Janice E. Hale

In Learning While Black Janice Hale argues that educators must look beyond the cliches of urban poverty and teacher training to explain the failures of public education with regard to black students. Why, Hale asks simply, are black students not being educated as well as white students? Hale goes beyond finger pointing to search for solutions. Closing the achievement gap of African American children, she writes, does not involve better teacher training or more parental involvement. The solution lies in the classroom, in the nature of the interaction between the teacher and the child. And the key, she argues, is the instructional vision and leadership provided by principals. To meet the needs of diverse learners, the school must become the heart and soul of a broad effort, the coordinator of tutoring and support services provided by churches, service clubs, fraternal organizations, parents, and concerned citizens. Calling for the creation of the "beloved community" envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Hale outlines strategies for redefining the school as the Family, and the broader community as the Village, in which each child is too precious to be left behind. "In this book, I am calling for the school to improve traditional instructional practices and create culturally salient instruction that connects African American children to academic achievement. The instruction should be so delightful that the children love coming to school and find learning to be fun and exciting."-Janice Hale

In her highly acclaimed work Black Children, Janice Hale argued that the difficulties many African American children have in school result from differences in learning style that are deeply rooted in African American culture. Now, in Unbank the Fire, Hale asks a new question: What sorts of extraordinary measures are needed to overcome these differences and let black children reach their full potential in school and beyond? Her answer: none. "I named this book Unbank the Fire," Hale writes, "because I do not believe that extraordinary measures are called for to assist African American children in reaching their potential. All that is necessary is for this society to remove the ashes that historically and presently stunt their development."

American educators have largely failed to recognize the crucial significance of culture in the education of African-American children, contents Janice E. Hale in the revised edition of her groundbreaking work, Black Children. As African-American children are acculturated at home and in the African-American community, they develop cognitive patterns and behaviors that may prove incompatable with the school environment. Cultural factors produce group differences that must be addressed in the educational process. Drawing on the fields of anthropology, sociology, history, and psychology, Hale explored the effects of African-American culture on a child's intellectual development and suggests curricular reforms that would allow African-American children to develop their interlligence, pursue their strengths, and succeed in school and at work.