Mis-Education of the Negro

Rating:
Summary: If You Don't Know How Can You Change
Review: I read this book for a group review and discussion with the Sankofa Poet's, Little Rock in 1997. The book presented a very compelling case to consider not that we were educated in America, but mis-educated. The case won over the jury, and the verdict was "guilty as charged".

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Summary: This is a book that every Black/Latino in the US should read
Review: I read this book in 1992 for a Black Studies program while attending SUNY New Paltz. Woodson's knowledge is as poignant today as it was in the 30's when he originally wrote the material. It is one book that post-reading, the reader comes away with a totally different perspective of Black thought. I highly recommend this book to every American, but especially to scholars interested in the historical disparities in U.S. educational system as it relates to African/Latino Americans today. Mis-Education of the Negro is a treasured classic within the pages of written history. Without this book, a large "chunk" of the puzzle concerning contemporary affirmative action policy debates would be amiss. Woodson offers much needed answers & solutions and encapsulates them in a style that is still very much relevant today. No doubt, 5 stars across the board!

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Read!
Review: I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book because I thought it was going to contain a whole lot of things that has been aleady said. Like, "the white man has done this or that." I was pleasantly surprised. This book had me glued to its pages. Carter G. Woodson was truly a visionary in his thoughts. He expressed everything in layman's term so as to not escape the average reader. The Black race has truly been miseducated and Wodson gives us specifics. Some of which I have thought of but never actually knew how to express. If you are studying the economics, politics of african-american history this should be your first read.

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Summary: Put this in the high school curriculum now!
Review: If I had knowledge of this book as a teenager, my life would be profoundly different. This was one of the first books I read, that made me want to read more. I would recommend it to all students at every age. In short, the educational system (like the religious, political, social, entertainment... etc.) has been specifically designed to discredit and subsequently disempower peoples of non-caucasoid descent. Enough said... go and read.

Rating:
Summary: Validity Still Holds True
Review: It amazed me how much this book rings true today, more than half a century later. It's a sad commentary that many of the ideas presented in this book are still valid today. This book is a must read and should be a necessity in the beginning path of self-awareness, unity, and continual social change.

Rating:
Summary: It doesn't get any clearer than this
Review: Mr. Woodson speaks in an almost prophetic tone in this masterful work. This book spoke as a warning in 1933 and it speaks now as a witness to what happens when a people, in general, does not cultivate its own fundamental and progressive thoughts. Mr. Woodson challenges the minds of both the miseducated and the miseducators to move in new directions. I recommend this book as one to be read by everyone at least once in a lifetime.

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Summary: Strong words written 50 years ago.
Review: The book is fifty old, however it's methodologies still remain viable for every African-American. The writer stated has factual, yet biased opinions about the black experience, along with his views concerning religion, politics and the shortcomings of the American educational system. It is not a must read for every African-American parent, but I must say, it will change your mindset as to how a parent should educate their children. Grab a cup of java with this one and relax!

Rating:
Summary: "Oh, yeah?!? Read THIS!!"
Review: The negative, incredulous readers/reviewers should read Psychiatry: The Ultimate Betrayal by Bruce Wiseman as the companion to this book. It very well may change your mind about your opinion of this work and others like it.

Rating:
Summary: "Oh, yeah?!? Read THIS!!"
Review: The negative, incredulous readers/reviewers should read Psychiatry: The Ultimate Betrayal by Bruce Wiseman as the companion to this book. It very well may change your mind about your opinion of this work and others like it.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Must Read
Review: This book ought to be required reading for every teacher, educator, administrator, and parents who intereact with children of African descent. Woodson's work helps us understand that African peoples are truely mis-educated. We largely receive an Eurocentric or White middle class, elitist education that by and large does not serve the needs of our communities. This mis-education creates a serious identity crisis on the part of African youth and it causes many Black "educated" middle class people to spend more time trying to reach the consumer American Dream rather than working toward a real self-determination agenda of African peoples. Thus it's of little suprise today that most African students never enroll in a course on African/African-American studies. In fact, these courses are becoming more rare in high school and colleges across the nation. Even with the current renaissance of Black literature in this country, the study of African/Black culture, politics, and spiritual life are rarely discussed. In Woodson's words: "Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better, but the instruction so far given Negroes [and still today] in colleges and universities [and elementary and secondary schools] has worked to the contrary. In most cases such graduates have merely increased the number of malcontents who offer no program for changing the undesiriable conditions about which they complain. " Woodson's book is clearly not out-dated. In fact, it reads as if it were published last year, instead of 1933. I would like to close this response to Woodson's work with another classic quote from him: "If you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a person feel that he/she is inferior, you do not have to compel him/her to accept an inferior status, he/she will seek for it. If you make a person think he/she is a justly outcast, yoiu do not have to order that person to the back door, that person will go without being told, and if there is no back door, the very nature of that person will demand one."