DEVELOPING THE BRAIN POTENTIAL IN THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHILD
The Ruin of the Nation Begins in the Homes of its People
-Old African Proverb-
Our youth are our gifts and if we do not
entrust them with the best care we
can give them, then our nation is lost.
My mission:
- My mission at this site is to provide African -Americans with the tools to nurture their child's developing brain.
- To educate our youth as future parents in the dynamics and importance of early brain development.
National Black Parents Code Guidelines For Correct Black Parents
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1. I will have a feeling of love and responsibility for all Black children, be they my own biological descendants or not. The extended family is a traditional way of life for us, therefore all African adults are potentially correct Black parents.
2. I will teach what is right and what is wrong.
3. I will respect my children and will demand respect from them.
4. I will strive to produce in the home harmony, stability and an atmosphere of trust and love. I will provide opportunities for learning and will instill a sense of pride by teaching our past and present history.
5. I will have control and power in the home, being that the home is the smallest example of a Nation-and if the home is not together you cannot deal with outside forces.
6. I will find the best possible educational institution for my children and I will participate in some way in the institution.
7. I will seek to establish and perpetuate those moral attitudes and values which will add to my children's personalities and characters: virtue, knowledge , temperance, patience, godliness, brotherliness , kindness and charity.
8. I will develop a deep inner love that flows over and around the Black child to form a shield of protection, guidance, wisdom and strength.
9. I will assume the responsibility for cultivating the development of Black youth. This cultivation process occurs mentally (through skill development) ; physically (through the sharing of food, clothing and shelter); emotionally (through the commitment to the national development of Black people); and, spiritually (through the living out of a superior value system).
10. I will be about collaborating with others like myself, creating an atmosphere whereby Black children can grow and develop their potential in effective and meaningful ways.
11. I will be responsible for strengthening the positive qualities of the child and for correcting negative characteristics. I will maintain and nurture positive stability in the Black family.
12. I will be a model of the intellectual, emotional and moral discipline necessary to the child's understanding of, relationship to, and responsibility for the total Black experience-past, present and future.
13. I will have as my goal harmony within and freedom without; with confidence in the knowledge that the ultimate in freedom is service to mankind. My whole person and lifestyle will transmit these same values to the young.
14. I will help every Black child to develop the skills to survive. I will teach that the highest good in life is to serve Black people, helping all Black people in the struggle to survive.
WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS:
Source: Carnegie Task Force on meeting the
needs of Young children, Starting Points,1994
Here are a few sites that will explain the importance
of brain development in the African -American child.
Guidelines for correct black parenting skill. Courtesy of Watoto World Melanet
Medical research on brain development
Talks about the overview of early childhood and development.
An article from parent News that states that the early years are the learning years
Mind/learning Basic Principles.
I Am Your Child, ABC special on brain research website with supporting information.
Brain research manifests importance
of first years.
National Black Child Develoment Institute
And when a woman decides that she will have a child, she goes off and sits under a tree, by herself, and she listens until she can hear the song of the child that wants to come. And after she's heard the song of this child, she comes back to the man who will be the child's father, and teaches it to him. And then, when they make love to physically conceive the child, some of that time they sing the song of the child, as a way to invite it.
And then, when the mother is pregnant, the mother teaches that child's song to the
midwives and the old women of the village, so that when the child is born, the old women and the people around her sing the child's song to welcome it. And then,
as the child grows up, the other villagers are taught the child's song. If the child falls, or hurts its knee, someone picks it up and sings its song to it. Or perhaps the child does something wonderful, or goes through the rites of puberty then as a way of honoring this person, the people of the village sing his or her song.
And it goes this way through their life. In marriage, the songs are sung, together. And finally, when this child is lying in bed, ready to die, all the villagers know his or her song, and they sing for the last time --the song to that person.
There is a tribe in Africa where the birth date of a child is counted not from when they've been born, nor from when they are conceived but from the day that the child was a thought in its mother's mind.
Picture courtesy of Children's defense.....Crusade for America