cultural-intermediaries-connecting-
communities-revisiting-approaches-to-cultural-engagement-1st-
edition-phil-jones-editor/
What is to be Done Cultural Leadership and Public

Engagement in Art and Design Education 1st Edition
Steve Swindells
https://ebookmeta.com/product/what-is-to-be-done-cultural-
leadership-and-public-engagement-in-art-and-design-education-1st-
edition-steve-swindells/
Cultural Competence in Higher Education 1st Edition

Tiffany Puckett
https://ebookmeta.com/product/cultural-competence-in-higher-
education-1st-edition-tiffany-puckett/
Teacher Leadership in Professional Development Schools

1st Edition Jana Hunzicker
https://ebookmeta.com/product/teacher-leadership-in-professional-
development-schools-1st-edition-jana-hunzicker/
A Model of Emotional Leadership in Schools 1st Edition
Izhak Berkovich
https://ebookmeta.com/product/a-model-of-emotional-leadership-in-
schools-1st-edition-izhak-berkovich/
Understanding Audience Engagement in the Contemporary

Arts 1st Edition Stephanie E. Pitts
https://ebookmeta.com/product/understanding-audience-engagement-
in-the-contemporary-arts-1st-edition-stephanie-e-pitts/
Abolitionist Leadership in Schools Undoing Systemic

Injustice Through Communally Conscious Education 8th
Edition Robert S. Harvey
https://ebookmeta.com/product/abolitionist-leadership-in-schools-
undoing-systemic-injustice-through-communally-conscious-
education-8th-edition-robert-s-harvey/
Cultural Management and Policy in Latin America 1st

Edition Taylor & Francis Group
https://ebookmeta.com/product/cultural-management-and-policy-in-
latin-america-1st-edition-taylor-francis-group/
Unnormalizing Education Addressing Homophobia in Higher

Education and K 12 Schools 1st Edition Joseph R. Jones
https://ebookmeta.com/product/unnormalizing-education-addressing-
homophobia-in-higher-education-and-k-12-schools-1st-edition-
joseph-r-jones/
Cultural Competence in
America’s Schools:
Leadership, Engagement and
Understanding
A Volume in:
Educational Policy in the 21st Century: Opportunities, Challenges & Solutions
Series Editor
Bruce A. Jones
Educational Policy in the 21st Century:
Opportunities, Challenges & Solutions
Series Editor
Bruce A. Jones
University of South Florida
Contemporary Uses of Technology in K-12 Physical Education:

Policy, Practice, and Advocacy (2012)
Edited by Steve Sanders and Lisa Witherspoon
Staff Governance and Institutional Policy Formation (2011)
Edited by John W. Murray and Michael T. Miller
College Student-Athletes: Challenges, Opportunities,
and Policy Implications (2009)
Edited by Daniel B. Kissinger and Michael T. Miller
Tradition and Culture in the Millennium:
Tribal Colleges and Universities (2009)
Edited by Linda Sue Warner and Gerald E. Gipp
Resiliency Reconsidered
Policy Implications of the Resiliency Movement (2007)
Edited by Donna M. Davis
Training Higher Education Policy Makers and Leaders
A Graduate Program Perspective (2007)
Edited by Diane Wright and Michael T. Miller
Policy and University Faculty Governance (2006)
Edited by Julie A. Caplow and Michael T. Miller
The Politics of Leadership:
Superintendents and School Boards in Changing Times (2006)
Edited by George J. Petersen and Lance Fusarelli
Student Governance and Institutional Policy:
Formation and Implementation (2006)
Edited by Michael T. Miller and Daniel P. Nadler
Cultural Competence in
America’s Schools:
Leadership, Engagement and
Understanding
By
Bruce A. Jones and Edwin J. Nichols
INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Charlotte, NC • www.infoagepub.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The CIP data for this book can be found on the Library of Congress website (www.loc.
gov).
Copyright © 2013 Information Age Publishing Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission
from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS
Foreword ....................................................................................... vii
Madye G. Henson
1. Origin, Meaning and Significance of Cultural Competence .......... 1
2. The Philosophical Aspects of Cultural Difference:
Connecting Achievement to Our Past, Present, and Future..........31
3. Philosophy, Beliefs and Action ..................................................... 65
4. Relationships: The Foundation for Learning ................................79
5. Students as Assets: Moving Beyond Deficit
Beliefs and Practices .................................................................... 93
6. Eco-Systemic Leadership ............................................................. 111
7. Schools, Neighborhood and Community.....................................127
8. Policy, Diversity and Cultural Competence: An Interlocking
Interdependence..........................................................................143
9. Cultural Competence: Gauging and Achieving Impact ...............157
References ...................................................................................167
Author Biographies......................................................................185
v
FOREWORD
School districts across the nation have an enormous opportunity to impact

the lives of young people while faced with difficult challenges in develop-
ing, advancing, and implementing exemplary institutional performance.
Because schools, nor school districts, can bring about such performance
alone, it is critical that they engage neighborhood and community con-
stituents in a collective focus on a mission that advances success for all stu-
dents. To achieve this, schools and constituent communications must be
conducted in a way that is culturally informed, respectful, and authentic.
Throughout the book, the authors speak to the significance of the link be-
tween institutional performance and cultural competence. In this respect,
the authors are both technical and highly poignant in their discussion of
the issues that are associated with our nation’s public schools growing di-
versity and the subsequent failure of our society to address this diversity in
a meaningful way.
The conceptual framework for this contribution, entitled, Philosophical
Aspects of Cultural Difference, is brilliant in its presentation and usage as the
central conceptual guide. Too often, books that address issues of diversity
and cultural competence are single-disciplined in focus. That is, they tend
to hold a limited focus on “education” and “education training techniques.”
Cultural Competence in America’s Schools:

Leadership, Engagement and Understanding, pages vii–viii.
Copyright © 2013 by Information Age Publishing
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. vii
viii • FOREWORD
The conceptual framework of this volume, however, is rich and holds more
depth with its multi-disciplinary approach through the intersection of in-
formation from the fields of philosophy, sociology, political science, history,
and education. Key questions that are addressed in this book include: At
a fundamental level, why is it important for our educators and key educa-
tional constituents to become culturally competent? In the context of our
growing global economy, what will it mean if we fail to move educational
reform strategies and our educative institutions toward becoming culturally
competent? From the standpoint of cultural competence, why is the quality
of the relationship between administrators, teachers, students, parents, and
the communities that house our schools, significant? What kinds of leader-
ship and policy endeavors are necessary to develop, promote, and sustain a
culturally competent educative setting? And, lastly, how does one assess the
organizational performance of an institution that embarks on a culturally
competent mission?
With the release of Cultural Competence in America’s Schools: Leadership, En-
gagement and Understanding, Drs. Jones and Nichols have contributed an
important educational item to our education-tool chest and the collective
quest for realizing the academic, social, emotional, physical, and citizen-
ship goals that we hold for all children, regardless of their race, ethnicity,
gender and cultural background.
Madye G. Henson
Deputy Superintendent of Schools
Alexandria, VA
CHAPTER 1
ORIGIN, MEANING AND

SIGNIFICANCE OF CULTURAL
COMPETENCE
Not only must our students learn how to function in a diverse, global market-
place, they must also be educated participants in our global society.
—Eileen Gale Kugler (2002)
The term cultural competence has its origins in the health care field (Coris,
2003; Lee, 1991; McNeil, Capage & Bennett, 2002; Sutton, 2000). Health
care providers realized that cultural attributes played a significant role in
their ability to communicate effectively with ethnically diverse communi-
ties and bring about desired medical outcomes. Recently, strategies that
are associated with cultural competency have been suggested or adopted
in the field of education as a method to help educators work more effec-
tively with diverse student populations and their neighborhoods and com-
munities. In public education, as in the healthcare field, there is a grow-
ing recognition that the institutional performance data concerning ethnic
minorities in the nation’s public school systems are at alarmingly low rates

Leadership, Engagement and Understanding, pages 1–29.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 1
2 • Origin, Meaning and Significance of Cultural Competence
for some subgroups (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Garcia, Jensen, & Scribner,

2009; Jones & Jones, 2010; Leal & Meier, 2011; McKinsey & Company, 2009;
Miller, 2009; Pape, 2009; Redding, Murphy, & Sheley, 2011; Schott Founda-
tion, 2008; Stein, 2004). We call it the “3 Ds,” whereby significant numbers
of children within these racial and ethnic subgroups become disinterested
in, disengaged from and drop out of school at alarming rates, particularly
in racially and ethnically diverse urban school settings. For example, ac-
cording to Darling-Hammond and Ifill-Lynch (2006, p. 8) approximately
40% of students in our urban centers fail “multiple classes in the 9th grade.”
Ream and Rumberger (2008, p. 109), report, “In many states, the differ-
ence between white and minority graduation rates is as much as 50 percent-
age points.”
This chapter is divided into four sections that address the origin, mean-
ing and significance of cultural competence in education and our society
at-large. Section one, Public Education and Ethnic Minorities, sheds light
on the institutional failure of our education systems to effectively eradicate
the alarming high dropout rates and low graduations rates among ethnic
minority (largely African American and Latino) children. This section be-
gins to set the stage for understanding the urgency of the situation we face
and why culturally competent strategies must be deeply embedded in how
schools and institutions of higher education function. This is vital if there is
to be a credible effort to address the problems that are associated with the
aforementioned dropout and graduation rates.
Cultural competence, as a movement in public education, did not sud-
denly emerge devoid of a historical context. The next section, Cultural
Competence and its Historical Antecedents, speaks to this context by pro-
viding an understanding of sociopolitical events in our modern history that
led to the current focus on education and cultural competence. Once the
historical context is explicated, the authors provide what they consider the
Definition of Cultural Competence in section three. By and large, the chap-
ters of this volume are guided by the authors’ definition.
Lastly, section four, Why the Focus, discusses additional and urgent ratio-
nales for our need to adopt culturally competent practices in our educative
institutions given: (1) the rapidly changing population demographics in
the United States; (2) the reality we face as an integral player in the global
economy, and; (3) the growing significance of education as a means to be-
coming productive and healthy citizens.
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND ETHNIC MINORITIES

The statistics cited by Darling-Hammond and Ifill-Lynch (2006) and Ream
and Rumberger (2008) are not surprising given the pattern of school
achievement over the past 20 years. For example, Braddock and McPart-
land (1992) reported that more than 50% of African American, Hispanic
Cultural Competence in America’s Schools • 3
American and Native American students dropped out of school without

graduating in our nation’s largest urban school districts. In 1995, Ford,
Obiakor and Patton reported that every seven seconds of the school day an
African American student is suspended from public school and every forty-
nine seconds of the school day an African American student drops out of
school. As recently as 10 years ago, Greene (2002) reported:
Cleveland has the lowest graduation rate for African American students
(29%), followed by Milwaukee (34%), Memphis (39%), Gwinnett County,
Georgia (40%), Pinellas County, Florida (41%), New York City (42%), Hill-
sborough County, Florida (42%), Columbus, Ohio (45%), Chicago (45%),
Duval County, Florida, (45%), Orange County, Florida (45%), Dekalb County,
Georgia (46%), Cobb County, Georgia (47%), Clark County, Nevada (49%),
Jefferson County, Kentucky (49%), and Mobile, Alabama (50%). Only four
of the largest school districts in the nation are able to graduate 75% or more
of their African American students: Boston (85%), Fairfax County, Virginia
(77%), Prince George County, Maryland (76%), and Montgomery County,
Maryland (75%).
And in 1999, Corbin and Pruitt, in citing a research study, reported that
eight in ten African American students in “five large cities” could be cat-
egorized as “alienated.” Alienated individuals are defined as “individuals
who accept the negative image that society presents, alienate themselves
from African American culture, and do not adapt to the majority culture”
(p. 70). These students have already disengaged because schools are not
relevant to their lives or the lives of their families and community.
For Latino students, the situation has not been much better. According
to Greene (2002), some educational indicators reveal that Latino students
face worse conditions than African American students. Of the 50 largest
school districts in the nation:
Thirty-five have Latino graduation rates that are below 50%. Six of the larg-
est school districts have rates that are below 40%: Cleveland (26%), Dekalb
County, Georgia (29%), Gwinnett County, Georgia (33%), Cobb County,
Georgia (34%), Clark County, Nevada (37%) and Dallas, Texas (39%). Only
five of the 50 school districts have more than two-thirds of their Latino stu-
dents completing high school: Montgomery County, Maryland (73%), Albu-
querque, New Mexico (70%), Prince George County, Maryland (70%), Bos-
ton (68%), and El Paso, Texas (67%).
More recently, Castagno and Brayboy (2008) reported on the dire per-
formance of schools concerning American Indian and Alaskan Native
(AI/AN) students. They called for more culturally responsive methods for
teaching and classroom instruction in order to stop the institutional failure
of our nation’s school systems, particularly those that house ethnically di-
verse student populations. They reported that AI/AN students “are more
than twice as likely as their White peers to score at the lowest level on the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessments
and almost three times as likely to score at the lowest level on the NAEP as-
sessments for mathematics.” (p. 942)
Just as in the healthcare field, culturally competent approaches to work-
ing with all students and their communities may represent a significant step
toward improving education systems as we work diligently to ensure that
these systems are relevant, inter-relational and highly efficacious.
CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND ITS HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS

