Bill Maxwell's Series: My Take

Over the past couple of weeks, at least six people have asked me what I think of columnist Bill Maxwell's three-part series on his experiences leaving the Times to spend two years teaching at the historically black Stillman College.

Often, these questions have come from folks who, knowing my past work, expect me to have some problems with his amazingly written, but highly critical narrative. And I do. But my position sometimes doesn't seem to matter much; what they really want is an excuse to vent their own passionate disagreements with much of what Bill has written.

After a few of these encounters, I decided to wait until the series was fully published and then weigh in myself, here. 

As usual, I am impressed with the depth of Bill's writing and his ability to cut to the heart of the matter. I doubt there are many other writers who could tackle such a sprawling story over so many weeks and leave pieces so compelling I had to read every word.

He raises some troubling questions as well. How can college students care so little for their campus that they set parts of it on fire? Or refuse to buy textbooks? How can a college which charges more than $11,000 annually in tuition tolerate clerks so rude that even professors at the school would rather email documents than deal with them personally?

BUT -- and you knew there was one coming -- I found the biggest weakness of this project was its tone. This series felt like three weeks of generational warfare playing out in the pages of the St. Petersburg Times -- with Bill serving as the hectoring elder facing down the moral bankruptcy of his former students.

I wish these stories had more voices in them, particularly of Stillman kids. I kept wondering, as I read these barbed accounts of lazy students who wouldn't attend free outings or congregated on the steps of school buildings, what explanations the pupils would offer for their actions. I wanted to know how some of the school officials felt about the criticisms of their institution. I knew there were other sides to these stories, and the tale felt incomplete without them.

The numbers also spoke volumes. According to the statistics presented with the stories, Stillman had the smallest student body with the highest percentage of kids receiving federal Pell Grants of any historically black college listed -- these mostly were kids who wouldn't be going to college if facilities like Stillman weren't around, accepting most every student with the financial aid to pay tuition.

Did he really think these kids would be at the same scholastic level as an average college student of any race?   

Mostly, I think Bill's series is a reflection of where we are with diversity initiatives and education. Efforts to make college more accessible for students of color have always been blunt instruments, most effective at helping minority students who already are poised for success, particularly among the middle class.

But what do we do with the underclass?   As I have said many times before, it seems too easy to condemn people for their self-destructive choices, their in-your-face music, their defiantly anti-intellectual attitudes. Condemning people doesn't really help them,  though it can make others feel good about their own choices.

Bill's not alone. Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby and NPR correspondent Juan Williams are just a few high profile black people who have grown impatient with the black underclass. Most, if not all of them overcame tough, deprived childhoods to make something special of themselves and expect the same from others. 

And because these folks are black, they have license to make the kind of pointed, generalized comments which would cost a white commentator his or her job. For some white people, this feels like the revelation of a truth long hidden -- accountability finally demanded from black people by a black person. To some black folks, it feels like an attack -- a way to earn plaudits and prestige by echoing the kind of unfair generalizations white people can't get away with in polite company anymore.

Of course, neither extreme is right, especially in the case of Bill, who I've always known as an earnest truth-seeker who could give a crap what others think of him. And I certainly wouldn't have the guts to cut my income in half to spend two years teaching kids who mostly couldn't care less who I was or what I was telling them.

Funny this is, i've never been a strong advocate for historically black colleges. I've often felt that, to succeed in a white-dominated society, black folks must learn how to live and work with white people as soon as possible. I remember how hard it was me to learn how to negotiate white culture and I've attended white-dominated schools since the 5th grade. I worry that historically black colleges allow some folks to delay  the culture shock of being surrounded by while culture until they start their careers -- when problems adjusting can hurt you most.

I have a desperate feeling about these issues which hit me hardest reading Bill's stories. I feel we're talking past each other -- confusing race problems with class problems and generational problems with motivational problems. As I told Juan Williams during a radio debate, I don't think many kids in the underclass think they have a realistic chance of being a rap or basketball star -- the problem is, they see their chances of getting a job which earns a middle class wage as remote as getting a job playing point guard for the Knicks.

And how you change that awful reality, I'm not sure.

Comments

[Chuck Welch]

Eric: Just a point about "underclass: a social stratum consisting of impoverished persons with very low social status."

I grew up a member of that class. Every time I see the word I wonder who does the writer think I was "under?"

I hated being poor. But I'd rather you call me "poor" or "impoverished" than "underclass." I realize we are in a class-oriented society, but do we all have to perpetuate the labeling?

However, as you mention "class," I do agree the the family of origin finances play a great part in the discussion.

I believe the key point is: we all grew up feeling that the brass ring was out of our reach. How we dealt with the blow when the realization hit is how our lives have turned out.

Cosby, Winfrey, and others who have succeeded often believe that if they could do it...anyone can. They forget their talents are rare; or how many lucky breaks could have gone the other way.

I don't have an answer on how to reach the poor...of any race...and give them the method to grab the ring. I'm not even sure I know how to give them hope.

[Kim]

Fascinating. I've taught both at a HBCU and a predominantly white college . The lack of discipline and dedication exists just as much for the white students as it does with the black students. I fear moreso than economic status this is a result of parents failure to teach their children about appropriate behavior and priorities .

[Eric Deggans]

I hear you about use of he term underclass, Chuck. But that is a very specific term coined by social scientists to refer to those who are persistently poor through generations.

And I think it emphasizes class in a way that we must, in order to fully graps the problem at hand.

I've worked as an adjunct professor at Eckerd College and University of Tampa. And while I felt my students were often looking for an easy way out and accustomed to teachers giving them higher grades thn their works deserved, atleast they bought their books and showed up for most every class...

