American educators have largely failed to recognize the crucial significance of culture in the education of African-American children, contends Janic E. Hale in the revised edition of her groundbreaking work, Black Children. As African-American children are acculturated at home and in the African-American community, they develop cognitive patterns and behaviors that may prove incompatible with the school environment. Cultural factors produce group differences that must be addressed in the educational process. Drawing on the fields of anthropology, sociology, history, and psychology, Hale explores the effects of African-American culture on a child's intellectual devlopment and suggests curricular reforms that would allow African-American children to develop their intelligence, pursue their strengths, and succeed in school and at work.

"I have encounterd no other work that emphasizes the significance of culture and cultral experiences upon the development and educational advancement of Afro-American children in the Untied States." V.P. Franklin, Yale University