While the term cultural competence emerged recently out of the health-care
field, its roots are, without question, borne out of the Civil Rights Move-
ment of the 1960s. During the Movement, the African American communi-
ty placed political demands on public education and systems of higher edu-
cation to diversify curriculum offerings and institutional staffing (Hollins,
1996; Jones, 2002; Watkins, 2005). Diversification of curriculum offerings
meant changing the offerings so that they reflected more racial and eth-
nic diversity and hence relevance to the lives of African American children
and their families and communities. Diversification also meant a need to
hire a critical mass of African American teachers, administrators, professors
and staff at educative institutions so that the personnel at said institutions
more closely reflected the student demographic and the communities from
which they come.
The Civil Rights Movement and Multiculturalism

The Civil Rights Movement, with its political advocacy on diversity, laid
the groundwork for the advancement of multicultural education and anti-
racist teaching, which became prominent curriculum and instructional ed-
ucation forces during the 1970s and 1980s (Jones, 2002). Multiculturalists
began the call for cultural relativism, which according to Eze (2007) in its
earliest form was the:
Reaction to the ethnocentric assumptions of nineteenth-century science,

which glorified Western societies and diminished the achievements of non-
Western cultures (p. 40).
Multiculturalists challenged assimilationist ideas that were associated

with the notion of the one American by claiming that there was no one Ameri-
can but rather there were many Americans who made up the U.S. demo-
graphic. Under the umbrella of cultural pluralism, they argued that people
of color should not have to shed their cultural heritage and history in order
to be considered American. Their arguments were supported by the fact
that people of European ancestry were not required or expected to shed
their heritage and history. For example, people of British, Italian, Irish,
Dutch, English, German, and Jewish descent have expressed their ethnic-
ity throughout the sociopolitical and economic life of America. Manifesta-
tions of this occur through the social institution of marriage, faith-based
institutions, election voting patterns, food traditions and places to eat, pri-
vate country clubs with ethnically homogeneous exclusive memberships,
festival, parade and national holiday celebrations, and those who dominate
leadership and middle management roles in the public (government) sec-
tor, private (corporate) sector, and nonprofit sectors (Barnett & Hefner,
1976).
Ethnicity and its influence are deeply embedded in the fabric of the
American character. The one-American argument seems to be used only as
a sociopolitical and economic weapon against people of color to prevent
them from advancing their own cultural proclivities in a largely dominant
Eurocentric culture. For people of color, this is tantamount to cognitive
and identity suicide. This is why multiculturalists will argue that schools
that subscribe to the one-American (translation—I do not see color myth—or
the colorblind myth) argument render themselves irrelevant to the lives of
many African American and Latino students and other students of color,
resulting in what Romo and Falbo (1996) and Mincy (2006) refer to as the
“pushout phenomenon.” With the pushout phenomenon, students do not
drop out of school—instead they are pushed out by school teachers, admin-
istrators and counselors who promulgate a formal and informal education
that is irrelevant, uninteresting, non-engaging, intellectually insulting and
culturally offensive. By this standard, the decision to drop out of school is,
in some instances, a rational decision. Adults, by their nature, will tend to
remove themselves from offensive situations. Children are no exception to
this tendency.
Anti-Racist Teaching
Proponents of anti-racist teaching view multicultural education as too
apolitical. They contend that, with multicultural education, there tends to
be an emphasis on dressing up bulletin boards and hosting food fests as
a means to advance diversity. These apolitical symbolic gestures, they ar-
gue, do nothing toward the actual infusion of issues of diversity in the daily
workings of the school. In critiquing multiculturalism, Grossman (1994)
discusses this apolitical tendency:
A multicultural approach that has been used by educators to achieve (diver-

sity) goals is to include aspects of students’ cultures in the curriculum. They
teach units on the foods, clothing, stories, legends, dances, and arts of the
major American ethnic groups. They select textbooks and other educational
materials that include pictures of and stories about different ethnic groups.
They listen to the music of different ethnic groups, discuss and celebrate their
holidays, and note their historical and current contributions. On these occa-
sions some educators also encourage students to bring to class things such as
pictures, foods, games, photos, jewelry, pets, money, and musical instruments
from home. (p. 90)
Anti-racists proponents call for a true representation of the U.S. racial

and ethnic heritage that deal with factors of power, class, and race in the
United States and how these factors shape the present with respect to the
socioeconomic and political status of children and their families. These
proponents argue that schools that fail to engage in meaningful discussion
about the history of power, class and race arrangements in the United States
are institutionally dishonest and irrelevant to children and their families
that have been, and continue to be, victimized by these structural and insti-
tutional arrangements. They also argue that such schools do a disservice to
children and adults who have been privileged by these structural arrange-
ments, because these children and adults need to be taught honest portray-
als as opposed to romantic portrayals of history as this concerns how they
benefited and continue to benefit from said privilege. Schools, they argue,
should be transformative in nature by serving as instruments to enlighten
students, so that they understand their history, where they have been and
how they have come to be.
Research by Belgrave and Allison (2006) illustrates that students ascend
to higher levels of academic achievement when schools serve as venues for
teaching about racism and its historical and ongoing impact. They report
that honest and systematic explications of racism and its manifestations in
society correlate positively with the development of student self-esteem and
awareness. Such explications also enhance student resiliency and coping
ability, leading to improved relationships between students and teachers.
Contrasting Demands
The distinction between the demands for the diversification of society
that emerged out of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and the calls
for the adoption of multicultural education and anti-racist teaching in the
1970s and 1980s are summed up in Table 1.1. The emphasis of the Civil
Rights Movement on issues of diversity was largely political in nature, with a
highly charged advocacy element. The multicultural and anti-racist teaching
era of the 1970s and 1980s placed more emphasis on scholarly debate about
the value of diversity in education settings. At colleges and universities, pro-
fessors and students began the systematic analysis of institutional diversity
and worked to develop multicultural education as a field of study. Scholarly
publications, trade journals and national conferences began to emerge that
TABLE 1.1. Distinguishing between Diversity, Multicultural Education, Anti-racist

Education and Cultural Competence: A Historical Evolution
Diversity and Multicultural
the Civil Rights Education and Anti-
Movement racist Education Cultural Competence
(1960s) (1970s–1990s) (1990s–Present)
Legal and Political- Social and Curriculum- Institutional and Individual

Based Based Performance-Based
FOCI • Broad focus: not • Focus on public • Teachers are culturally competent in a
limited to public education way that ensures academic equity
education but also • Emphasis on • Instructional and curriculum success
focused on labor/ academic value is actually measured by ALL student
employment issues • Establishment of success with NO excuses
and a need to invest scholarly base on • Educators know their students,
in the social service diversity issues in cultural backgrounds and
nonprofit sector education neighborhoods
• High advocacy • Systematic study of • Educators view ALL children as assets
orientation value of diversity as opposed to liabilities
• Highly political and to individuals and • Students act with teachers as co-
media focused organizations constructors of knowledge
• Focus on developing • Educators recognize that
understandings “relationships” are the foundation
about the structures for all learning—without high quality
of power, race and relationships between teachers and
gender inequity in students there will be no meaningful
society learning
• Superintendents, Central Office
Administrators, Managers and
Coordinators, and school Principals,
devote the resources that are necessary
to ensure that educators, including
teachers, have the knowledge base and
skill sets necessary to advance diversity
• Educators are culturally proficient as
they take the time to self-reflect about
their personal histories and beliefs and
values about student ability relative to
the impact that they have on students
• Educators are culturally proficient as
they actively use student attendance,
behavioral and academic data toward
the development of instructional
strategies and curriculum content that
ensures that all children are successful
• Includes a focus on understanding
school histories, neighborhoods,
neighborhood struggles and
community relationships
focused on the study of multicultural education and its impact on student,

teacher and leadership efficacy (Jones, 2002).
In contrast to the emphasis on diversity in the 1960s and multicultural
education and anti-racist teaching in the 1970s and 1980s, cultural compe-
tence is more focused on outcomes (see Table 1.1). Cultural competence
entails more than just dressing up bulletin boards during Black History
Month or engaging in ethnic food fests during the academic year. With
cultural competence:
1. There must be ongoing evidence that teachers, school leaders

and school staff are engaged in discourse and reflection about
their own personal and professional beliefs about education and
children, with an understanding of the children themselves (i.e.,
where the children come from—the historical, socio-economic
and political backgrounds of students with a real understanding of
the neighborhoods and families from which the students come).
Several scholars point to the significance of teachers’ personal be-
liefs and values relative to teacher expectations and students’ abil-
ity levels (Alexakos, 2007; Bryan & Atwater, 2002; Pajares, 1992;
Schwab, 1960; Tobin & McRobbie, 1997; Zembylas, 2004).
2. Given the information in item one, educators must recognize that
they cannot negate the influences of their cultural histories, up-
bringing, values and beliefs on their teaching and how these influ-
ences may impact their perceptions and expectations of children—
no matter how many academic degrees, certifications, national
honors, and educational credentials they hold. This recognition
is critical toward the effort to build sound, respectful and credible
relationships for learning to occur in an educative environment.
3. Educators must disaggregate student performance data by race
and ethnicity as a means to develop tangible strategies that ensure
that students of all racial and ethnic subgroups are performing at
high academic, attendance and behavioral levels.
CULTURAL COMPETENCE DEFINED

Trimble (2007, p. 248) reports that there are an estimated “175 definitions
of culture that can be found in the social and behavioral science litera-
ture.” The authors, however, are guided by Littlebear (2009, p. 90) to de-
fine cultural as “The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors,
and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and
with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation
through learning.” Consistent with the definition of culture, the authors
define cultural competence as the acceptance of the significance of sociopo-
litical, economic and historical experiences of different racial, ethnic and
gender subgroups as legitimate experiences that have a profound influence
on how people learn and achieve inside and outside of formal and informal
education settings. With this definition, the present and future cannot be
disconnected from critical understandings of the past. Teacher, school staff
and leadership efficacy are based on this acceptance through measures of
student academic, attendance and behavioral performance.
CULTURAL COMPETENCE: FOCUS OF SUCCEEDING CHAPTERS

Given the definition of cultural competence previously provided, represen-
tatives of public schools and institutions of higher education are on the
road to cultural competence when they can demonstrate the capacity to:
1. Understand how the past impacts individual and institutional phe-

nomenon in the present (see chapter two).
2. Understand the connection between educator beliefs, actions and
student performance (see chapter three).
3. Understand the central value of culture with respect to human re-
lationships in the learning enterprise (see chapter four).
4. View children and/or students as assets to the learning enterprise
as opposed to liabilities or entities that have insurmountable barri-
ers to learning (see chapter five).
5. From a leadership standpoint, hold all educators (i.e., teachers, ad-
ministrators, counselors, professors and other educators) account-
able for their own actions regarding the promulgation of cultural
competence in a learning setting, (see chapter six).
6. Seek to understand where children come from with regard to their
communities, history and racial and ethnic legacy (see chapter 7).
7. Promote and understand the significance of democratic and inclu-
sive educational decision-making settings in the classroom, school
building, district office and state agency system (see chapter eight).
8. Develop cultural proficiency measures that allow for an engage-
ment in ongoing assessment and self-reflection around the vision
and implementation of cultural competence throughout the insti-
tution (see chapter nine).
WHY THE FOCUS?

