Christopher Dunbar Jr. on African American Youth in Alternative Schools

A Look at Christopher Dunbar, Jr.'s Alternative Schooling for African American Youth





What role does alternative schooling in our public school system offer to our troubled and academically challenged youth? If you ask this question on any given day within the public school system you might hear such answers as it offers more individualized, one-on-one attention to students in dire need of it, it offers an environment where outside agencies and helpers can better focus on the needs of the students enrolled, or it offers a chance for students to succeed who may not otherwise receive one. Those are just canned responses that sound good in a public meeting or look good on paper and justify the very existence of the schools. The truth though, as thoroughly researched, lived, and presented by Christopher Dunbar, Jr., in his book Alternative Schooling of African American Youth is an entirely different matter.


Dunbar takes us into the lives of actual students involved in the alternative school setting, and sometimes heartbreakingly describes to us the challenges they face in this environment and in their lives outside of school. There are several key themes and arguments that I think Dunbar is trying to make with this book: the reality of alternative schools vs. the perception of them, the importance that social roles and other outside factors play in the world of academics, the dire need that these children need for an academic system that truly reaches and teaches them, and most importantly that these students are not throwaways, they are children, and as such deserve every opportunity to try and succeed in life; an opportunity they are not truly being given in the alternative school system.


Reality vs. Perception