African-centered Rites of Passage and Education: Culturally Responsive Social Emotional Learning

1996

Lathardus Goggins II is to be congratulated for advancing our understanding of the components of rites of passage and its value for African American children.

Dr. Janice E. Hale - Educator/Professor

Lathardus Goggins II contributes to the much needed research on the merits of rites of passage as a process for life cycle development.

Paul Hill Jr. - Founder of National Rites of Passage Institute

We must reclaim our youth from the Euro-American culture with Africentricity, rites of passage, and excellence — this book aids in that process.

Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu - Publisher, African American Images

2022

Dr. Goggins has done it again with a follow up to the acclaimed original. The title alone - African-centered Rites of Passage and Education: Culturally Responsive Social Emotional Learning is powerful…yet the sad truth is that African-centered, culturally-responsiveness and social emotional learning are all initiatives that in far too many school districts across the country are prohibited in their schools and classrooms. It is my hope that this book will get into the hands of all who need it toward ensuring that Black children are exposed to African-Centered Education, Culturally-Responsive Practices and Social Emotional Learning. I endorse this book with zero reservation or hesitation.

Principal Baruti Kafele - Retired Principal, Consultant, Author

The practices in which you describe are very helpful envisioning how the principles can be put into practice… this is an important contribution to the field of African-centered Rites of Passage and Education.

Dr. Saliha Nelson, CEO - Urgent, Inc.

African-centered Rites of Passage & Education is the first steps to repairing a culture…allows for us to rebuild our community from inside out.

Rev. Ray Greene, Jr. - Executive Director, Freedom BLOC

Dr. Lathardus Goggins II has provided us with a road map to supporting our children through knowledge of self aligned with Social Emotional Learning. His approach through The Rites of Passage is based on our ancestors roots. …Please take the time to read this.

Dr. Sandy D. Womack Jr. - Educator & Author

Leadership Manual for Creating Successful Urban Schools

Dr. Goggins’ African-Centered Rites of Passage & Education is an essential read that helps us contextualize education as a primary instrument for the process of human development. His framework and model centering the Black experience is the connective tissue between an authentic sense of self, culturally responsive education, and Social Emotional Learning, of which Dr. Goggins echoes Dr. Dena Simmons’s poignant reminder that SEL alone is white supremacy with a hug. Profoundly personal and important work from a transformational leader and relentless advocate for delivering a high-quality public education to ALL students.

Cynthia Peeples - Founding Director, Honesty for Ohio Education

A much-needed manifesto for community practitioners… Dr. Goggins’ new book is an essential guide for Black youth, families, and communities. If we are serious about nation-building and addressing the traumatic experiences of Black youth, schools, nonprofits, and other organizations should implement Dr. Goggins’ life-affirming new book as a strategy to reclaim our youth.

David Miller- Author of Dare To Be King: What If the Prince Lives?

In a time when telling the truth of racial history is under siege, Dr. Goggins brings clarity to the importance of African ritual in rites of passage for youth and education. He does so by adroitly integrating the healing elements of the ritual to enhance our current understanding of the benefits of emotional regulation and self-control.

Dr. Howard C. Stevenson - Professor, University of Pennsylvania

…within the current social and political climate that Dr. Goggins updates the original African-Centered Rites of Passage and Education, incorporating contemporary language and frameworks. It is a must-read for anyone considering a career in education, any current educator, and any parent.… anyone truly interested in a framework that best facilitates an authentic education for children of African descent.

David E. Roberts - Educator & Host of Full Circle Podcast

Copyright © 2022 by Lathardus Goggins II

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, stored, or utilize in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in cases of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023900443

ISBN: 978-0-9663972-2-2

ISBN: 979-8-8689881-3-4 (e book)

Cover design and artwork by Lathardus Goggins II

About the Author

Lathardus Goggins II, Ed.D. is an educator, advocate, scholar, and author. Dr. Goggins’ titles include: Facing the Rising Sun: Lessons for the Authentic Self (2021); Bringing the Light into a New Day: African-centered Rites of Passage 25th-year Edition (2023); 365 Black: Nuggets of Wisdom for Each Day of the Year (2012); and Foundations: African-centered Education (2017). Dr. Goggins’ formal studies include Geography (B.A.), Cultural Foundation of Education (M.Ed.), and Educational Foundations and Leadership in Higher Education Administration (Ed.D.). Dr. Goggins’s certifications include Restorative Practices, Trauma-informed strategies, Culturally Responsive Classrooms, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, African American Studies, and African-centered Rites of Passage.

Dr. Goggins has worked with at-risk youth as a Prevention Specialist and has worked for more than 20 years in Higher Education. In K-12, Dr. Goggins has taught middle school math and science and has been a Social Emotional Learning Specialist for an large urban school district.

