Cultivating the Genius of Children: Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap in the Early Years!
There has been much attention given to the opportunity gap between white and minority students, especially African American children. Using research and years of experience Cultivating the Genius of Black Children using learning strategies to break down the cultural influences on learning style and provides a practical approach to helping Black children thrive long before they enter negative influences in many American classrooms is a must.
For Black or diasporic children, defined as those of Afro Asiatic, Afro Caribbean, Afro Latino or African descent, there is a disconnect between learning preferences and learning environments that must be bridged before the achievement gap can be closed.
Increasing our cultural intelligence will allow us to work across many cultural differences in our classrooms. As our schools become more diverse, cultural competency will be an increasingly important skill for teacher efficacy and children’s success. By cultivating the individual genius of each child starting them early through musical education strategies beginning at 3 months old and meeting them where they are today we can invigorate the education system and provide children high quality early education experiences.
In the American Journal of Medical Genetics of 1985 of page 69 reads, “Black babies (even those suffering from less nutritional opportunity) are smaller than white ones but the smaller black neonate becomes the larger and more advanced child right through adolescence.” In Social Psychology on page 482 Lawrence S. Wrightsman is quoted saying, “Psychologically, all the [Black] children were found to be more (cognitively) advanced than European children of the same age.” On page 162 of Children of the 21 Century: From Birth to 9 Months by Shirley Dex and Heather Joshi you will find the following excerpt, “There is (significant) evidence to suggest that non-white babies, especially Black babies, are more advanced in their gross motor development than white babies.”
For example, it takes an African American baby less than 7 weeks to support itself in the sitting position and recognize their own reflection in a mirror while taking a European child 20 weeks to accomplish the same goal. And this is only one example. There are so many African American children that are prodigies or simply perform well academically that it prompted a Yale financed international study "Global patterns of linkage disequilibrium at the CD4 locus and modern human origins". This study found that the reason for the increased likelihood of genius in black populations is because they don't require homogeneity to maintain their phenotype and Sub Saharan Africa and the diaspora has the highest amounts of diversity genetically, but it is up to us as parents to ensure we create an environment for learning and keep the right things in front of our children.
Furthermore Sub-Saharan African populations had more haplotypes and exhibited more variability in frequencies of haplotypes than the Northeast African or non-African populations. The Alu deletion was nearly always associated with a single STRP allele in non-African and Northeast African populations but was associated with a wide range of STRP alleles in the sub-Saharan African populations. This global pattern of haplotype variation and linkage disequilibrium undeniably suggests the common and recent African origin for all non-African human populations.
African populations are characterized by greater levels of genetic diversity, extensive population substructure, and less linkage disequilibrium (LD) among loci compared to non-African populations. Africans also possess a number of genetic adaptations that have evolved in response to diverse climates and diets, as well as exposure to infectious disease. In the past 5,000 years, European-Americans have developed a huge batch of potentially harmful genetic mutations – many more than African-Americans. A recent 2023 study, published in the journal Nature, may help explain why so many people develop diseases even though they don't have common genetic mutations. A scan of all the mutations in the human gene map shows something surprising – people of European descent are evolving fast, and not for the better.
Scientists looking for small changes in the genetic code called single nucleotide variants – one-letter differences in the genetic code of A,C, T and G. They found “an enormous excess of rare variants” in the European-Americans. And 73 percent of these mutations only appeared in the human genome in the past 5,000 to 10,000 years. Most were mutations that are known to weaken proteins, researchers said, and most of these harmful mutations were also in the people of European descent.
Genetic mutations usually occur by accident – they are just mistakes that get made when DNA gets copied. They become important to evolution when they affect a person’s ability to survive (especially in the age of man made climate change) and to have children. Which is an increasing concern in Asian and European nations! The expansion of civilization, and the ability of societies to maintain populations as well as care for people who are less fit, was probably a factor in allowing these mutations to spring up.
Some of the genes identified in the scan also affect peoples’ response to drugs like opioids. Currently, 71% of preventable opioid deaths occur among white males ages 25 to 54, and the number of deaths among individuals 55 and older is growing rapidly. Few opioid deaths occur among children younger than 15. Genetics could explain why some people are helped, for example, by a cholesterol-lowering drug while others may not be. There wouldn’t have been much “selective pressure” on these genes before the modern drug era, but that doesn’t mean the genes were not influenced by something else. “It turns out that genes involved in adverse drug responses also have different biological roles, ”for instance, detoxifying certain foods.
One example – phenylketonuria or PKU. It’s caused by a mutation in a gene that breaks down an amino acid called phenylalanine. People with PKU mutations must eat a strict, low-protein diet or they can develop seizures and mental retardation. Upon investigating the frequency, origin, and molecular basis of phenylketonuria (PKU) in U.S.A blacks. On the basis of 10 years of newborn-screening data, it was found the frequency to be 1/50,000, or one-third that in whites. African countries have the lowest cholesterol, some as low as 4 mmol/L. because of their diets.
Now newborns are routinely tested for PKU so they can start the diet immediately and avoid any brain damage. These kids can now grow up and lead normal lives, they will likely start having children and the gene may become even more common in the European population.
In terms of education it begins with Infant intellectual stimulation. Talk and interact hold your baby, make eye contact, and talk to them often. You can also try reciting nursery rhymes, singing songs, or making faces. Start reading aloud to your baby in the first month, and move on to brightly colored picture books at three months. Later, you can create your own book with pictures of familiar people or things.
Try disappearing and reappearing games, like peek-a-boo, or hide and seek. You can also encourage your baby to explore objects and toys by touching, banging, shaking, and rolling them. Talk with your baby about what they're doing. Make sounds such as tearing or crumple up paper, pour dry pasta into a pan, or tap a spoon against a bowl. You can also try turning a doorknob, ringing a doorbell, or opening and closing blinds or windows.
Expose to different things give your baby different things to look at, about 20-30 cm from their face. You can also name things for your baby to look at, starting around eight months.
Teach infant to respond to their own name. hold their own bottle or feed themselves finger food. look at things when you name them, from about 8 months. From 9-12 months, your baby will probably: say 'mama' and 'dada' at the right time. understand simple instructions like 'Give it to me' make silly faces or sounds to make you laugh. enjoy repetitive games and familiar stories. Also at 8-12 months, babies might start experimenting during play. For example, your baby might: throw a bowl and watch it fall these are learning moments not bad behavior. Your child may push things off the edge of tables. throw toys at the wall. test all toys and any objects within reach – cups, saucers and even pets.
Read with your baby, recite nursery rhymes, or sing songs ABC's number songs Grammar Rock Songs. Make faces with your baby. Give your baby different things to look at, about 20-30 cm from their face. Infants have a definite preference for the human face, voice, touch and smell over everything else. Therefore, the infant's best toy is you, as you speak, move, touch and talk with them. Interesting stimulation can enhance curiosity, attentiveness, concentration and love of learning in the growing infant and toddler.
Reading such as bedtime or midday nap time stories is a proven way to promote your little one's thought development. In the first month, begin by reading almost anything aloud to your baby. At 3 months, move to brightly colored picture books that show common objects. In later months, create your own book with pictures of familiar people or things. During story time you can encourage your child to explore objects that you incorporate into the stories such as toy dinosaur or doll etc. Touching, banging, shaking, and rolling help children learn about how things work. Talk with your child about what he/she is doing.
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