Mentoring African-American Boys

Paper Summary:

This paper first defines the term portraiture and offers a basic working definition of mentoring. The paper then looks at how portraiture mentoring can be used to mentor you African-American males, explaining that the life experience of the African-American male has discouraged and marginalized him, making the school environment a threatening one. The paper thus highlights the need for a mentor to reconstruct the self image of the African-American male as a strong learner, an intelligent individual, and an able student. A portraiture mentoring strategy is then presented thatillustrates the means by which the self image of the African American can be remolded. The paper also notes the importance of personalization related to portraiture.

From the Paper:

"We have a variety of terms to define here. Let us begin with portraiture. Portraiture in the classical sense refers to the means by which an image is portrayed. For a long time, this had to do with the means by which a person was painted or illustrated physically by an artist. For the purposes of mentoring, the definition has been expanded to entail the construction of a self portrait or image of an individual that makes him most fully equipped, or empowered, to learn and enjoy the benefits of learning in society thereof. For the African-American male, that self image is due to racism and all its evil relatives that has resulted in those highly negative elements in the life experience of the African-American males, and these negative experiences have manifested as cultural controls that have lowered his self image and marginalized him, as research will reveal. Now, let's tie this to a working definition of the notion of mentoring."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Big Brothers Big Sisters, ESSENCE Magazine Issue Call to Action for African-American Male Mentors; Critical Need, Critical Shortage Driving Effort." 2007:http://sev.prnewswire.com/magazines/20060629/PHTH01529062006-1.html
• Gallagher, Mike. "Improving Lives Of African-American & Hispanic Males Requires Foundation Role, Says National Expert." 9/19/07: http://www.cmif.org/News_Detailed.asp?ID=1424
• Levin, Henry. "Helping African-American Boys." 2007: http://www.edweek.org/chat/transcript_05_17_2007.html
• Parham, Marti. "What can we do to save our young men?(LIFESTYLE)(young Black males failing to complete basic high school education)." Jet July 2006 p. 14 (4)
• Richard, Alan. "Heeding the Call: The Clemson University-based Call Me MISTER program is recruiting young black men to become elementary school teachers." October 12, 2005: http://www2.edweek.org/agentk-12/articles/2005/10/12/07mister.h25.html

More papers on Mentoring African-American Boys:

• Research Paper # 62229 : "African-American Boys and Sports"
• Research Paper # 95409 : "Math Achievement in African-American Males"
• Research Paper # 95130 : "Breast Cancer and African-American Women"

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