Today's Thoughtful Thursday celebrates the poet Kevin Young, who is now the Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. The Schomburg, located on 135th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem, is a leading research institution focusing exclusively on African-American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. Its collection includes letters, papers and other [...]
How important is it for our kids from lower-income households to have a Black teacher? Very important, it turns out. A recent study conducted by researchers at American University, U.C. Davis and Johns Hopkins reveals that having just one Black teacher in third, fourth or fifth grade reduced low-income Black boys' probability of dropping out of high school by [...]
When Myron Rolle was 17 and a promising football player from New Jersey, he told the coaches at Florida State University during his official recruiting visit that he wanted to be an NFL player, a Rhodes Scholar and a neurosurgeon. Thirteen years later, he is checking the box on the last of these goals. Rolle was a star football [...]
Is your high schooler or college student thinking about what he will be doing this summer? He needs to be! The hunt for high school and college summer jobs is in full swing, with deadlines for many opportunities coming up very soon. (Note for next year: the best time to start looking around is in early January, because some [...]
Here's an inspiring story to tell your sons about as we close out 2016. Caylin Moore, a young Black college senior who is a varsity football player and an honor student at Texas Christian University, was among the 32 men and women awarded a 2017 Rhodes Scholarship. This achievement, impressive for anyone, is downright amazing when you consider his [...]
If your son is a senior in high school, you know too well that this is the college application season. No doubt, it can be a time fraught with tension as your son negotiates the maze of determining where he wants to go and where he has a shot at getting in, all the while trying to keep up [...]
It is finals time for our high school and college boys, and our younger guys are likely to have year end testing as well. Here are a few tips from the internet and GCP that you can suggest to your sons to help them do their best on these tests. 1.Create a Personal Study Guide. Even if the teacher [...]
This Friday, July 10, I will be participating in a panel conversation with Gregory Hess, President of Wabash College and Dr. Robert Franklin, Director of Religion, Chautauqua Institution and former President of Morehouse College, discussing the practical and institutional ways to support boys' healthy development. Our discussion comes at the end of a week-long examination of the theme "Boys [...]
We've been surfing the web doing research in preparation for the conversation about boys we are having on Friday with Dr. Robert Franklin and Gregory Hess, president of Wabash College, at the Chautauqua Institution (more on that in another post!) and have discovered some great articles which are definitely worth reading. We will share what we come across. "Letter [...]
Here is a great story to talk with your sons about: Zach Hodges, an African-American senior at Harvard University, is one of the top small college draft picks for the upcoming NFL draft. While NFL pundits don't believe he will go early in the draft, they think he has a good chance of getting picked by an NFL team. [...]