The Two Percent Solution: Black Male Teachers?

In February, 2014, President Obama established My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) in an attempt to “address persistent opportunity gaps and to tear down barriers that all too often prevent boys and young men of color and other young people from realizing their potential.”  This has been an ambitious initiative, with mixed results. 

One of the challenges MBK faces is the need to recruit more African-American (A-A) males to serve as mentors, tutors, and teachers. In the US, only 2% of teachers are A-A males.  This is a problem to meeting the MBK goals.  And those teachers who are in classrooms find themselves in very difficult positions - that of not only teaching their class, but also serving as counselor, monitor, police, judge, and jury, for the other A-A students not in the class.   These A-A teachers are feeling overwhelmed, as well as believing that the system is abrogating its responsibility, and using these teachers as buffers.
 
In a recent article by Christopher Emdin, Why Black Men Quit Teaching,  Christopher provides great insight into the experience of the African-American male teacher.