Black Male Teachers’ powerful impact on Black male students

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
Reports say that Black male students who have Black male teachers– are usually able to relate and engage at deeper levels than other teachers.
“All Black boys grow up to be Black men, and Black teachers show them that representation which is counter to what the general narrative is,” former Boys and Girls principal Bernard Gassaway told Our Time Press.

In a city with 1.1 million school children, the majority of which are Black and Brown, there is an outrageously small number of Black teachers.
This is a city charged by some with having the most reported segregated school system in the country.

Chalkbeat noted last year that “Black students make up around a quarter of the city’s more than one million public-school pupils. However, Black instructors are disproportionately underrepresented among the faculty who teach them… Only 19% of educators in New York City’s public schools are Black—and only 4% of the city’s educators are Black men.”
A 20-year New York City educator, Sam Adewumi retired from his alma mater, Brooklyn Technical High School, where he worked as a teacher for 12 years.

“Absolutely, I think Black male teachers are essential in our schools,” he told Our Time Press. “Especially in light of the number of students that I’ve had – depending on how we carry ourselves, we are seen as father figures, and even those who are not, I think they play a role in recreating a narrative regarding who Black men really are. So that students can see from an early age Black men standing strong and being responsible, respected, giving, strong, and representing love. So, they can see from their own experience what Black men are contributing to this country.”

A former middle-school student bumped into him while shopping one day and told him how he had motivated him to go to high school and college and go on to get his master’s degree. He went on to teach math and science just like Adewumi, and now, “this year he opened his early childcare center, and he said, ‘This is because of you.’ I inspired him,” Adewumi said quietly but obviously touched.

EduColor is an organization co-founded by Jose Vilson, who says that its raison d’etre “advocates nationwide on issues of educational equity, agency, and justice.”
Educolor said, “In recent years, our country has seen a larger demand for educators of color in our K-12 classrooms. As our public-school student body becomes more racially diverse (more than 50% of all public school students identify as students of color), our public school teaching staff is still predominantly white with few signs of budging.”

Recent research, says the organization, shows that, even though “teachers of color are being recruited at the highest rate since this measure was recorded in the 1980s, teachers of color are leaving much faster than their white counterparts. Recruitment and retention are levers for the development of the teaching profession for teachers of color.”

Dr. Bernard Gassaway was with the Department of Education for 24 years, the principal at Boys and Girls High School for five years, and taught there first for three years.

Now working as a consultant, coach, and teaching an education leadership course, he told Our Time Press, “I think it is important for Black boys in particular – as well as girls – to see positive role models to inspire them to see what they can become. It provides them with someone to whom they can relate on many levels, including empathy and understanding. One of my goals was to help Black boys navigate the difficult experiences they are likely to face by just being Black and male.

When it comes to Black teachers, unfortunately, the system doesn’t promote Black masculinity in terms of–they don’t want to promote the Black man as being a strong pillar of the community. Young Black men need to see someone who understands what they may be going through.”

A response he said he would get when he would attempt to discipline a student was “‘You are not my father,’ expressing that they did not have one in their lives, but they really wanted one. Many Black boys respected my strength as a leader.”

Not complaining, just stating, Gassaway told Our Time Press, “It is not easy being a Black male teacher because there’s not many of us, and there is strength in numbers, which would be even greater if they were unified. That’s the last thing they want – unity. It is feared. Look at the Black Panthers. Look at the Nation of Islam. In the school system, they have the Hidden Curriculum when the teacher closes the door and teaches what they really want to be taught–not the Explicit Curriculum like Christopher Columbus discovered America.”

“We need Black male teachers who are conscientious. We need strong Black men leading the family and the community. That is what we want and what we need.”

Retiring last year, math, engineering, and computer science teacher Sam Adewumi is still influencing students to make the best of their academic best with his after-school, weekend, and summer school CASPrep – Creativity, Activity, Service tutoring program. It teaches first through sixth graders academic fundamentals and prepares seventh and rising eighth-grade students for the Specialized High School Admission Test.

“We are taking students to the highest level in their educational experience in math and ELA,” he said. “We cater to the whole child by adding culture and creativity, financial literacy, business development, and entrepreneurship.
For more information, contact Casprep1@gmail.com