I am writing mydissertation on the policies recently rolled out to address Black boysunder-achievement in secondary schools. And aftergetting an educational point of view I also wanted to obtain a point of view from a memebr of theBalck community who works with many excluded black boys.

So, Whilst doing my primary research I spoke to a gentlemen fromaBlack boys project, when asked of the reason he thought Black boys were underachieving, he told me that boys disengage for many reasons andreaching puberty wasone of theissue, as they find it challenging being controlled in school environments - this I totally understand and have research to back up the control factor.

He then went on to say (which I thought to a degree was an interesting theory) that
.... Another issue is they are reaching puberty, their testosterone is high they then become assertive.

Can you please explain this further? When boys reach the puberty stage, they try to assert themselves, in terms of they do not want to be controlled, they are stuck in terms of development, they are pumped up with sugar which is antagonistical to testosterone, they have energy which needs to be expended before they can settle (down in class) the teachers want them to be quiet, sit still ... they need to burn this energy.

You said earlier that (some) of these boys have already experienced disengagement in primary schools and when they reach secondary schools they are also reaching puberty, can you explain why this is not the case that other boys experience the same issues within secondary schools? It has been proventhat Black children develop faster, adolescence happens faster. For primary kids, they are seeing behaviour from (older boys) and peers and also seeing behaviour from music and DVD, which help to shape their behaviour towards school.

It is the para... underlined I am in need of clarification (I did not get it from my source because of time constraints)

IS IT TRUE BLACK KIDS REACH PUBERTY EARLIER THAN OTHER KIDS?

IS THERE RESEARCH TO SUGGEST THIS THEORY?

because I thought it was an individual process! And what I dont want to do is (as this is the persons words), I dont want to leave it in my project and not be able to substantiating this theory.

Can anyone help?

I've seen nothing to back that up and intuitively I simply don't believe that for a moment.

The short answer to your question is no...

Currently, ALL children regardless of race on average reach puberty much quicker than previous generations did.

The Watcher and nsogbu1562 -Thank you for replying.

I agree with both of you. I also asked friends and most of them had not heard the theory, however, they were not suprised to hear it, I believe as for the same reasons nsogbu1562 mentioned.

My friend jst informed me that there was a study done on Black kids and theirdevelopmental stages,it revealed that the development ofBlack kidsafter the ages of 6-7slows down due to thelack of stimulation in mainstram schools. Now I can dig this, and it would also explain A factor for Blackunderachievement in secondary schools.

Apparently there was also a study done by the FSA which revealedsome ofthe foods eaten today by kids was a contributing factor to certain deviant behaviour. This I dont question, and have always stated food such asprossed shitto be the reasons for behaviour such as ADHD...