Several factors contribute to our need to adopt culturally competent ap-
proaches to the management and administration of our schools—particu-
larly in diverse urban school environments. These factors have to do with:
(1) the increasing diversity of the nation’s population and school systems,
(2) the globalization of our economy as a result of major technological
advances, with the growing intermingling of ethnically diverse populations
around the world in ways that would have been considered inconceivable
just two decades ago, and (3) the critical necessity of our educational insti-
tutions to succeed in the global economy coupled with the alarming insti-
tutional failure rates of many of our schools that house students of color.
If the public school system continues to fail large segments of our student
population, how do we justify the continuation of such a system? Should
public education be radically altered, as many in the corporate and philan-
thropic sectors argue? In a similar argument, should Colleges of Education
be radically altered or shut down because they are the main institutions
that prepare and certify our teachers to teach, our counselors to counsel
and our school leaders to lead? Regarding this question, for example, a
study by the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Pub-
lic Agenda (2008) found that fewer than 4 in 10 teachers report that their
college experience helped them to work effectively and successfully with
diverse student populations.
Our Growing Diversity

There is a substantial body of research that points to the growing in-
crease in racial and ethnic diversity of the American population and our
school systems (Apple, 2011; Castagno & Brayboy, 2008; Garcia, et al., 2009;
Hernandez, Denton, & Macartney, 2009; Jones & Jackson, 2007a; Ream &
Rumberger, 2008; Robins, Lindsey, Lindsey, & Terrell, 2002). Between 1990
and 2005, the number of people who speak a language other than Eng-
lish at home grew from 37 million to 50 million. In our school systems,
the number of English Language Learners (ELL) grew by 900,000 between
1993–1994 and 1999–2000 (Meyer, Madden, & McGrath, 2005). Further-
more, Darden (2003) reported more than 65% of the U.S. population in
the next decade will be Hispanic and Asian and approximately 20% of our
school-aged children will speak a language other than English at home.
More specifically, through the year 2020, population projections show that
our Hispanic population will increase by 77%, while our Asian population
will increase by 69%. We are expecting a 32% increase in the number of
African Americans, while the Native American population will grow by 26
percent. In contrast to these growth patterns, the European American pop-
ulation is projected to grow by only 1% (see Figure 1.1).
Despite the obvious growth in racial and ethnic diversity in our society
at-large and in our school systems, educators remain ill-prepared for such
diversity. According to Jones (1997), in the wake of the Brown vs. Board
of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision, there was a dramatic decline
in the number of people of color who served as teachers and school ad-
ministrators in the nation’s school systems. For example, prior to 1954,
approximately 82,000 African American teachers taught 2 million African
American children who attended mostly segregated schools. Throughout
the 1950s and 1960s, more than 38,000 African American educators in
17 southern and border-states were terminated. According to Fairclough
(2007), as the federal government sought to provide oversight to integra-
FIGURE 1.1. U.S. Population Increases Projected for 2020. Source: U.S. Census
Bureau (2000).
tion strategies during the 1960s, there was minimal attention paid to Afri-
can American educators as they disappeared from the school employment
rosters at catastrophic rates:
Despite strong federal involvement, the actual implementation of integration

plans and court orders remained largely in the hands of white school boards.
The dismissal and demotion of black teachers, and the closure or downgrad-
ing of black schools, now became a widespread reality. Black teachers turned
to their state associations, the NEA, and the NAACP for help. However, the
confusion, conflicts, and anxieties surrounding integration stretched the al-
liance between black teachers and the NAACP to the breaking point. By the
early 1970s large numbers of black teachers were disenchanted with integra-
tion and angry at the NAACP for failing to protect them. (p. 400)
In the wake of this history, the decline in the number of African Ameri-
can education continued unabated. Between 1975 and 1985, the number of
African American students who chose teacher education declined by 66%.
Moreover, state-level educational policy contributed to this precipitous de-
cline. The concept of regionalism was adopted in the name of effectiveness and
efficiency for teacher and administrator preparation programs. Regionalism
in practice meant the closure of teacher preparation programs at Histori-
cally Black Colleges and the centralization of teacher preparation programs
at predominantly White institutions of higher education, which had long
histories of entrenched racial discrimination and a refusal to admit Afri-
can Americans. These institutions also failed to hire a diverse faculty and
administrators. The few African American students who were admitted to

these predominantly White institutions of higher education were treated
with such hostility by professors, administrators and student peers inside
and outside the classroom that they could not survive to graduation—many
simply dropped out (Smith, 1994; Tillman, 2004).
By 1989, 21,515 African American teachers were displaced as a result of
regionalism and newly established teacher certification requirements. Till-
man (2004) reports that by 2001, African American teachers represented
only 6% of the public school teaching force, while African American stu-
dents represented 17% of the student population. Donnelly (1998) report-
ed that minority teachers, overall, represented only 10.3% of the teaching
force with approximately 84% (Toppo, 2003) of teachers being European
American and female.
At a school-administrative level, in the wake of the 1954 U.S. Supreme
Court Brown decision, 50% of employed African American school princi-
pals were fired. For example, between 1967 and 1970, the number of Af-
rican American school principals in North Carolina dropped from 620 to
170. In Alabama, the number dropped from 250 to 40 and in Mississippi, a
pool of 250 African American principals was simply eliminated. All of this,
according to Jones (1997), was exacerbated by the refusal of White policy-
makers to allow African Americans to supervise European Americans.
Given the school and university trends previously cited, the need for the
adoption of culturally competent approaches to teaching, instruction, cur-
riculum and overall school management and administration are critically
important. There is a culturally competent disconnect, in many instances,
between representatives of school systems and the students and communi-
ties that they are charged to serve (Gay, 2000; Jones & Jackson, 2007b; Lee,
1991; Sternberg, 2007). With respect to children of color, particularly Black
children, Brown and Beckett (2007) report:
(Today) barriers to communication across ethnic and socioeconomic lines

are being erected in an atmosphere of mutual defensiveness and distrust
between increasing numbers of White middle-class teachers and increasing
numbers of disadvantaged African American students and parents in urban
school districts. Many Black parents believe that teachers blame them for
their children’s discipline problems and poor academic performance, and
that their children’s failure in school reflects badly on them as African Ameri-
cans. At the same time, White teachers fear that parents hold them respon-
sible for their students’ failure, and that their inability to discipline and moti-
vate disadvantaged Black students may reflect a deep-seated and unconscious
racism. (p. 9)
These problems cited above have been fueled by the field of education
and counseling, which by and large, has been driven by a one-size-fits-all para-
digm:
In the 1950s and 1960s, counselor-educators generally considered counsel-

ing to be counseling; that is, they believed that theories and techniques that
worked with one group of clients (White male European American) would
work with another, regardless of cultural background. (Vontress, Johnson, &
Epp, 1999, p. 13)
Yet, we know the one-size-fits-all paradigm has had a deleterious impact

on children of color, particularly as this concerns school-based disciplinary
decisions and student placements in programs for the gifted and talented
vs. programs for students who are referred to special education. African
American and Latino students are disproportionately placed in the latter
(special education programming), while White and Asian students are dis-
proportionately placed in the former (programs for the gifted and talent-
ed). The research by Irvine (1991) explicates this point as this concerns
the significance of teachers and their race/ethnicity and teacher-driven
student placement decisions:
The single most important factor for all forms of second generation discrimina-
tion is the proportion of black teachers . . . In school districts with larger pro-
portions of black teachers (a) study found fewer black students being placed in
EMR (Educable Mentally Retarded) and fewer blacks receiving corporal pun-
ishment, fewer blacks being suspended or expelled, more blacks in gifted and
talented programs, and more blacks graduating from high schools . . . black
teachers demonstrate unique African-American teaching styles that appear to
be related to black students’ achievement and school success. (p. 55)
Overall, there is a general distrust by African Americans of the counseling

profession. The focus on White males (Sue, 2001; Suzuki, McRae, & Short,
2001) in the profession as a barometer for what is viewed as effective coupled
with the mistreatment and disrespect toward African Americans by the pro-
fession has contributed to this distrust. According to Constantine (2007):
In light of the second-rate treatment provided to many African Americans in

mental health care environments . . . The majority of mental health profes-
sionals in the United States are White, and issues or racial or cultural mistrust
might lead some African Americans to have negative views of and expecta-
tions about the counseling process and about White mental health profes-
sionals in particular. (p. 1)
In their publication on culturally proficient instruction, Nuri Robins,

Lindsey, Lindsey, & Terrell, (2002) speak to the growing significance of cul-
tural competence in a workshop scenario between two teachers:
Gladys, a European American workshop participant, asked, “Aren’t you con-

cerned that if we keep pushing this diversity stuff, we will simply further divide
people? What’s wrong with the ‘melting pot’ concept? Why can’t we make one
America?”
Irena replied, “We can’t afford to wait. Our students will be left out of a global
economy if we don’t better prepare them for the world. The reality facing
many people today is that the number of encounters with persons who are
different from them will increase; therefore, the number of differences re-
flected in these encounters will increase. High levels of mobility, greater rates
of diversity in the workplace, and continued expansion of global economies
and marketplaces make it likely that you will have an up-close and personal
encounter with people from a number of ethnic groups, cultures, religions,
socio-economic levels, and sexual orientations.” (p. 11)
Cultural Competence in the Context of the Global Economy

The world is becoming smaller and geographical boundaries are fading
in meaning as technology has revolutionized the way we interact and com-
municate with each other (Connerley & Pedersen, 2005; Friedman, 1999;
Fryer, Wallis, Kalawathie, Annette, Battistoni, & Lund-Chaix, 2007; Glass
Ceiling Commission, 1995; Newsweek, 2009; Reich, 1992). More than ten
years ago, Kagan (1994) addressed the growing interdependence of indus-
try when he wrote:
Increasingly, industry is adopting a cooperative model . . . hand held calcula-

tors most often consisted of electronic chips from the United States. They
were assembled in Singapore, Indonesia, or Nigeria and placed in steel hous-
ing from India and stamped with a label Made in Japan, upon arrival from
Yokohama. (p. 2:5)
What Kagan wrote about years ago still holds true—automobile parts,
kitchen appliance parts, garments and clothing and iPod technology parts
can and do come from any number of countries from around the world.
There is no such thing as Made in America and those who advance this phrase
are advancing some mythical notion of the past.
The fading of geographical boundaries, however, does not reduce the
formal and informal power of culture on how individuals and communi-
ties have come to be who they are and how they practice their lives. The
fact that the world is becoming smaller and geographical boundaries are
fading means that there is more urgency for people and organizations to
be culturally competent. Misunderstandings that are often culture-related
may lead to:
• Corporate losses in the private sector.

• Death and unintentional injury in the health-care field.
• The miseducation of children regarding their academic aptitudes,
educational interests, attendance, behavior patterns and personal
dispositions.
From a conceptual and practical standpoint, the corporate sector and

health-care field have been on the road toward accepting the value of cul-
tural competence in meeting the demands of our global economy. In the
corporate sector as of 2000, 97% of the employees who work for Nestle are
based in Switzerland. The German company Bosch houses 180,000 employ-
ees who are based in 32 countries around the world and U.S. companies,
such as Ford and IBM, house over one-half of their employees in countries
outside of the United States. Between 20 to 30 percent of all individuals who
work for AT&T, General Electric, PepsiCo and General Motors are overseas
(Workplace Visions, 2000). With regard to the latter, General Motors had
to learn the value of becoming culturally competent when it introduced
the Chevy Nova in South America. The company could not understand why
car sales soared everywhere but in South America until they discovered that
“no va” in South America means “it won’t go” in Spanish (Johnson, 2004).
The McDonald’s fast food chain could not understand why its burgers were
not selling when the corporation opened the franchise in India. They failed
to take into account that the Hindu, who was approximately 85% of India’s
population, did not eat beef. Sales soared once the corporation switched
to making “lamb” burgers. From a food standpoint, McDonald’s realized it
was a good thing to serve beer in Germany, wine in France and kosher beef
near Jerusalem (Rosen, Digh, Singer, & Phillips, 2000).
It has become increasingly common to check into a hotel and note that
the individual behind the hotel registration desk wears a name badge that
proudly displays the fact that they are from another country. According to
Ahmed (2002):
On any given day the Hotel@MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has between