Dr. Goggins has traveled throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, The Netherlands, Australia, The U.S. Virgin Islands, Panama, The Bahamas, the United Kingdom, and Africa in the countries of Senegal, Benin, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Africa.

Dr. Goggins is the Owner and Publisher at Saint Rest Publications; and Principal Consultant at Applied Academic Solutions. Most importantly, Lathardus Goggins II is the grateful and humbly proud Dad of four.

For more about Dr. Lathardus Goggins II visit Dr.Goggins2.com

Acknowledgments

I acknowledge the Creator as the source of all that matters. The Creator of all energy, matter, love, blessings, grace, mercy, and creativity.

I acknowledge that I am one with the cosmos (creation). I am in and a part of the cosmos, and that the cosmos is in me and I am made of it.

I acknowledge the Word (John 1:1), the way of the Word (John 8:12), and the Word as my example, standard, and saving grace (Romans 15:5).

I acknowledge the first humans, the creators of culture (language, philosophy, science, art and civilization).

I acknowledge my ancestors who formed the roots of my cultural heritage that nurture all that I do.

I mourn of the lost potential and genius of the Africans who perished during the middle passage.

I acknowledge the struggle for liberation and freedom. I celebrate and honor those who worked to ensure that I have the opportunity to fully express my authentic self and the intent of the Creator for my life.

I acknowledge the support from my village (too many to name individually)… everyone who: prayed for me; challenged/encouraged me to be my better self; given me something to read or watch; introduced me to somebody I should know; have sown into me; provided comfort; and have genuinely unconditionally loved me. In particular to my family - y’all inspire me. I wrote this book in honor of Frank and Judie, Emmanuel and Emerline, Amos and Sofornia, Gray and Sarah, Robert and Ellen, Moses and Evangeline, Douglas and Willice, and Ellen and Lathardus.

I dedicate this book to my children, my children’s children, and all of my students (and their students and children). I hope this book contributes to creating a system of education worthy of your potential.

Table of Contents

Forward

Cornelius Wright, Mufasa’s Pride

Mia Street, Bridging the Gap Mentoring Program

Preface

African Centered Rites of Passage and Education (1996)

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Rites of Passage

General Definition

Interview Data

African-centered Rites of Passage

Sense of Self and The Educative Experience

Schooling African Americans

Implications of Mainstream Assumptions and Values

Coping Skills

Academic Implications of African-centered Rites of Passage

Culturally-based Socialization and Education

Conclusion

Parents

Educators

Scholars

Other Related Issues

Integration, Segregation, and Assimilation

Culture and Race

Twenty-five Years of Reflection and Learning (2022)

Emerging Evidence

Emergence of Social Emotional Learning

Educating the Whole Child

The Problem still Remains

Implications and Call to Action

Implications for Parents

Implications for Community

Implications for Educators

African-centered rites of passage in the classroom

Conclusion

Additional Resources

References (1996)

References (2022)

Forward

Why Afrikan-centered Education in the School System?

We’ve known each other since 1996. A mutual acquaintance introduced us. Hondre Outley had started a Rites of Passage program at his church. I was formerly trained in Afrikan Rites and was a member of Akebulan Sharo, an Afrikan rites organization in Akron, Ohio. We worked together for roughly four years.

In 2009, I founded Nitsch Knight Warriors at my school. I started an after-school program for boys at my school. That same year, Dre wanted to get back to serving the community through Afrikan-centered Rites of Passage with boys from the inner city. Dre’s inspiration and motivation came from Black male murder rates, particularly an incident in Chicago of someone he knew. Dre called me and asked if I was willing to start back doing Rites. I said of course. When he came to see me, he said, Bruh, I thought you were doing some little group; you are doing full fledge Rites, Well, yeah, but it’s just me. Dre suggested, Why don’t you come on and help me get your feet wet again, and we can flesh out what you are feeling and what God is asking you to do? Well, we are 13 years and counting.

My commitment to rites work and organizing has grown from my being in the school system and teaching since 1996, particularly in inner-city schools and alternative schools, seeing that cultural relevance within the academic curriculum is non-existent. Moving to Houston and becoming a teacher, I saw the power of teaching Black and Brown students from a culturally relevant perspective helped them focus a lot more and remain interested in the subject of math, science, and social studies/history. Teaching at an all-male middle school where there were legit gang members actually paying attention was my catalyst for infusing cultural relevance within the core subjects because I saw most of them would ask questions and listen. When I told them that Pythagoras studied at Timbuktu university, he got an Afrikan math theory named after him. This did not make the students mad, but it made my students want to learn more. When I taught middle school math, I had students who would walk into class after their social studies class and ask me to teach the first 15 minutes about history, and I found that it would make them want to pay attention to math. This is why having a rites mentoring program is so important and why we felt we could start Mufasa’s Pride to