Causing a Stir: 13-Year-Old Dominates College
At thirteen years of age, Stephen Stafford is causing quite a stir at Morehouse College. Stafford has a triple major in pre-med, math and computer science. Though he loves playing video games and playing his drum set, he is no typical teenager.
“I’ve never taught a student as young as Stephen, and it’s been amazing,” said computer science professor Sonya Dennis. “He’s motivating other students to do better and makes them want to step up their game.”
Stafford began his college career at the age of 11, after being home-schooled by his mother. Stafford’s mother said that when Stafford began to teach her instead of being taught by her, she knew he needed to be in a college environment.
Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. Stephen Stafford, in my opinion, represents exactly what black men are about: Intelligence, ambition and high academic achievement. This is not to disrespect men in other walks of life, but the truth is that you will never see Stephen Stafford’s accomplishments promoted like a rap music video.
We must, as a community, applaud and uphold this young man. We must cheer for him as if he averages 40 points a game. We should converse about his achievements as if he had released a platinum hip-hop album. He should get the same respect as every linebacker, point guard or hip-hop artist in America.
Corporate America will not blow Stephen’s trumpet, but I will. I also want all the other Stephen Staffords to make themselves seen. There are hundreds of thousands of Stephen Staffords out there who’ve been convinced by a culture of thuggery that they should do their best to hide their greatness. Rather than acing math class, they’ve been taught to measure grams and kilos or to memorize football playbooks that are 100pages thick. Our young men can analyze the triangle offense in basketball and break down a nickel defense, but then become mentally deficient when it comes to doing algebra, science and social studies. The time for mediocrity is over, since education is the key to making your dreams come true. Sports only creates more nightmares.
By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 13th 2010 7:45PM
5 comments:
When sports hit the TV screen and became every inner city kids' dream of becoming rich, that's when I realized that sports was no longer a character-building effort. I watched too many kids hang all their dreams on making it big in sports--and watched them go to the streets to make money they only way they knew how.
Wow!!! If I was sitting in class with this kid, I would have some serious self-esteem issues! I love reading stories like this. Thanks for posting it!
I too love to read stories like this. Stephen has amazing abilities and its sound like he is headed in the right direction to put his talents to good use. It sounds like Stephen was born with a special gift that gives him a leg up academically but other young people can study pre-med, math, and computer science just like Stephen, BUT . . . they must put in the time and effort to get there.
I think in the U.S. people want all the good things without putting forth the effort. The glorification of superstars and athletes make young people think it all comes easily. There are very few Stephens out there. Most students, to be successful, have to put in the time, particularly in math and science. There is no substitute for working math problem after math problem in order to improve proficiency. No teacher or school is so magical as to develop a formula for learning that does not involve a dedicated amount of effort and hard work on the part of the student and that seems to be what is absent in so many of these blog discussions about what is wrong with education.
Hard to beat a positive parent talking and a child listening! Bravo to Stephen and his family!
Yes, the thing that jumped out at me was that he was home schooled and set free to learn more when a loving teacher (his mother)saw indicators that he was capable of so much more.
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