Nairobi Method : Literacy, Language, and Culture

There is a crisis in the education of African Americans. Forty three percent of Black fourth graders and sixty percent of Black high school students read below level. In the past thirty-eight years, the Nairobi (CA) Method has offered a solution to this problem by focusing on high levels of literacy in a culturally appropriate atmosphere. This literacy program, effective in both public and private schools, and used in Grades PreK-14, needs to be examined, because the statistics on illiteracy and miseducation have caused many to believe that there's a genetic or cultural problem in Black educational communities. The Nairobi (CA) Method is a fast-paced, multifaceted curriculum/methodology for teaching reading, writing and speaking to African American students. It emphasizes multiple approaches to developing fluency in reading, writing, spelling and speaking, including affirmations, oratory, and literature. The Nairobi Method was initiated when the Nairobi Day School was founded-thirty eight years ago in East Palo Alto, CA, a low-income community of African Americans, Latinos, South Sea Islanders, and other people of color. The Nairobi Day School (1966-84), originally a Saturday school, was established by people who refused to accept the fact that their children were scoring at the bottom of state-mandated reading exams. The Method continued to evolve in a number of locations, including Nairobi College (1969-84), founded after a student rebellion forced students to leave the College of San Mateo, a community college near E. Palo Alto.Hoover, Mary Modupe Rhodes is the author of 'Nairobi Method : Literacy, Language, and Culture' with ISBN 9781592213337 and ISBN 1592213332.