140 and 150 employees who represent 40 countries of origin, and at one
Washington, D.C. hotel, employees speak 36 different languages. (p. 2)
In the insurance industry, Ahmed (2002, p. 2) reports that a “managing

partner at one New York Life agency that has about 200 agents represent-
ing 21 nationalities states that language and cultural differences are the
primary challenges facing his ethnic recruits.”
In the healthcare field, Coris (2003) and Sutton (2000) report that ill-
ness and disease varies disproportionately by culture. Because of historical
treatment and genetic predisposition, some racial/ethnic groups are prone
to be diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes and higher infant mortality
rates than other racial/ethnic groups. With illness and disease varying by
culture, belief systems on approaches to healing and wellness differ as well.
Surbone (2004) revealed that it might be the inclination of a doctor to urge
a family member to inform a patient of a terminal disease so that aggressive
treatment can commence as soon as possible. However, a doctor who lacks
cultural sensitivity may not be aware that “until the 1990s, it was common
practice in Italy to withhold the truth from cancer patients in order to pro-
tect them and to maintain their hope. In the Italian family and community-
centered culture, individual autonomy was perceived as synonymous with
isolation” (p. 697).
In discussing the view that “culture has profound implications in every
patient-doctor relationship,” Surbone (2004), who is an oncologist, also re-
ports:
Culture contributes to our identity in three main ways. First, it provides us

with a reference framework to interpret the external world and to relate to
it. How we perceive disease, disability and suffering; how we express our con-
cerns about them; how we relate to individual physicians and to the health-
care system are deeply influenced by culture. . . . Second, culture helps us
make sense of what is happening to us. Making sense of the suffering, of the
loss of control and of the many uncertainties that accompany their illness is
essential to cancer patients. Third, culture acts as a facilitator at special times
of trial, when we intensely need to rely on our sense of self and of connect-
edness. The experience of cancer is one such trial in the patient’s life. (pp.
697–698)
In the mental health field, cultural ignorance among practitioners is

prevalent and has devastating implications for children of color (Constan-
tine, 2007). In earlier research on the treatment of young African Ameri-
can children who have been diagnosed with disruptive behavior disorder,
McNeil, et al. (2002) reported:
Recent information regarding cultural issues in mental health suggests that

studying the effects of race on assessment and treatment is crucial to reduce
the misdiagnosis of minority clients and to improve the quality of their treat-
ment. Traditionally, psychology has not been sensitive to cultural issues in
several areas. For example, most assessment instruments and treatment pro-
tocols have been normed on primarily White (specifically, White male) popu-
lations. Thus normal culturally bound behaviors (among African American
children) may be confused with psychopathology. Also, clinicians who lack
training regarding different cultural groups bring biases that may hinder
treatment effectiveness. (p. 339)
Public Education and Its Significance

Because of the changing demographics of our public school system and
the need for our students to be able to work effectively in the global econ-
omy at all levels, there is a particularly pressing urgency for school systems
to subscribe to cultural competence in the way that curriculum and instruc-
tion are developed and provided. Cultural competence is also important in
the context of school leadership—how schools are managed and led as well
as how schools interface with neighborhood and community-wide constitu-

ents. Nationwide, public schooling as a system is under attack. Many view
the system as rigid, unbending, bloated, outdated and unresponsive when
it comes to preparing children with the social and technical skill sets that
they need to be productive global citizens. The biggest victims are children
of color, followed by children who live in poverty. Children who are both
African American (particularly African American males) and poor suffer
the most because of the ongoing legacy and continued pervasiveness of rac-
ism, economic exploitation and cultural ignorance among educators and
U.S. society overall (Brown & Beckett, 2007; Cummings, 1986; Danziger &
Haveman, 1981; Delpit, 1995; McKinsey & Company, 2009; Oliver & Shap-
iro, 1995; Stafford, 2005; Watson, 2000).
The implications of the failure of our educational systems to ensure that
all students receive an exemplary education and graduate from high school
are astounding. These implications manifest along several sociopolitical
and economic dimensions that include the employment and income status
of individuals as well as individual ability to accumulate and pass on wealth
to successive generations. Other dimensions include individual access to
quality health care and the degree to which individuals are likely to get
entangled in the criminal justice system.
Public Education, Jobs and Income

There is a widespread belief that the higher the educational attainment
the better a person’s employment prospects and quality of life (Cantu, 2003;
Hungerford & Wassmer, 2004; Ream & Rumberger, 2008). High school
dropouts, for example, are more likely to serve in employment positions
that pay minimum wage. As of 2005, entry-level high school graduates were
more likely to earn double the hourly rate of a high school dropout—be-
tween $9.08 and $10.93 per hour. Entry-level college graduates were more
likely to earn between $17.08 and $19.72 per hour—more than three times
the rate of a high school dropout (Mishel, Berstein, & Allegretto, 2007).
Adjusting for inflation, according to Kelly (2005) the annual earnings of
high school dropouts has remained the same since 1975 (approximately
$20,000). Estimated annual earnings are approximately $25,000 for those
who hold a high school diploma and $50,000 for those who hold a bach-
elor’s degree, and this latter figure represents an 11 percent increase over
1975 earnings.
An example of the implications of a low level of education is presented
in Table 1.2 with the illustration of income disparities between individuals
who hold less than a high school diploma vs. those who hold a high school diploma
and those who hold a bachelor’s in the private sector. African American fe-
males who graduate from high school and go to work in the private sector
will earn $4,103 more annually than those who hold less than a high school
diploma and $7,852 less than those who choose to complete a bachelors’
degree. With regard to the latter, the public schools play a critical role in
influencing whether or not students are mentored (i.e., guidance counsel-
ing) and academically prepared to attend and successfully complete col-
lege. For African American males, those who complete a bachelor’s degree
will annually earn $24,798 more than an African American male who holds
less than a high school diploma and $6,467 more than a high school gradu-
ate. White females who complete a bachelor’s degree earn approximate-
ly $10,462 more than their non-high school completer counterparts and
$9,323 more than their high school graduate counterparts. White males
who graduate with a bachelors’ degree will earn $16,906 more annually
than those who have not attained a high school diploma and $14,107 more
than their high school graduate counterparts.
Table 1.2 also reveals the structural discrimination that sadly exists based
on race and gender in our economic system. In their landmark study of the
socioeconomic and political status of African Americans Carmichael and
Hamilton (1967) revealed:
A White male with four years of high school education can expect to earn
$253,000 in his lifetime. A Black man with five years or more of college can
expect to earn $246,000 in his lifetime. (p. 20)
Forty years later, in 2008, similar startling statistics remain in pockets of

our labor market. As Table 1.2 indicates, a European American (White)
male who has not completed a high school diploma will earn approximately
the same as an African American (Black) male who has earned a bachelor’s
degree. An African American (Black) female with a bachelor’s degree earns
$16,597 less than an European American (White) male who has earned
TABLE 1.2. Executive, Administrative, and Managerial Occupations by Race, Gen-

der, Educational Attainment and Income in the Private Sector*
Completion of Completion of High Less than a High
Race/Gender Bachelors’ Degree School School Diploma
African American $30,584 $22,732 $18,629
(Black) Female
African American $32,001 $25,534 $7,203
(Black) Male
European American $31,338 $22,015 $20,876
(White) Female
European American $47,181 $33,074 $30,275
(White) Male
*Private Sector = Business Services, Communications, Construction, Entertainment,
Manufacturing, and Utilities Industries (Source: Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995, p. 81).
a bachelor’s degree. The negative legacy of disparities in educational at-

tainment between African Americans, Latinos and European Americans is
evident in a recent report that was released by the Center for American
Progress (Weller, Ajinkya, & Farrell, 2012). According to the report, as of
2011, African Americans and Latinos continue to suffer from lack of ac-
cess to good jobs (discussed below), persistently high unemployment rates,
low weekly earnings, and the lowest inflation-adjusted median household
incomes when compared to the European American population. For ex-
ample, in the fourth quarter of 2011 weekly earnings for African Americans
was $674 and for Latinos’ it was $549. European American earnings were
$744, while Asian Americans earned $866 weekly in the same quarter.
Danielson (2002) speaks to the intergenerational effect on income that
a poor education produces. With this in mind, teachers, professors, school
and college administrators as well as state-level educational policy makers
hold the future of current populations of students in their hands as well as
the future—yet to be born—offspring of these students:
The cycle of poverty and ignorance is unrelenting. Those without an edu-

cation cannot find well-paying jobs and are thus trapped in poverty; their
children, in turn, grow up poor and without the resources or contacts to im-
prove their prospects, and thus are ineligible to compete for the high-skill,
high-wage jobs of the information age. For underprivileged black students,
slim prospects are made even slimmer by institutional racism. Thus the cycle
continues, broken only occasionally by people with good fortune or extraor-
dinary perseverance (p. xii).
Public Education and Wealth

Numerous studies have shown a direct correlation between educational
attainment and wealth accumulation (Anyon, 2005; Brown & Lauder, 2001;
Danielson, 2002; Hungerford & Wassmer, 2004; Keister, 2000; Krugman,
2008; Landes, 1999; Mishel et al., 2007; Oliver & Shapiro, 1995; Reich,
1992). According to Oliver (2003):
Wealth encompasses more than just annual income or wage—it includes your
savings, investments and inheritances from previous generations. Wealth is
the resources that you use to really establish your opportunities in life. Get-
ting an education for your kids, purchasing a home, handling catastrophic
illness, leaving a legacy for future generations. Wealth is really what provides
for the life chances that you want your children to have. Income alone doesn’t
do it. (p. 43)
In speaking to the significance of education relative to its intergenera-

tional significance and the ability to accumulate wealth, Oliver also reports:
The wealth gap between Blacks and Whites is a crucial factor in the relative
health and stability of the communities they live in. Obviously wealth has a lot
to do with where people are going to live. Where people live has a lot to do
with the kind of schooling their children will have. And the kind of schooling
available has a lot to do with the opportunities their children will have. Wealth
creates the opportunities that set the next generation’s life chances. (p. 51)
The research by Oliver is supported by more recent research by Mishel

et al (2007), who also addressed the intergenerational nature of wealth,
income and the significance of educational attainment. His research team
reported:
Because education is correlated with income, children of highly educated

parents are themselves more likely to be highly educated . . . they are also
more likely to maintain the income position of their parents. Similarly, we
might expect wealth to be a particularly correlated variable across genera-
tions, as wealthy parents make bequests to their children. Both factors argu-
ably play a role in income (and wealth) persistence. (p. 97)
Not only have levels of educational attainment been tied directly to the
intergenerational wealth phenomenon and wealth accumulation but the
significance of these ties increased between 1960 and 1990. In 1990, the
relationship between education, wealth and upward mobility was 3.4 times
greater for college graduates than for those with less than a high school
education, compared to a figure of 2.34 times greater in 1960 (Mishel, et
al., 2007, Ream & Rumberger, 2008).
Home Ownership. Historically, one of the greatest assets that Ameri-
cans can have, aside from education, is their home. Wealth accumulation
is closely tied to home equity values. A central factor that contributes to the
ability of an individual to purchase and own a home is educational attain-
ment (Mishel et al., 2007; Oliver, 2003; Oliver & Shapiro, 1995). Those who
hold a higher educational attainment are more likely to have the economic
wherewithal to secure the financing that is necessary to purchase a home.
As income rises, the gap between White and Black home ownership de-
clines and home ownership increases for both groups. As of 1990, there
was a 22% home ownership gap between the two groups. Unfortunately, by
2011, this gap rose to 27.2%. Weller, Ajinkya and Farrell (2012) reveal in a
recent report on the status of communities of color in the United States:
By the end of 2011, 45.1% of African Americans owned their homes, 46.6%
of Latinos owned their homes, and 56.5% of all other races owned homes,
compared to a homeownership rate of 73.7% for whites. (p. 13)
Family Legacy and Intergenerational Assets. Home ownership is not the

only form of asset building that is impacted by the quality of education that
we (educators) provide to students. Other forms of asset building include
business start-up enterprises, self-employment and funds for retirement

(Oliver & Shapiro, 1995). Educational attainment is crucial for the develop-
ment of each of these assets. According to Mishel et al (2007), in America
“the average Black household had a net worth equal to just 19% of the
average White household. Between 1998 and 2001, Black wealth increased
just 5% compared to a 34% increase in White wealth. There is more than
double the percentage of African American households that have a zero
or negative net worth when compared to European American households.
Public Education and Health and Hunger

