I Hate School!” Academic Self-Motivation in African American Children
Through my classroom observations African American children who lack external motivation for education are generally, though not exclusively, from low socioeconomic status areas (SES), attend low performing public schools, and do not receive adequate external motivation to succeed in school. This study’s primary purpose is to discover what attitudes young African American children have toward schooling, and to determine what can be done to help them become academically self-motivated. The scholarly literature reviewed focuses on typical school settings in which African American children seem turned off by schooling. It also focuses on school settings such as the Harlem Children’s Zone and Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools that foster academic self-motivation. A look at both sides is key to understanding what factors shape children’s attitudes toward schooling. Children’s first-hand perspectives were attained in order to understand why children feel the way they do about schooling. Fourteen children participated in focus group discussions and individual interviews. These children were recruited through a motivating summer enrichment program where I volunteer. Individual students were selected for interviews based on their responses in the focus groups and high or low performance displayed in academic records. This study discovered that children’s attitudes toward schooling were varied and dependent on their unique classroom environments. They also expressed that the social aspect of the school culture had a significant impact on their feelings about schooling. This study has offered recommendations for increasing motivational support and thus improving the quality of education for minority children.