What causes children of color to behave the way that they do? What has more of an influence on the way that a child behaves, the way that they were raised or the surroundings that they grew up in? Some people believe that the environment that we grew up has no effect on the way that we behave and act. However, I would have to completely disagree. I believe that it is our surrounding environment, not the way that we are raised, that has more of a control of the way that we behave. Throughout this essay, the readers would become more informed in the reasoning of why I believe that children of color surroundings has a lasting effect upon their life through several reliable articles and videos.

First, it is very important to note the alternative viewpoints compared to my very own viewpoint. The main alternative viewpoint could best be summed up by stating that a child of color’s behavior does not reflect their surroundings. In fact, people who stand with this viewpoint may even say that the child can overcome their surroundings. For example in the book that Paul Tough wrote (How Children Succeed), he gives the reader an example of a young African American teenager who was raised in the Southside of Chicago who “overcame” her surroundings to be accepted to a prestigious college. He used this example to provide support towards his claim that children of color’s behavior does not dictate the way that they behave. This example that Tough used was also reused again by a lady named Annie Murphy Paul when she wrote an article in the New York times named, “School of Hard Knocks.” 

In the article “School of Hard Knocks,” Annie Murphy Paul attempts to spread the belief that a child’s behavior has nothing to do with their surrounds. Thus in order to fulfill this objective she used Paul Tough’s book as her key background support. However, both the original book and the article has multiple setbacks that halt the effectiveness of both sources. For starters, the example that was used was only one girl’s personal experience. In fact, reflecting upon the example Paul Tough shared has absolutely no mention of her behavior. He only explained how she overcame her surroundings to be accepted in a prestigious college. Even though she was accepted into a prestigious college it does not mean that her attitude is perfect. It is still very possible that she still has a bad attitude. Also, in the article written by Annie Murphy Paul, the article was very opinionated and published in the New York Times. Thus, with this article being a popular press article it essentially depletes most credibility that is meant to be expected in that article. With these reasons, the alternative opinions that was developed in these two sources are overruled, thus has no further meaning other than to express someone’s opinion.

On the contrary, through several thorough hours of research, I have developed a claim that is completely supported with reliable sources. The first article I found was an article written by teachers from the University of Oviedo. In this article several teachers provided their perspective of why children act up in school. This article was more so conducted like a survey analysis of what teachers think should be done about children being disruptive in class, how they should be dealt with, and what are the causes of their behaviors. Overall this article proves that teachers are seeing behaviors in some kids that are not acceptable and they are demanding institutional support for improvements. The sample indicates that a cause to this outburst of behavioral issues can be due to the fact that rules are too loose and is not enforced strongly enough. This article more specifically applies to members of the school board and parents. The article itself is not specifically bias toward anything, only providing feedback of several surveys and testimonies. However, what is a key aspect that can be taken from this article is that teachers believe that one main cause to why children behave poorly in class is due to their surroundings. They honestly believe that the way to improve the behavior in the classroom would be to improve not only the children’s visual surroundings, but their social surroundings as well.

This ideal of improving social surroundings is further explored in the second article I would like to introduce to you. In the second article that I found named “Parental Involvement in the Criminal Justice System,” it explains how the ideal of having a criminal mindset can run in the family. In fact, the article assures us that criminal activities tends to run through a family. The article also directs us to believing that a child of an incarcerated parent leads to other social and mental problems in that child. These claims are supported throughout research and experiments that the author produced. While parents are incarcerated, it is shown that social backgrounds are taken away from those parents. Thus, they have lost the opportunity to raise their child the proper way and to be a positive role model and set their child upon the right path in life. Also, this issue can cause emotional and social issues for the family as a whole. For example, children could be labeled (or teased) and may not be able to receive all of the financial needs that are essential to raising a healthy positive child. This article proves to be credible because it was a peer reviewed article that I found in the EBSCO catalog provided by the University of South Carolina and also because the authors provided paperwork that included statistics within the article. I am using this article as further support towards to ideal that a child’s surroundings does indeed have an effect on the way a child behaves.