As with income and wealth, there is an abundance of research that points
to the significant role education plays in the mental and physical well being
of individuals (Ali, Huezo, Miller, Mwangig, & Prokoseset, 2011; Ferrada-
Noli, 1996; Lorant, Kunst, Huisman, Costa, & Mackenbach, 2005; Rivera,
Huezo, Kasica, & Muhammed, 2009; Robert & House, 2000; Rogers &
O’Bryon, 2008; Weller, et al., 2012; Wu, 2003). As income rises with increas-
ing educational attainment so does health insurance coverage. According
to the U.S. Census Bureau (2005, p. 24), “In 2005, in households with an-
nual incomes of less than $25,000, 75.6 percent of people had health in-
surance. Health insurance coverage rates increased with higher household
income levels to 91.5 percent for those in households with incomes $75,000
or more.” Stein (2009) speaks to this significance in his explication of the
relationship between poverty, education and stress:
Children raised in poverty suffer many ill effects: They often have health
problems and tend to struggle in school, which can create a cycle of poverty
across generations. . . . Chronic stress from growing up poor appears to have
a direct impact on the brain, leaving children with impairment in at least one
key area—working memory. (p. 37)
A report by the American Cancer Society (Saint Petersburg Times, 2011)

found a significant link between educational attainment and cancer rates.
According to the report:
The gap in cancer death rates between college graduates and those who only
went to high school is widening. Among men, the least educated died of can-
cer rates more than 2 and ½ times that of men with college degrees. In the
early 1990s, they died at two times the rate of most-educated men. For wom-
en, the numbers aren’t as complete but suggest a widening gap also. The data,
from 2007, compared people between the ages of 25 and 64. (p. 4A)
Figure 1.2 provides data on the percentage of the population age 25 and
above who reported being in excellent or very good health, by educational
attainment and family income for 2001. Approximately 80% of the respon-
dents who held bachelor’s degrees or higher reported being in either excellent
or very good health compared with only 39% of the respondents in the same
age group who held less than a high school education. Moreover, according to
the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (2004), the better edu-
cated a person is, the more likely that person is to report being in excellent
or very good health regardless of income.
In 2005, it was reported that Hispanics have nearly triple (32.7%) the
percentage of individuals who are uninsured when compared to Whites
(11.3%). Approximately 20% of all African Americans and 18% of Asian
Americans are uninsured (DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Lee, 2006). Education,
income, and wealth are all interconnected as this concerns issues of indi-
vidual and community health. Highly educated individuals are more prone
to have higher incomes and have access to better health care. In a more
recent study, Weller et al. (2012) reveal that not much has changed since
the 2005 report cited previously. As of 2011:
Communities of color have substantially less health insurance coverage than

whites. The share of African Americans without health insurance in 2010 was
20.8%, and the respective share of Latinos without insurance coverage was
30.7%. This compares to 18.1% of Asian Americans without health insurance
and 11.7% of whites without health insurance at the same time. (p. 11)
Rank and Hirschi (2009, p. 997) established clear links between health,
hunger and educational attainment in their research on children and fami-
lies who become dependent on food stamps—“62% of children in house-
holds where the head has less than 12 years of education will have received
FIGURE 1.2. Self-Reporting Data on Relationship between Educational Attain-

ment and Health. Source: National Commission on Education Statistics (2004).
food stamps compared with 30.9% for children in households where the
head has 12 or more years of education).” In reporting on the deleterious
effect of this on the health of children and families, the authors note:
Such children (who are members of families that are dependent on food
stamps) are by definition experiencing poverty and are also quite likely to
encounter food insecurity as well . . . The consequence is that children in
such households frequently face dietary and nutritional problems, along with
a variety of challenges and stressors that accompany poverty. (p. 998)
Public Education and Crime

There is an extensive body of research showing the relationship between
crime and educational attainment. It is no surprise, based on this research,
that a disproportionate share of individuals who are in unending cycles of
incarceration, are high school dropouts (Rogers & O’Bryon, 2008). With
the release of a recently published longitudinal study on the relationship
between institutional variables in our schools and individuals who are at
risk of incarceration, Arum and LaFree (2008) cited a number of scholars
in the field of education and criminology when they wrote about the cor-
relation between crime and educational attainment. These studies leave no
stone unturned regarding this correlation:
Indeed prior research has consistently shown that delinquent and criminal
behavior is strongly associated with a variety of education-related variables,
including grades (Hirschi, 1969; Kercher, 1988), dislike for school (Gottfred-
son, 1981; Sampson & Laub, 1993), misbehavior in school and educational
attainment (LaFree & Drass, 1996, p. 398)
The national longitudinal study, which encompassed eight demographic

study-models of males dating back to 1915, contend “the risk of incarcera-
tion declines significantly in all eight models for individuals with higher
levels of educational attainment.” (Arum & LaFree, 2008, p. 408)
There is an abundance of literature on school practices that demon-
strate how institutions, whether intentionally or unintentionally, through
individual beliefs and prejudices, and institutional practices and customs,
exacerbate the problem of crime in our society. The most commonly cited
problem centers around the disproportionate number of students of color
(particularly Black males) that are subject to harsh disciplinary action when
compared to other students who commit the same or similar offence. In
the area of student placements there is an overrepresentation of students
of color (again Black males) in special education and alternative school set-
tings and an underrepresentation of these students in programs for the
gifted and highly academic bound.
In her research on schools as breeding grounds for prison, Clark (2004) dis-
cusses how deeply embedded traditions of power and control in our schools
coupled with disciplinary action and student placement decisions contrib-
ute significantly to the near genocidal over population of African American
males in our nation’s prisons:
Eighty percent of both pre-service and in-service public school teachers are
White women. White female teachers are least likely to refer White girls for
special education placements and most likely to refer Latino and Black boys
for such placements, regardless of the educational context (rural, urban, sub-
urban) in which they teach or the enrollment demographics (high or low
minority or income) they face. (p. 51)
Moreover, Clark writes:
• While 17% of public school children are Black (African American),

41% of special education placements are Black, and of those 85%
are male;
• Black males are 8% of public school students nationwide but consti-
tute 37% of the suspensions;
• Approximately 800,000 Black men are in prison while 500,000 are in
college;
• More Black males receive their G.E.D.’s in prison than graduate from
high school;
• 80% of incarcerated men and 93% of incarcerated women, regard-
less of race, never finished high school; and
• The cost of incarcerating a felon is more than the cost of educating
two students at a public flagship university, three students at a public
state university, or seven students at public community college. (p.
51)
CONCLUSION
Throughout the industrial revolution of the 19th -century and into the early
20th century and the establishment of our civil service system, the United
States produced the largest middle class in modern history. Several poli-
cy initiatives contributed to the rise of the middle class. For example, the
Pendleton Act of 1883 resulted in the formal establishment of our civil ser-
vice system, which was modeled by states, allowing for unprecedented num-
bers of federal and state employees to move up a career ladder through a
so-called meritocratic process that used an examination method to “objec-
tively” determine who is job-eligible. During the period after World War II,
the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) housing program and the GI
Bill housing incentives for veterans enabled white people to buy homes and
create wealth. That wealth helped a generation of working, middle-class
White people send their children to better schools and take care of their
health needs more easily.
This achievement was sustained into the 1950s, when the country stood
out as the giant among giants in the industrial, manufacturing and electron-
ics industries. This achievement was only possible through a three-legged
stool of investments in a vertical and hierarchal organizational structure
encompassing (1) education, (2) research, and (3) technology.
However, the times have changed. Vertical and hierarchal organizational
structures have collapsed and given way to more horizontal and flat struc-
tures. With these newer structures, team membership becomes the unit of
production. To successfully operationalize these new structural constraints
requires systemic congruence through cultural competence (Nichols,
2007). Teachers and school leaders must be skilled and equipped to pre-
pare students to work in increasingly diverse settings, which require co-
operative and team approaches under more horizontal configurations of
organizations to solve problems and engage in innovation. Reich (1992)
referred to such prepared individuals as symbolic analysts. The symbolic
analyst employment category includes individuals who are well-educated
and in high demand in our growing knowledge and information-based
global economy. As this chapter points out, teachers, school administrators,
counselors, university professors and leaders play a pivotal role in determin-
ing the extent to which children are prepared to work in the modern global
economy.
Children who are failed by our education institutions are likely to be
doomed to a lifetime of successive social, economic and political failure.
Such children will more likely suffer from a lifetime of poor jobs, low in-
comes, incarceration, poor health and an inability to engage in the wealth
accumulation that is necessary to ensure that we, as a collective, advance
as a highly productive society. More tragically, adults who fail our children
today are failing millions of children in the future yet to be born because, as
we have pointed out in the data on income and wealth attainment, the suc-
cess and/or failure that children experience as they move into adolescence
and adulthood is closely related to the success and/or failure that their
parents experienced as children and young adults.
On a broader scale, a recently released study by the nationally renowned
research center McKinsey & Company (2009) revealed that our failure
to provide an exemplary education to all children has come at a tremen-
dous economic cost. According to the report, between 1983 (at the time of
the release of the alarming Nation At-Risk report) and 1998, if the United
States had closed the racial achievement gap and African American and La-
tino American student performance had caught up with that of European
American students, our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would have been
between $310 billion and $525 billion higher, or roughly 2 to 4 percent of
GDP. The magnitude of this effect will rise in the years ahead as African
Americans and Latino/a Americans become a larger proportion of the U.S.
population (see Table 1.3).
If the United States had closed the income achievement gap so that be-
tween 1983 and 1998 the performance of students from families with in-
come below $25,000 a year had been raised to the performance of students
from homes with incomes above $25,000 a year, then GDP in 2008 would
have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher or 3 to 5 percent of GDP. (p.
17)
In addition, today we are still grappling with the legacy and existence
of racism and discriminatory practices within our culture. For example,
government policies, which were established during the 1950s, opened the
doors to higher education enabling those eligible for the Federal Hous-
ing Authority (FHA) and GI Bill to finance their children’s education us-
ing wealth accumulated by home ownership. But these federally sponsored
policies excluded nearly all people of color, thus precluding Blacks, Latinos
and other communities of color from the benefits of high educational at-
tainment and intergenerational wealth accumulation that has now been en-
joyed by whites for several decades. Satter (2009) writes about the impact of
these racist and discriminatory federally sponsored policies in her research
on the intersection of race, real estate, and the exploitation of Blacks in
America:
Across the nation, most banks and savings and loans refused to make mort-
gage loans to African Americans, in part, because of the policies of the Fed-
eral Housing Administration (FHA), which “redlined”—that is, refused to
insure mortgages—in neighborhoods that contained more than a smattering
of black residents. Therefore, the Boltons (a Black family) could not do what
most whites would have don—obtain a mortgage loan and use it to pay for
their property in full. Their only option was to buy “on contract,” that is, more
or less on the installment plan. Under the terms of most installment land
contracts, the seller could repossess the house as easily as a used car sales-
man repossessed a delinquent automobile. With even one missed payment,
a contract seller had the right to evict the “homeowner” and resell the build-
ing to another customer. . . . After a year of prompt payments (the Boltons)
had missed one installment and were now threatened with the loss of their
entire investment—the down payment, plus all that they’d paid in monthly
contract payments and for repairs, insurance, interest, and maintenance. And
they were not the only ones. My father found that the speculator who sold
the Boltons their home had recently filed repossession claims on over twenty
properties. (p. 4)
According to Kaplan and Valls (2007), although the federal policies, pre-
viously discussed, came into being several decades ago, the negative legacy
of these policies continues to plague America regarding wealth accumula-
TABLE 1.3. Additional Personal Income if the Educational Attainment of African

Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans Increases to that of White Students by
2020
Additional Personal Income Additional Total Personal
State per Capita Income
Alabama $3,889 $2,134,381,638
Alaska $1,484 $423,110,051
Arizona $3,344 $8,644,461,855
Arkansas $3,998 $785,327,918
California $1,170 $101,596,190,713
Colorado 3,551 $5,188,606,198
Connecticut $3,950 $4,315,606,958
Delaware $4,837 $634,377,557
District of Columbia $3,764 $5,317,490,364
Florida 3,965 $14,663,755,737
Georgia $3,900 $7,930,898,877
Hawaii $2,547 $352,192,818
Idaho $3,846 $408,174,768
Illinois $3,516 $13,510,622,460
Indiana $4,077 $1,131,689,298
Iowa $3,821 $336,225,259
Kansas $3,786 $1,172,833,406
Kentucky $3,996 $291,008,831
Louisiana $2,873 $3,124,440,244
Maine $4,316 $40,637,361
Maryland $4,144 $5,970,754,071
Massachusetts $3,337 $3,504,068,718
Michigan $4,186 $3,772,426,427
Minnesota $4,238 $1,307,836,248
Mississippi $3,575 $1,548,876,962
Missouri $4,067 $1,263,941,997
Montana $3,486 $102,579,907
Nebraska $3,689 $521,398,644
Nevada $4,205 $2,187,182,198
New Hampshire $5,094 $51,425,275
New Jersey $3,607 $11,287,048,818
New Mexico $2,924 $4,928,408,709
New York $2,818 $24,325,608,943
continued
TABLE 1.3. (Continued)

Additional Personal Income Additional Total Personal
State per Capita Income
North Carolina $4,222 $5,031,639,236
North Dakota $3,237 $62,014,474
Ohio $4,000 $2,610,266,730
Oklahoma $3,242 $1,007,735,288
Oregon $3,732 $1,559,595,961
Pennsylvania $3,765 $4,033,303,789
Rhode Island $2,925 $494,298,457
South Carolina $4,039 $2,671,651,061
South Dakota $3,669 $125,990,765
Tennessee $4,044 $1,493,793,808
Texas $2,412 $46,517,384,141
Utah $4,277 $780,727,335
Vermont $4,640 Not Applicable
Virginia $4,395 $6,517,547,903
Washington $4,069 $3,110,256,023
West Virginia $3,737 $12,419,546
Wisconsin $4,054 $1,569,711,086
Wyoming $3,467 $105,591,901
TOTAL: UNITED STATES $310,477,516,732
tion, educational attainment and disparities in homeownership between

