By Bryson Kantrell Green, milwaukeecourieronline.com
As the country celebrates Teacher Appreciation Week, I’m grateful for the Black male educators in our low-income communities. They inspired me as a child and shaped my career path and they do the same for some many Milwaukee children. A recent study from Johns Hopkins University found the probability of a low-income Black male student dropping out of school is reduced by 39 percent if they have one Black teacher, and they are 29 percent more likely to consider college. I know this story well.
Mr. Eddie Jones, current assistant principal at Harold S. Vincent High School in Milwaukee, greatly influenced the course of my education and life. He was formerly a fifth grade teacher at my elementary school, Grantosa Drive Elementary School. Though Mr. Jones was never my teacher, he fostered a relationship with my family after teaching a few of my older siblings and he remains a part of our lives today. As maybe the only Black male teacher in the building, I looked up to him and he served as an early model of success and brilliance, demonstrating that a Black boy like myself could also go to college. Today, we need more teachers like Mr. Jones to do the same for the next generation of Black male students.
Read more at http://milwaukeecourieronline.com/index.php/2017/05/13/black-male-leaders-shape-black-students/
