From Rage to Hope: Strategies for Reclaiming Black & Hispanic Students

by Crystal Kuykendall

This second edition, with a new foreword by Asa G. Hilliard III, is a compelling and informative examination of the academic underachievement, apathy, and rage among America s Black and Hispanic youth.

Genres: Education, African American

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 1992

Reviews

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a few, good nuggets for teachers to consider when working with diverse populations in the classroom. The data is a bit outdated, though, so a person would need to read it with the goal of picking up philosophical advice, rather than current facts to use in the classroom.

I prefer "Other People's Children," as it has great quotes from teachers in the field to help add real-world elements to the topics; however, Kuykendall does incorporate some great lists that would be helpful to use in a staff development environment.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main point of this book was that successful teachers care about each student and are able to appreciate their unique talents. Good teachers are non judgmental and are willing to examine themselves for prejudices. One useful observation regarding teaching black students is that their home culture rewards being outspoken and rhythmic movement and that these qualities are repressed in the classroom. When the interests and talents of students are not taken into account or when they have felt humiliated, students will turn off from school all together. These observations help explain how the school system fails black and latino students. Very good, short, straight forward read. Recommended to all educators that care about improving the educational experience of black and latino students.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why? Why are some children resilient? Why do some children follow the cycle of violence, drugs, etc? I read somewhere in college that it has to do with how many positive adults touch their lives. We are not talking about perfect adults who seem to always know the right thing to do. No. But positive adults who care. If the positive adults outnumber the negative ones, that child might have a chance. I am fairly certain that is what happened to me. That is also the concept of this book. The author coins the term "Merchants of Hope" to describe these positive adults. Sometimes we need to remember that it doesn't happen overnight and that most children need a lot of "merchants of hope" to overcome the negative adults elsewhere. Also, it may not be instantaneous as when children are young and decoding their world, they probably aren't ready to reject the negative influences who may be their very own parents. Again, I certainly wasn't so I understand this. Hopefully, though the child will be able to reflect on those positive adults and eventually counter that negativity. In the meantime, we continue to cast hope and hope that the hope will last.

[Collin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short, easy read. It had a lot of good ideas for teachers, parents, and anyone else involved with children. The book's focus is obviously Black and Hispanic students. I have recently started teaching at an Urban school and have run into a lot of the problems this books discusses. My only problem with this book is that it blames a lot of the problems with urban students on the school and specifically the teachers. Rather than saying students need to adapt to school the author says the schools should adapt to the cultures of Black and Hispanic students. She is very apologetic for students who lack self control and generally don't do well in the classroom environment. She discusses the cultural differences that exist and says teachers need to change. Perhaps there are some changes teachers can make in order to make things flow more smoothly but I think the children and parents also need to take more responsibility for the futures of themselves and their children. Kids cannot go from zero to focused with only the teacher to be held responsible.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Still be tormented by this book at school. I find it completely insulting and demeaning to the teaching profession. In addition the data is out of date and assumes far too much incompetence and lack of care on the part of the teacher.

It gobbles up race stereotypes while trying to accuse teachers of using stereotypes in teaching. By reading this pathetic offering you feel like an african-american can not learn unless there is some sort of "tribal song / beat" to keep them engaged. It is a trap of victim mentality where we need to cater to the "woe is me."

Sometimes a child doesn't learn because they don't want to learn adn they don't have family support to enforce new thinking. But the solution is to instead blame the teacher and then additionally call the system racist. I feel vindicated in my opinion as my african-american, hispanic-american and even muslim collegues agree with my assessment.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Rage to Hope is an excellent read for anyone who works with kids, whether they be teachers, afterschool/youth program coordinators, administrators, volunteers, parents, etc. Kuykendall argues that school systems must adapt to the cultures and learning styles of their students (whether they are Black, Latino, Muslim, etc.) to ensure that what's being taught reaches them - and that they aren't left to slip through the cracks (or get pushed out of the school community). The strategies that she lays out revolve around transforming the school climate and how teachers/administrators engage students, so it wouldn't cost school systems a dime to make these vital changes. It's a shame that so many schools still refuse to do something that seems so relatively easy, and kids' lives continue to be negatively impacted as a result.

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I never would have read this book if I hadn't been forced to do it for school. I thought that Kuykendall was an effective speaker in person (especially if you prefer the fire-and-brimstone preacher speaking style), but her book was not nearly as interesting as she was. This was supposed to be a second edition, but most of the statistics were REALLY old...lots of data from the early 80s, etc...I also felt like she based the book pretty much entirely on her own experiences as a black female; she just tacked on the words "and Hispanic" throughout the book. She also made sweeping generalizations, such as referring to quiet and obedient students as "unexcited." See also the table on "Do's and Don'ts of School Leadership" on page 231: "Do: help and heal. Don't: hurt and harm."

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this book a few months ago. It was informative, but was mainly focused on black students. Since I wanted something with a good deal on Hispanic students too, I was a bit disappointed.