African Americans and European Americans. As of 2010, 73.7% of Whites
own their own home, compared to 45.1% of African Americans (Weller et
al, 2012, p. 13). Black and Latino mortgage applicants are 60% more likely
than Whites to be turned down for loans (Leadership Learning Commu-
nity, 2010, p. 4). In this respect, the legacy of the past cannot be separated
from the reality of the present.
Something dramatic must be done to ensure that educators, teachers,
school staff and school leaders are successful in what they do. There is too
much at stake. Somehow teachers, school staff and school leaders need to
ensure that they are, most of all, administering humane institutions, which
emphasize the value of caring relationships. Institutional humanness and
credible relationship building between educators and students can only oc-
cur if the former know who the latter are and, to some degree, vice-versa.
In this respect, adults must take the lead on understanding the connec-
tions between the present and the past and what this means for strategies
that ensure children will succeed in the future. What good does it do to do
anything else?
CHAPTER 2
THE PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS

OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCE
Connecting Achievement to
Our Past, Present, and Future
We Do Not See the World As It Is—We See the World As We Are

—James C. Hunter (1998)
A persistent theme in evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond’s illustrious

work on culture and human development is the emphasis on how phe-
nomena of the past influence the present. In his Pulitzer Prize—winning
Guns, Germs and Steel (1999) and more recent Collapse: How Societies Choose
to Fail or Succeed (2005), it is made abundantly clear that who we are today
is a function of what happened yesterday in the quest to, as Nichols (1986,
1995) points out, survive and thrive. Diamond’s works take us back more
than 13,000 years to the Stone Age to show how interconnected we are to
our past and how interconnected we are to each other. He discusses, for ex-
ample, how geography and climate impacted the ability of people from dif-

Leadership, Engagement and Understanding, pages 31–64.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 31
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
a cooling, soothing nervine, and that it would greatly assist the bluish
herb in reducing inflammation and temperature.
While Orondo slept a silver chafing-dish was brought into the
room, and a decoction of dandelion was slowly simmered in water
from the ambero, or yellow lens. The remainder of the water was
mixed with equal parts of maguey spirits.
Induction belongs to the dominion of inanimate nature, to the
magnetic, or cold; while deduction is the ruling force of animation or
heat. To assist in producing reaction, the magnet already referred to,
was fastened to the body, or hot pole, and immersed in snow for a
cold pole, in order to oxygenize the blood.
During the sleeping hours this force worked steadily in
conjunction with other remedies, and when Orondo awoke in the
afternoon, he was rational and without fever. Noting his condition,
the magnet was removed, and the patient lifted once more into the
hammock, where he was thoroughly sponged with alcohol and water.
After this, his throat, chest, and shoulders were vigorously rubbed
with warm olive oil, perfumed with lavender. The odors of plants are
antiseptic, and were much employed in sick rooms by the ancients.
While the physicians were busy, the tamanes in attendance
changed the pallet and linen completely. Placing Orondo in it again
and setting a lavender spray in motion near the window, they retired
to bring in a lacquered tray of food. Freshly baked tortillas, young
leeks, and pickled olives, with salted almonds and dried figs formed
the principal part of the meal, while a dish of fresh cocoanut and
oranges, sliced together, served for dessert.
The tray and dishes had scarcely been removed before Setos came
bustling in. Sanitation was his hobby, and he was always urging the
necessity for legislation against disease, which he considered was the
result of criminal carelessness.
In Tlamco every bit of refuse was carefully collected and burned
each day. A large section of the water-front, where the prevailing
winds carried the smoke and odor well out to sea, was reserved for
this purpose. The flood-gates of the entire water system were opened
during certain hours of the night and all the waste canals cleansed
thoroughly.
“By Him who is the breath of every living thing, tell me how
affliction befell thee?” asked Setos, sitting down on the bed near the
foot and searching Orondo’s face anxiously.
“By the only method possible,” answered Orondo. “Because I have
violated the laws of harmony.”
“This is bad, very bad! It gives less favored men an excuse to
neglect their bodies in an unwarrantable manner,” said Setos,
warming up to his favorite theme. “If we could only send out an army
to teach the people the possibilities of water, the difference between
good and bad food, the necessity for proper rest, the inexorableness
of natural laws, disease would become what it was intended to be—a
brief, infrequent, reparative process.”
He pursed up his lips and sniffed loudly in self-satisfaction. It was
so seldom that he had an opportunity to fittingly repeat this homily.
“I think that our laws are strictly and justly administered in this
respect,” ventured Orondo. “The advocates and healers are
supported by the state. Self-interest prompts the latter to report
disease as they find it. They know enough of law to name the penalty
attached to hereditary and contagious diseases. The advocates know
enough of healing to detect symptoms of forbidden maladies. It is a
capital offense for either party to conceal conditions of this kind. I do
not see what more can be done.”
Utter weariness closed Orondo’s eyes for a moment, and Setos
refrained from further speech.
“Let kindness of heart prompt thee to fill a pipe for me,” said the
patient, presently.
When it was handed to him, he said with a wan smile:
“Let us indulge our nerves with a harmless sedative as a step in the
right direction. I shall wait until thy bowl is filled.”
Setos hastened to comply, and after the first three whiffs, which
were always silent fire-offerings, said:
“Ildiko refuses to be comforted because of thy continued absence
from our house. She grieves for thy affliction, and sends her best
thoughts.”
“Beauty and goodness are the crown of fair Ildiko. It is not possible
for me to do more than receive such flattering unction. I am indeed
undone,” he made answer, catching his breath painfully.
“The priestess Kerœcia, and her sweet maids are much concerned
for thy misfortune. Hanabusa has already been twice to hear if
reason came back to thee.”
“I pray thee leave me,” cried Orondo, piteously. “My heart!” he
gasped, as the chief shaman bent over him hurriedly, in response to
Setos’s call.
“All matters of importance must rest while this man regains
control of his better physique,” said the shaman, authoritatively. “It
were cruel to tax him at this time.”
“Nothing except friendly greeting passed between us,” declared
Setos, much exercised at the sudden bad turn apparent in Orondo.
“I will come again at nightfall,” he said.
“Be thou content with inquiry, only,” returned the shaman, still
frowning over the complete undoing of all his labor.
“The sun must be on the earth’s magnetic meridian before quiet
will come again to our patient,” said the chief shaman, as he
prepared to go out for an airing, after working over Orondo for one
hour.
“The sun will not be below the horizon until the seventh marking
of the gnomon, and until that time we can only wait and watch,” he
said, in answer to Yermah’s anxious question. “Setos has injured his
rest greatly, but he has asked for thee more than once. If thou wilt
exercise caution, thou mayst go to him.”
“I understand Orondo,” replied Yermah. “I have stayed away
because I feared to excite him. I am glad that I may see him.”
Yermah came quietly and put his hand on Orondo’s head. He knew
how to still the throbbing, uncontrolled emotion dividing the sick
man’s mental and physical self. Without a word, he willed him peace,
and after a time Orondo opened his eyes and seemed to breathe
easier.
“The Master of the Hidden Spheres, who causes the principles to
arise, give thee peace, Orondo.”
Orondo made no reply; his lips quivered and his eyes filled.
Yermah took both his hands, and, looking at him steadily, said:
“Part of thy burden falls upon me. I will share physical pain with
thee.”
Soon the veins in Yermah’s hands, and then those in his forehead,
stood out like whipcords. He experienced the same difficulty in
breathing, the same spasmodic action of the heart, as had Orondo.
He sighed deeply, and it was soon apparent that Orondo’s nervous
tension was relieved. In the silence which followed both were busy
with the same thoughts.
“When does she go?” Orondo asked, finally.
“The day following to-morrow.”
“Hast thou seen her since?”
“Once only. I have not had speech with her.”
“Twice has she sent to ask after me.”
“Which newly affirms the gentleness of her nature.”
The situation was trying for Yermah, but he humored his
companion, as he saw that speech was a relief to him. He did not
suspect Orondo of knowing that he, too, loved Kerœcia.
“When strength comes again, I must consider the work before me,”
said Orondo, after an eloquent silence. “Duty lays a stern hand on
both of us.”
“The shamans will cause public complaint if I indulge thee in that
direction,” said Yermah. “A sharp reprimand rewarded Setos for his
effort in that line.”
“Setos said nothing to me of that matter,” said Orondo, in surprise.
“But he said that to thee which taxed thy powers of control, and for
this reason he is forbidden to see thee again, to-day. Dost thou wish
me to have a similar experience?”
“The shamans will see that thou hast greatly aided me,” said
Orondo, as the chief shaman came to his bedside accompanied by
Akaza.
“The twilight hour approaches, and I have come to worship with
thee,” said the hierophant, making the sign of benediction over
Orondo. Turning to Yermah, he said:
“The Father of the Beginnings have thee in safe keeping.”
“The same rich blessing follow thee,” responded Yermah, as he
took leave.
The principle of Life is alchemical. The chemical elements must be

absorbed in order to give health. As making alchemical gold was
really finding the Perfect Way, so the elixir of life is the proper use of
the astral light composing the photosphere surrounding our physical
bodies.
When the astral body is charged with oil, and the physical body is
well supplied with electricity, the secret of magnetism is revealed.
The gypsies are the only people who have preserved the knowledge
necessary to produce this peculiar chemicalization.
The arrow shot by Orion, William Tell and others, is Thought, the
Sagitur; the same as Heracles shot at Helios. The ability of the
individual to project thought determines the possession of occult
power. This force is gained by harmonizing the physical, mental and
spiritual attributes, so that thought may function from any one of
these planes. In other words, it is to have complete possession of all
these faculties.
To project thought, is literally hitting the bull’s eye, as Orion did
when he killed Taurus—the astronomical aspect of the world-old
battle between the higher and the lower self.
The liberty which the original William Tell sought to achieve was
not political, but a victory over his own lower nature—a battle which
the men and women of Tlamco fought out in every phase.
“The water-holding capacity of the nerve-cells is much impaired,”

said the chief shaman to his assistants, when giving directions for the
night. “Nervous irritability follows. Sleep will be light and infrequent.
Watch beside him. At every third marking let him sip liberally from
the ambero lens. Between times, give him drink from the purpuro
flagon.”
In company with Akaza, he left Iaqua.
It was as the chief shaman had predicted. Orondo failed to find
refreshment in troubled sleep, so that the gray, foggy morning found
him correspondingly wearied and depressed. Symptoms of pleuro-
pneumonia were clearly established, and for three days he had a hard
fight for life.
Finally, when well enough to dress himself, he resolutely put on
the same clothes he had used such care in selecting for his
memorable visit to Kerœcia. It tried him severely to reinvest himself
with them, but this was in keeping with his stern resolution to crush
out useless regret. He wisely concluded that the easiest way out of it
was to accustom himself to the same routine as before. He must not
yield to such weakness as to shrink from inanimate things which
were associated with her memory.
Some carefully pressed blossoms of flax, fragile, delicate, little
blue-cups, dedicated in thought to his love, were the only mementos
he kept. These he hid away in an ivory dice-box given him by Ben Hu
Barabe on taking leave.
Orondo had managed to listen to the words of greeting and
farewell from Kerœcia, and had responded thereto manfully. What
the effort cost him may be inferred from the fact that he kept his
room closely for the week following, refusing to see any one save the
tamanes who served him.
When he came again among his fellows, there was a stern, set look
on his face, which was accentuated by the sunken eyes and
sharpened cheek-bones, but there was no alteration in his manner of
life. He began preparation for immediate departure.
Yermah lived in a rose-colored world of his own creation. He made
pretty speeches to imaginary women, and never even in sleep lost the
consciousness of Kerœcia’s presence. In his audience chamber
during the day, he granted requests for her. His decisions were all for
her benefit, and the directions for various public works were
delivered as he fondly imagined he would do if she were present.
Several times in affixing his signature to documents he came near to
writing her name.
Yermah was singularly absent-minded, with all his amiability and
politeness. He went among his pets with the air of a lover, and was
entirely oblivious to the screech of the parrots and monkeys in and
around the stables. He got on famously with Cibolo; and if the horse
had understood him, he would have made a clean breast of the
situation.
It would have been such a relief to talk about her.
The Dorado usually had dressed well, as became a man of his
station; but now he was fussy and particular to a noticeable degree.
He taxed Alcamayn’s ingenuity to the utmost in devising suitable
gifts for Kerœcia and her attendants, and insisted upon
superintending the enameling of the medallion-shaped mirror which
he was to present to the priestess. The bits of blue, green, and black
enamel must be as shiny and lustrous as the gems they surrounded,
and the burnished gold rim and handle must be as fine as the skill of
his workmen could make it.
This exchange of mirrors was a pretty compliment among the
rulers of olden times—for by this flattering method each was assured
of the faithful remembrance of the other. They had but to look into
the mirror to discover the subject of the other’s thought—at least in
theory.
An oval of burnished bronze, framed in silver filigree, enameled
with black and white, and set with turquoise, coral, moonstones, and
amethysts was the regulation gift from Kerœcia. It was mannish
enough to suit the requirements, but it was too formal to express her
feelings.
She made a strawberry of red cloth, and with fine brown floss
dexterously worked in the seed specks. It was filled with fine sand
and grains of musk. The little cup was cleverly imitated by green
cloth, and the berry was fastened by a tiny eyelet to a piece of narrow
red cord.
Consideration for Orondo, constrained Yermah’s impatience to
seek Kerœcia immediately, and the preparations for her departure
were of such public character that he had no further opportunity of
seeing her alone, until his chariot stood before the door of Setos’s
house, waiting for her.
Cibolo and his three companions tugged hard at their bridles, as a
consequence of ten days’ idleness. They would have enjoyed kicking
up their heels and running like the wind, especially when music,
noise and confusion gave such warrant; but Yermah kept a vise-like
grip on them, quieting them by a word now and then.
Kerœcia’s pride found complete satisfaction in his excellent
horsemanship. There were no gloves on his strong, white hands,
wound up in the reins, but the wrists were as firm and hard as steel.
It was a master-hand that held the lines, and she was not in the least
distressed or alarmed when the horses reared and plunged and stood
on their hind feet.
The couple were nearing the round-house on the upper limit of the
canal, and Yermah’s face was set and pale. He had suddenly
forgotten all the pretty speeches he had intended to make. Finally,
when there was not a minute to spare, he turned to Kerœcia with an
agonized expression and tried to speak. His lips moved, but no sound
escaped them, as they fashioned the words: “I love thee!”
That was all he could remember to say, and he was dismayed when
he realized that his voice had failed him.
His eyes swam, and he instinctively clutched at his heart as he
swayed from side to side.
Kerœcia moved nearer to him helpfully, and with a smile of
infinite tenderness slipped her hand into his. For a moment he did
not return its pressure; then it seemed to nestle close to his palm,
and, with a caressing touch, left something in his grasp when it was
withdrawn. When he opened his hand he found the little strawberry.
“With all my heart,” she said in a whisper. He kissed the keepsake
rapturously, and slipped it into a fold of his tunic in time to assist her
to alight from the chariot. Etiquette forbade his accompanying her
farther.
With straining eyes he stood watching and waving his hand to her,
until the balsas put into the bay.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“When from the shores

