Subscribe
NewsOne Featured Video
CLOSE

Dr. Chandra Gilleducator, author, founder and CEO of Blackademically Speaking®,oined “NewsOne Now” guest host Armstrong Williams to discuss her new book, “Black Genes-Black Genius.”

Dr. Gill’s latest book is a motivational handbook​ aimed at inspiring the spirit, igniting intelligence and empower Black youth everywhere. She also shared her views on educating contemporary African American youth. 

Dr. Gill told Williams that learning is much more than a concept; it’s “a very valuable experience.”

“We have too many school districts throughout the nation and too many teachers who struggle through the lens of teaching ethicacy, cultural competence, but when you finally get through all that language, our students are not learning at the rate that they can learn.”

SEE ALSO: ‘A Chosen Exile:’ Examining African Americans Passing As White In America [VIDEO]

Dr. Gill also expressed some frustration at the educational system’s approach to dealing with African American students.

“Everybody is talking about Black children,” said Gill, “but who is talking to them? Who is speaking to them in a language that they understand and who is helping them to be motivated in the essence of learning?

She continued, “In this climate of post-racial discussion, people talk about the lens of Dr. King and when he is talking about the content of character and the empirical question becomes, ‘How can we build on the content of a character when the character of African American students is not reflected in the culture of the curriculum that they have in schools?’”

Gill explained to Armstrong that she looked at various statistics to find that less than three percent of today’s teachers are African American men and wonders if Black students are not inspired to learn because they don’t see educators who look like them.

SEE ALSO: NAACP Image Award Nominated Author Jeff Chang Breaks Down “Who We Be” (VIDEO)

She also questioned if professionals and teachers have the creativity to “teach our children how they need to be taught and what they need to be taught” as well as get past the tired discussion that revolves around Black children cannot learn.

She quoted Johnnetta B. Cole, anthropologist, educator and former president of Spellman College, saying, “She’s met many teachers that cannot teach, she’s yet to meet a student that cannot learn.”

Watch “NewsOne Now” guest host Armstrong Williams and Dr. Chandra Gill discuss her new book “Black Genes-Black Genius” in the video clip above. Dr. Gill’s book is available at www.drchandragill.com.

Be sure to watch “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, weekdays at 9 a.m. EST on TV One.

Subscribe to the “NewsOne Now” Audio Podcast on iTunes.