[kate]

I found his series fascinating.

As a full-time teacher, I recognized so many experiences and emotions as similar to mine. Most of my poor students behave in a similar manner - and most of them are white.

I applaud anyone who has the guts to try and reach such kids. It's at times a frustrating, rewarding, and thankless job. Often in the same week.

And I can hardly blame him for stopping. Most teachers who are out there, fighting the good fight year after year, nod and understand. Those who have never taught full time tend to judge a bit more harshly.

[Jim]

Eric, you are right on. I enjoyed reading Bill Maxwell's report on his time at Stillman. But, you are right, we didn't get to hear many accounts from the students themselves. And it did read like generational warfare at times.

It sounds like he did 'reach' a few students while he was there, so I think he should be proud of that. An educator is not going to change every student's life. I think some of the students at Stillman haven't realized that education is the ticket to a better life, in most cases.

[dreaming]

about 10 years ago -maybe 15 now- i taught a 'journalism' course at a medium sized college of mostly middle class white kids located in an urban area of a very mixed northern city. these aspiring 'journalists' were every bit as lazy as the black ones maxwell got fed up with.

i asked these mostly 'communications' majors to start reading a newspaper, any newspaper, as preparation for the course. no way! most flat refused. yet many said they aspired to be tv newspeople.

they wanted instant reward with no work. welcome to america!

bottom line: teaching's tough. a lousy job, really. what people dont realize is that youre lucky if you have one or two 'good' students per year. the rest? they become 'college graduates.' but by no means are they educated. that happens later. much later.

[Lisa]

I agree with many of the comments already made. I graduated from an HBCU and have a law degree from a predominantly white college. I found the same kinds of people at both places. There were some hardworking, but many looking for ways to get over. I think its just the nature of our current culture. We're interested in titles and position, not intellect as much anymore...look at the White House, our President can barely form a complete sentence. Students in my top-rated law school looked at it as just a pass-through to get to the real goal, a high paying job, and then onto a career in politics, not as a learning experience.

I also think that the issue at Stillman is simply a poverty issue. The students sound like they're from rough backgrounds. My HBCU had mostly middle and upper class Blacks, so we did not have these particular problems. Its not an HBCU or race problem, its a poverty or class problem. As far as slacker students, I saw the same at my white college, in fact, they took it to another level, by having their rich, influential parents call and threaten instructors for not giving high grades, even though they had clearly not done well.

I can understand Prof. Maxwell's frustration though. I tend to agree with Cosby and Winfrey and definitely Juan Williams on the culture of failure in our community. But, Stillman is not the problem, its the communities from which these students hail. And, I still have no answer.

[Lisan]

I attend Stillman College..well I did I'll be at UA in the fall.I am offended by what is said in his articles. This man who I have never seen before didn't think to talk about the many students that attend class and who excel. All schools will have problems of their own and it is not usually the students themselves but the people who run the instituition.

I read the series, and your comments, and I hope readers won't assume all HBCUs are like Stillman. I grew up in St. Pete, and I graduated from an HBCU. Part of the reason I went to a black college in the first place, is because I was tired of having to "negotiate white culture," as you put it. I was tired of being the only black kid in the class or club, knowing that some people were wondering if I was a quota case, when I knew I was more qualified than they were to be there. When I was in college, it was good to know that if I got something or didn't, it may have been about politics or personality, but it wasn't about race. Thanks to my parents, (one went to an HBCU) I never questioned my own abilities, but it can be irritating, if not distracting to be in a learning environment when others do. I think for that reason alone, HBCUs can be important for African-American students.

[Mel Brooks]

Eric, i think you totally missed the point. Your remarks bordered on being confrontational. There is a problem in our culture and it's not Bill Maxwell.

The problem in educating our youth is in the preparation. e.g.,parenting.

[Mel Brooks]

Eric, i think you totally missed the point. Your remarks bordered on being confrontational. There is a problem in our culture and it's not Bill Maxwell.

The problem in educating our youth is in the preparation. e.g.,parenting.

[Nilaja]

I've often felt that people like Oprah, Bill, etc. take their success and assume it on the entire race as if we are all talented and lucky enough to get the breaks that they have had. Not everyone has natural comedic talent, natural journalistic abilities, natural writing abilities, etc. It is their natural ability of a specific talent that has made them successful and with some help on the way. We all don't have a teacher or mentor that 30 years later we remember and can say if it not for her or him taking an interest I don't know what I would have done or become. That is the big difference in the stories of the successful that does not occur in the everyday lives of people, each one of them had someone in their life stories who made a difference or influenced them and in most cases it was not a parent. While I agree that involved parenting makes a difference in the educational aspirations of our youth, I don't agree that it is the absolute. There is never an absolute which is my problem with Bill's series and some of the previous comments. I agree it is one sided and generational. It is also a sweeping indictment and unfair. I too grew up poor. (And I also hate class labeling, because it does not define me, point blank, I was poor, labeling me in a class causes people to make too many assumptions about who I am, which is what people generally do when they hear your class as opposed to the person you are.) I grew up without a father and with a mother too busy. I don't have a teacher I remember or a mentor I looked up to. However, I found the joy in reading early in life and on my own and because of it I excelled in my studies and in life. Everyone's story is unique, everyone's view of the world or this place called America is different. In a lot of instances it is ignorance that holds people back and not knowing how to ask the right questions or being afraid to ask the question. As well written as Bill's series is, it should have ended with "this is my experience, my personal assessment and in no way do I mean to attribute this to every and all HBCU's or to my entire race of people designated as underclass. What I see is a problem that needs to be addressed and in my own way that's what I'm trying to do by bringing it to your attention".