And forest-nestling mountains came a voice
That, solemn sounding, bids the world prepare!”
The sphinx, one of the first symbols known to man, demands that we
solve its riddle—which is Life, not Death. The Egyptian sphinxes with
their human heads face the West. The mastodon-headed sphinxes of
Mexico face the East. Will future research unearth the evidence
necessary to locate the sunken Atlantis lying between these two
avenues of sphinxes, and thus reveal the origin of man? Did the
primitive races evolve similar civilization separately, or were they all
from one source? Perhaps the answer to this, is the solution of the
enigma.
Akaza, meaning “God within thee” was the hierophant, prophet
and high-priest of the Brotherhood of the White Star, which had its
origin in Atlantis. His was an equilibrated, evenly balanced mind and
nature. As an initiate he knew all that transpired on the subjective as
well as on the positive planes of consciousness. He was always a
disturbing element on the shallow, false and artificial side of life. He
cared nothing for consequences. A natural wanderer on the face of
the earth, Akaza was in his element when it came time for him to
lead Yermah’s band away from the doomed island.
Akaza was waiting for Yermah this Monday morning, or Moon’s
day. He stood at the entrance of a cave extending well back under
Sutro Heights. It was called Ingharep at that time, and marked the
orbit of Uranus—from the center of Tlamco—the planet which was
correlated to Akaza’s life.
In the time of our story the water’s edge did not extend inside Seal
Rocks. A careful inspection at low tide to-day will lead to the
discovery of the cave still tunneled back under the Cliff House
foundation.
The Indians never fail to locate a cavern. Where one is suspected,
they wait until after sunset on a windy day. Then they lie down over
the supposed cave, and with an ear pressed close to the ground,
listen attentively for the roar, such as is heard in a sea-shell. If once
this roar is heard, they refuse to search further, experience teaching
them that they have found the right spot. Such was the method
employed in discovering Ingharep.
Akaza, the hierophant, was an interesting part of the picture as he
stood at the mouth of this cavern. The white robe which he wore was
made of paca wool, stiff and lustrous as silk, but thick and warm. It
was embroidered with five-pointed and six-pointed silver stars,
having diamonds in the center. On his thumb was a silver signet-
ring. He wore bracelets of the same metal. At his waist was a sash of
yellow silk, with double-key pattern outlined in silver. Over his
shoulders was a purple cloth mantle, trimmed with a coarse blue
tracery in lace pattern.
The mouth of the cave faced due west, thus enabling Akaza to see
the last glimmerings of daylight go out as the sun dropped,
apparently, into the ocean or was swallowed up in the vaporous
clouds or fog-banks each day. For many months Akaza had watched
this process, and, since his return from the Yo-Semite, he had busied
himself incessantly with astronomical calculations.
“Pause here a moment,” he said to Yermah, after a hearty greeting.
“One of the grandest symbols in nature stretches out before thee.
Primordial substance is always represented by water flowing out of
naught, or nothing.”
He pointed toward the wide Pacific and looked at Yermah with a
rapt expression. “As it flows, it gradually solidifies into mind, just as
the earth was molten and then became solid.”
Yermah stood inhaling the stiffening sea-breeze, and watching the
waves cresting shoreward in ceaseless motion.
“These waves scudding before the wind are exactly like our
thoughts driven to a given point by force of will. It is to give further
instruction on this matter of a fully controlled will that I have asked
thee to give me attention to-day,” continued the old man, as he led
the way into the cavern.
There were swinging lamps, and a wide, open fireplace, so
constructed that the smoke was emitted through a pointed-arch
opening. With the charcoal fire and the swinging lamps, the interior
was made quite comfortable. The stalactites, white and frosted, or
discolored here and there from natural causes, made the walls and
ceilings beautiful. Where an opening suggested partition, blankets,
rugs and tapestries had been hung, and over the sanded floor were
rush and grass mats in profusion.
Around to the north, where the rocks still stand, the seals barked
and roared as they do now, while the same species of birds came and
went.
An ingeniously arranged partial closing of heavy boards screened
the occupants from the wind, but did not exclude the sunlight and
fresh air.
“This eight-spoked wheel represents the life of an initiate,” said
Akaza.
A round inlaid ivory wheel, supported by a porcelain tripod, was
indicated. On its outer edge were the signs of the zodiac, chased in
black, with a mother-of-pearl inlaying to indicate the spokes. A
rough-edged parchment lay in the center, and Yermah’s quick eye
saw that it was an orrery question, pertaining to Atlantis, drawn in
colors.
“We are not to examine the horoscope at present,” explained
Akaza, following Yermah’s gaze. “I brought thee in here to make sure
of fire and the needs of the inner man. Now that they are secure, we
shall devote the morning to the beach.”
He occupied himself for a few moments with the baskets of food,
done up with paper napery, ready for the ever-present chafing-dish
and samovar. He banked the fire so that it would smolder without
dying out, and then the two men went slowly toward the beach where
old ocean came in uproariously, and sullenly ground its white teeth
on the sands.
Yermah considerately took the ocean side, so as to protect Akaza
as much as possible from the cool wind. He drew a thin, bony hand
up under his cloak and clasped it close to his side with the upper
arm.
They were an interesting study—these two men. One the perfect
embodiment of physical health and strength; the other, feeble in
body, but a veritable giant of spiritual force.
The one man stood absolutely apart from temporal things; the
other was just beginning to live on the sensuous, or material plane.
As they walked they left odd-looking wet tracks behind them.
“Thou knowest already,” said Akaza, “that thou hast successfully
performed seven of the great labors in the self-development of Osiris.
Now thou standest face to face with that which hinders; and it is
necessary that I should explain to thee the purport of this eighth
labor.”
“Is there something about it which I do not understand?” asked
Yermah, in a surprised tone. “I have but to find the treasure hidden
in the rocks, and then I am ready to return home. I have learned to
fashion the gold which is to tip the spires of my temple, and when
this is done I shall demand release from my vow. As soon as the
Brotherhood receives me, I am free.” Then, with a slight hesitation in
manner and speech—“I have already decided what I shall do with my
freedom.”
While he was speaking, Akaza moved and breathed like a person in
pain.
“What I must explain to thee is the duality of thine own nature,” he
went on, turning sadly toward Yermah, “the dual aspect of the labor
thou hast already performed, and what thou must do in the future.
First, then, Osiris is thyself—the I-am-I principle within thee, which
is the same first, last, and all the time. Thy labor is the finding of the
Perfect Way. Love is the consummation, and Wisdom is the way.”
“What wouldst thou have me do?” asked Yermah, eagerly.
“First, I would have thee realize the transitory nature of life, and
its desires, not on the intellectual plane, but as a fact in nature. The
body, scientifically considered, is not the same through the whole
life. Neither does the mind remain the same. Man’s ability to look at
his own desires and feelings impersonally is the beginning of
Wisdom. No man can extricate himself from the result of his own
deeds.”
“Give me to know this mystery.”
“To bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades is the opposite of
loosing the belt of Orion,” answered Akaza.
“It has not been granted me to know the significance of either,”
responded Yermah, humbly.
“Alcyone, the central sun around which the spiral galaxy of the
firmament encompassed in the Milky Way, and all the stars, suns
and planets included in that circle, are revolving in the only one of
the seven sisters whose love is mortal. From out that center issues
evermore a ray of the divine creative spirit, coalescing into the life of
animate nature here.
“The adept gathers the component parts of that incomprehensible
being—man—to his divine center,” Akaza continued. “He wills them
into the being of another, and that other becomes the mother of a
son, given from the depths of space. Such a son art thou, Yermah.”
“And thou art in very truth my father?” asked Yermah,
wonderingly.
“Yes. For this cause am I in the flesh, and for this, also, must I
remain in the body, until thou art restored to the Brotherhood. I am
the hierophant, the second in power in our order. So it was granted
to me to create an entity which should rule the future as Atlantis
rules the present.”
“Tell me all of my beginning. How and why this should be. Thou
wert an old man when I was born; and thou art a vowed celibate?”
“Swear by Him who made us that thou wilt not reveal what I am
about to unfold.”
He held up a six-pointed diamond star which blazed on his bosom
for the Dorado to kiss, as they stood facing each other. As Yermah’s
lips touched the center, he turned to the east, and, with both hands
clasped over his head, said solemnly:
“I swear.”
“A priest of our order, under the same tutelage as Orondo, was thy
literal father, while thy mother was a vestal selected from the Temple
of Venus. Thy great-grandfather, grandfather and father were of the
priesthood, and their wives were selected vestals. To the prophet,
hierophant and high-priest was the divine self confided, and we were
pledged to produce a ruler for this generation. We willed the
conditions which gave thee birth and I must share thy joys and
sorrows until such time as the Brotherhood releases me.”
“Then I am not of royal lineage—am not the son of Poseidon,
Servitor of Atlantis?” There was pain and disappointment in
Yermah’s voice.
“Thou art royal in the highest and best sense. Thou art
immaculately conceived, as is the sun by the cosmic virgin, when he
has been standing still in Capricornus. It is said everywhere that a
dewdrop fell on thy virgin mother’s bosom, as she lay asleep in a
sacred grove. Such was thy beginning.”
“Then he to whom I have rendered obedience is not in any sense
my father?”
“No. Thou art a veritable sun-god, destined to be thrice born in
this life.”
“Oh! Akaza, why speakest thou in riddles? Thrice born, indeed!
How is it possible without death and rebirth?”
Akaza smiled at his impatience.
“I charged thee in the beginning to remember that there is a dual
meaning to all labors that a candidate for the initiation must
perform. Thou hast already had two births in this body, and art
facing the third.”
Yermah could not conceal his astonishment.
“The first birth was at twelve years and six months, when the sex
principle began to assert itself. This acme of sensuous existence
culminates at twenty-five years, when intellect has its birth and the
mind becomes capable of reasoning. Before that time sensation and
instinct have served for individual thought. The new rate of vibration
set in motion at the birth of desire is the beginning of discord in the
personality. Many times before intellect can assert itself the impetus
for a plunge to the downward spiral is overwhelmingly strong.”
“What, then, befalls the divine self?”
“On the material plane it is the brutalizing process which prevents
the divine self from contacting the physical. When this happens the
man has really lost his soul. Saturn is the planet correlated to the
finding of the Perfect Way. It is the mill of the gods, which grinds out
the imperfections of human nature. The three phases of immaculate
conception are closely allied to the three re-births which take place in
the physical man.”
“Eagerness to master this hidden knowledge proves the quality of
fellowship,” said Yermah, anxious that Akaza should go fully into
details.
“The twelve markings of the zodiac contain the arcane wisdom of
our order.”
Before Yermah could frame a suitable answer to fit in the pause,
Akaza continued:
“The Ineffable One is a trinity of Necessity, Freedom and Love. An
ideal is the result of necessity, and all our ideal conceptions are the
outcome of our absolute need. It is in the achievement of freedom
that the divine within us labors, and on this is based love. Life is the
great vineyard of the father, and all his children must toil in it until
the end. When in the process of regeneration man is so far perfected
as to see the mysterious beauty of his being, he knows that the trials
and labors imposed upon him by the laws of cause and effect are at
once a necessity and a blessing, and he will no longer seek to escape
them.
“There is constant warfare between Desire and Intelligence,” the
hierophant continued. “Why must thou struggle to overcome?
Because the only difference between an imbecile and a genius is the
ability of the spirit or divine self to function on the physical plane of
the genius and its utter inability to influence the fool. Thine own
conduct in this life determines which of these extremes thou wilt
become in the next. Atavism and heredity intensify these tendencies;
so does the influence of the planets. But neither the one nor the other
can produce them. Thou must do this by the exercise of will power.
The union of desire and mind forms the personality. Each attribute is
triple—active, passive and equilibrated.”
After a slight pause, Akaza went on:
“Thou must wield each triad into a unity. This is real initiation—
the consummation of perfect harmony. Thou hast long since gone
beyond the reach of impure thoughts emanating from the five sub-
human orders of creation. When impure characteristics are removed
the first labor is performed. Thy studies and all knowledge received
is the second labor, because it prepared thee for esoteric science.
“The power of thought,” continued Akaza, “if rightly used, enables
a man to transcend creation. Misused, it will cause him to retrograde
into the condition where self is the great object of existence, and the
appetites of the body are the only deities to whom he sacrifices. For
such beings the uprisings of knowledge (the wiles of Circe) glitter
with fascinating light, because further knowledge will enable them to
minister to their desires. This, my son, is a dangerous situation for an
immortal soul. What was intended as a blessing becomes a curse.”
“Have I transgressed in this respect?”
“No. Thou art safe on that point.”
Knowledge is Circe in Greek—Serket in Egyptian. It is the
enchantress, whose realm may be enjoyed by those who know the
herb “Moly.” This word comes from the same root as the Latin Molo,
and the Swedish Mjoll, to grind, indicating the process of grinding
out human passions. It gives the Norse Mjolner, the hammer of Thor,
or Will.
The same meaning is implied in the weapon used by Kanza in
killing the infants of Desire.
“The abuse of this quality is what brings trouble to our
countrymen,” said Akaza. “Atlantis is a hotbed of black magic; that
is, inverted wisdom. And they must suffer for it. Setos and Rahula
are the only devotees of this school we have with us.”
“Why didst thou bring them?”
“It was necessary—for thy sake—my beloved. In the performance
of the third labor the first hour of the day begins; the two preceding
labors being only the dawn of partial wisdom. As knowledge is the
fruition of Will—the principle of the second hour of dawn—so Love is
the purpose of the Divine Creator. This purpose must subdue its
antithesis—the lust for material power and gain.”
“If the material body is not kept in a healthy condition, the spirit
and the soul cannot be perfected,” continued Akaza.
“This is not a fault of mine,” returned Yermah, with a touch of
pride.
“Thou hast guarded the temple well. The sun never shone on a
more perfect physical type. The fifth labor,” the hierophant went on,
“is equilibrated Will—the caduceus which our order carries and uses
as a wand. It is a spear in the hands of an adept, who compels all
secrets and who knows all things. It can be developed only by
temperance and moderation. It is an unlimited power for good or evil
which thou holdest in thy possession. In thy body it is the solar
plexus or brain of the stomach. The twelve plexi around it are the full
gamut of physical and spiritual desire. Here thou couldst use thy
knowledge with great harm to thy fellows, and more to thyself.”
“But why should I?”
“For no reason, unless it be to gratify some wish lying near thy
heart. We neither act nor speak, much less decide a question
concerning ourselves, except we have a motive.”
“My motive is simple enough. Thou hast told me that love is the
first triad. I love with all my heart.”
“No need of words to assure me of this. I have foreseen it from the
first.”
“And thou hast not opposed me? Then thou wilt favor it?” The
Dorado was as impulsive as a boy.
“I will not oppose it. The great secret of initiation lies in the
magnetic warmth of love. It is a threefold principle, the lowest phase
of which is sex love. This is the poetry of sensation. It pertains to the
material nature, and is therefore impermanent.”
“Oh, Akaza! How canst thou say that my love for Kerœcia will pass
away. I feel that it never can.”
“In the sense of feeling, it certainly will not endure. But this phase
of love has three parts. We reach divinity on its upper plane, because
it becomes transmuted from animal desire to a soul influx. This will
come as a benediction to sweeten the very fountain-head of thy
individuality.”
“Then I was right in claiming mine own. I have not broken my
vow, even in thought,” responded Yermah hopefully.
“But thou wilt. In so much as thou wilt imperil immortality thou
must suffer. Be of good cheer. Whatever pain may come will soon
pass. Nothing of the real love and union between thee will ever cease
to be.”
“The seventh labor,” Akaza continued, after a thoughtful pause, “is
the slaying of the vampire of procrastination—the temptation to halt
in the path of duty. Thou wilt naturally think thy work completed
when thou art allowed to return to Atlantis.”
“Why not?”
“Thou wilt not return to Poseidon’s kingdom for many days.
Atlantis is doomed.”
“Akaza, what art thou saying?” In his excitement Yermah shook
the hierophant’s arm vigorously.
“Thou art forbidden to give to others what thou hast learned. The
world needs thee more than thou canst imagine. Thou art now facing
the eighth labor of initiation.”
“I know this. But is it not true that I shall tip the spires of the
temple building? Must I not do this with mine own hands?”
“Thou must subjugate all internal and external hindrances first.”
“What is that, if not what I have already mentioned? Was it not so
from the beginning? In each colony visited have I not obeyed the
laws? This year finishes my sojourn away from Atlantis. Thou wilt
remember that I am to have my wish when the last labor has been
completed.”
“So thou shalt.”
“Then I shall have Kerœcia for my wife, and live in peace.”
“Thou wilt neither espouse Kerœcia nor live in peace. Marriage to
thee is forbidden. Only the commonplace mortal is content to
vegetate, procreate and perish.” Then after a pause, he added: “Thine
is not only race condition, Yermah, but before thou wert born, the
Brotherhood decreed it for thee.”
“Thou—thou durst tell this to me, the future Servitor of Atlantis
and all her dependencies! Out upon thee and thy Brotherhood! I will
not submit to thy decrees! Thou—thou hast made me believe in thy
love. Is this the language of consideration? The Brotherhood
demands all that I value in life! Thou sayest that I have not failed so
far. Be assured that I shall succeed finally.”
“Thou hast already developed the feminine principle within thee
and hast assumed the flowing locks and robe, so that thy fellows may
know thou art fit to lead them. My personal tutorship goes no
farther. Thy future is distinctly in thine own hands, Yermah.” Akaza
gave a soft reply, and his rash hot-headed companion was mollified.
“Give thy tongue full license, Akaza. What does the Brotherhood
require of its fellows?” Yermah was still the master of Tlamco. His
tone and manner betrayed it.
“Absolute freedom must be achieved before the candidate can
enter the Gates of Light.” Akaza was quiet, but firm.
“Freedom from what?”
“From the enslavement of Desire. Man’s perverted love nature is
the great stumbling block.”
Yermah’s face was aflame in an instant. He was furiously angry. He
turned toward Akaza with a threatening gesture, while his
resentment was at flood tide. Then his arm fell aimlessly to his side.
He realized that it was shocking to quarrel with his preceptor—his
spiritual father—the man who had unselfishly followed him from one
colony to another for the past seven years.
The Dorado held his tongue, but with an impetuous fling of the
cloak over his shoulder, he abruptly left the hierophant.
They were on the beach opposite the present lifesaving station, and
were coming back to the cave. With swift, swinging strides Yermah
turned toward Tlamco, and was soon headed for the western gate of
its walled enclosure.
“I am not to make my love self-identifying,” he muttered savagely.
“Am I, then, to love my ideal without desire for possession? He asks
what I can not do. I should be no part of a man if I could submit like
this! No! A thousand times—no!—I have tasted the wine of life on her
sweet lips!—She shall claim a king’s ransom in return!—And this, he
says, will imperil my soul!—So be it!—This is what love means to
me!”
There was that in Yermah which would brook no interference.
Docility and obedience, both his habit and inclination, were routed
completely by the whirlwind of resentment having control of him.
Self made a strong rally, and, for a time, he was intoxicated with the
idea of defying Akaza. He gloried in his ability to think and to act for
himself. It was his happiness, his love, and in the future he would do
as he pleased. This was instinct deeper than reason; not conscious
lust nor sensuality—for he mentally idealized Kerœcia.
This quality was the same which arouses an animal similarly
thwarted to the highest pitch of ferocity. Passion, heretofore a latent
force strengthening and sweetening his whole nature, now suddenly
flared into tempestuous activity on its own account. Opposition at
this juncture would have rendered Yermah capable of murder.
The line of demarcation between the virgin mind and partial
realization was forever obliterated. Yermah knew desire. And its
demands were all the more urgent because of long-delayed
expression.

