According to Gordon and Bridglall, the ability to learn is more of a developed human capacity than a fixed aptitude with which one is born. They argue that the emergence of academic ability is associated with exposure to specialized cultures that privilege the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that schools reward. Children who are born to and raised in these cultures tend to do well in school, while those who are not exposed to such cultures tend seldom rise to high levels of academic achievement. Through a collection of interesting essays, Affirmative Development: Cultivating Academic Ability attempts to address how we can deliberately develop academic ability in those children who are not raised under conditions that predispose them to develop high levels of academic ability.
About the Author: Edmund W. Gordon is the Richard March Hoe Professor of Psychology and Education, Emeritus and Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Yale University; and the Senior Scholar in Residence at The College Board. He has authored or edited over 15 books and monographs, including Compensatory Education: Preschool through College, which continues to be regarded as the classic work in its field. Edmund W. Gordon is one of the conceptual leaders of several of the major developments in public education, viz. Head Start, compensatory education, career education, school desegregation, alternatives in educational assessment, and supplementary education. Beatrice L. Bridglall is currently Research Scientist & Editor in the National Center for Children & Families at Teacher's College, Columbia University and Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Behavior Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. Bridglall is conducting several programs of research, including one directed at investigating the correlates of minority high academic achievement. An emerging area of interest is early childhood education, particularly the role of parental practices/investment in mediating academic achievement. Dr. Bridglall has recently published a co-edited book, Supplementary Education: The hidden curriculum of high academic achievement (Rowman & Littlefield 2005).