Now that we have explored the meaning of social surroundings, we will need to explain the visual surroundings. To do so we can begin with another article that I found named “Children's Mental Health: Is Poverty the Diagnosis?" This article includes a compilation of multiple authors’ thoughts and opinions. The central claim that is to be derived from the authors in this article is that childhood familiarities is connected to their mental health. More specifically it presents the idea that children of color experience more adversity in the way they “misbehave.” The authors conduct experiments to determine that the main cause to this dilemma is due to where the children are raised. Thus meaning, in a more troubling area, the child is more prone to misbehave and act out. The article continues providing statistics and facts embedded into the article. This then directly correlates to me viewpoint by agreeing that the physical location of where a child is raised has a lot to do with how they tend to behave. For instance, a child raised in the South has a very much different dialect compared to children raised in the North. To further inquire that idea, even children from different cities for example, Charleston and Columbia, have extremely different vocal dialect and customs. When we apply this theory towards children’s behaviors and the way they were brought up, it is easily visible to understand the difference in children’s behavioral patterns. When this is taken in consideration with different children’s poverty levels, the results are drastic.

Poverty is yet another key factor in what makes children of color misbehave. Honestly, it can either ruin or make the child’s morality. For instance, in the article “Adverse Childhood Experiences,” the authors utilized their resources to state that a child’s mental health is a direct reflection of his/ her poverty level. As their major evidence they conducted an experiment on a young boy and wrote down the results of the experiment. The results they received that the boys low family income resulted in him often misbehaving. This action often follows many boys and girls of color. I say this because it is evident and visible throughout our media systems that the kids that usually find themselves in trouble for misbehaving are the same kids that have lower poverty levels than other peers. Also, it is evident that when a child sees a huge influx of finances suddenly the child would tend to misbehave as well. All in all, the amount of money a child’s family earns has a direct reflection upon their demeanor. 

In my last piece of evidence I would want to direct the attention towards a video that I saw on Ted Talks. In the video, a teacher whose name is Kandice Sumner speaks about the school system and how it is failing our children of today. In this video she explains how she grew up a little financially stabled than other peers in her neighborhood. Thus she was able to go to a better school across town, while her friends to the neighborhood school. It was not until she became a teacher that she say the actual difference between the two types of schools. She noticed that the school that she went to (which was predominantly Caucasian) had far better equipment and supplies than the school that she currently teaches at (which is predominantly people of color). She then directs her attention toward the school board to call for a change in the policies and to provide better equipment so that she can better equip and teach her students. I thought that this video was terrific in explaining the differences in the two schools. However, it was not until she started talking about how her students would misbehave that I knew that this video was very resourceful in this essay. She explains how she rarely never saw children misbehave when she went to school, however since becoming a teacher in a predominantly colored environment, the students misbehave terribly. This caught my attention because, it can be a connection of both the lack of supplies and the surroundings that the kids are growing up that causes this influx of misbehaviors. 

In conclusion, I have developed that the ideal of children of color tendencies to misbehave does indeed have a direct reflection upon their surroundings. In fact, I have saved the most important part until this conclusion. This is my testimony towards the issue. Personally, I am a Charleston native and was raised bad area after another. My surroundings has been nothing but negative in most cases. However, my grades never did reflect it. I was constantly making A’s without even trying, but that had little to do with my behavior in school. I often found myself getting into trouble weekly. In fact, I recall that in sixth grade I was in four fights, had ISS (In School Suspension) so many times that they had to give me OSS (Out of School Suspension), and never was able to eat with others during lunch time. I may have had good grades, but I was complete trouble always misbehaving. Now, looking back on it, I tend to believe that it was the environment I was surrounded in that caused me to act the way that I did.

With that being said, that thought influenced me to actually research why children of color tend to misbehave. Thus leading me in conducting this essay. Through rigorous research I believe that I was able to successfully support that belief of mine. With the help of these sources I have proved my belief that children of color’s behavior is a direct reflection of the surroundings and environment.