Instant Download Cultural Competence in America S Schools Leadership Engagement and Understanding 1st Edition Bruce Anthony Jones PDF All Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Instant Download Cultural Competence in America S Schools Leadership Engagement and Understanding 1st Edition Bruce Anthony Jones PDF All Chapter

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Instant Download Cultural Competence in America S Schools Leadership Engagement and Understanding 1st Edition Bruce Anthony Jones PDF All Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Full download test bank at ebookmeta.

Cultural Competence in America s Schools

Download More ebooks from https://ebookmeta.com

Cultural Intermediaries Connecting Communities:

What is to be Done Cultural Leadership and Public

Cultural Competence in Higher Education 1st Edition

Teacher Leadership in Professional Development Schools

Understanding Audience Engagement in the Contemporary

Abolitionist Leadership in Schools Undoing Systemic

Cultural Management and Policy in Latin America 1st

Unnormalizing Education Addressing Homophobia in Higher

Contemporary Uses of Technology in K-12 Physical Education:

INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Copyright © 2013 Information Age Publishing Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

Printed in the United States of America

School districts across the nation have an enormous opportunity to impact

Cultural Competence in America’s Schools:

ORIGIN, MEANING AND

Cultural Competence in America’s Schools:

for some subgroups (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Garcia, Jensen, & Scribner,

PUBLIC EDUCATION AND ETHNIC MINORITIES

American and Native American students dropped out of school without

CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND ITS HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS

The Civil Rights Movement and Multiculturalism

Reaction to the ethnocentric assumptions of nineteenth-century science,

Multiculturalists challenged assimilationist ideas that were associated

A multicultural approach that has been used by educators to achieve (diver-

Anti-racists proponents call for a true representation of the U.S. racial

TABLE 1.1. Distinguishing between Diversity, Multicultural Education, Anti-racist

Legal and Political- Social and Curriculum- Institutional and Individual

focused on the study of multicultural education and its impact on student,

1. There must be ongoing evidence that teachers, school leaders

CULTURAL COMPETENCE DEFINED

CULTURAL COMPETENCE: FOCUS OF SUCCEEDING CHAPTERS

1. Understand how the past impacts individual and institutional phe-

WHY THE FOCUS?

Our Growing Diversity

Despite strong federal involvement, the actual implementation of integration

administrators. The few African American students who were admitted to

(Today) barriers to communication across ethnic and socioeconomic lines

In the 1950s and 1960s, counselor-educators generally considered counsel-

Yet, we know the one-size-fits-all paradigm has had a deleterious impact

Overall, there is a general distrust by African Americans of the counseling

In light of the second-rate treatment provided to many African Americans in

In their publication on culturally proficient instruction, Nuri Robins,

Gladys, a European American workshop participant, asked, “Aren’t you con-

Cultural Competence in the Context of the Global Economy

Increasingly, industry is adopting a cooperative model . . . hand held calcula-

• Corporate losses in the private sector.

From a conceptual and practical standpoint, the corporate sector and

On any given day the Hotel@MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has between

In the insurance industry, Ahmed (2002, p. 2) reports that a “managing

Culture contributes to our identity in three main ways. First, it provides us

In the mental health field, cultural ignorance among practitioners is

Recent information regarding cultural issues in mental health suggests that

Public Education and Its Significance

as how schools interface with neighborhood and community-wide constitu-

Public Education, Jobs and Income