Kenya Brown’s Summer of Opportunity: Where Schools, STEM Learning, and Health Inequalities Meet

Kenya Brown’s Summer Time Blues By T. T. Telfair (author) and Scot Mmobuosi (illustrator)

Fayetteville, GA: Jane Stirling Publishing; 2018 $12.95 ISBN-10: 1732121109 ISBN-13: 978-1732121102

Yesterday I found the following message on my Twitter feed from @STEMconnector: “Girl Scouts announce new STEM badges, how to deal with math anxiety, a Summer of STEM camp at Tuskegee University, Dow joins WE are Innovators, & more . . .” As a science teacher for more than a decade in New York City’s high-need schools and a current epidemiologist, I am continually reminded of America’s intersecting challenges related to racial/ethnic and gender health inequalities, failing schools, and an inadequate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce.

Kenya Brown’s Summer Time Blues, a recent children’s book by T. T. Telfair (illustrations by Scot Mmobuosi), tells the story of a young Black student who embarks on a quest to avoid summer boredom. On another level, however, we (adults and public health professionals) can witness in Kenya’s story the fundamental ways that social factors and stigma, limited access to resources, and negative self-concept can pave the way to a dismal future for a little girl. Telfair, however, takes a different route, and we are given a story of pleasant optimism and, particularly for young minds, a source of inspiration.

HEALTH DISPARITIES AND STEM LEARNING IN GIRLS

We begin our journey with Kenya on her last day of first grade. She is portrayed as a bright and typically engaged student, although on this day she is feeling the need to cower among her nonminority peers as they volunteer to share their summer plans of beach houses, private art and ballet lessons, and exclusive summer camps. The illustrations show us that Kenya is the only Black child in her class, and she appears to be the only one struggling with poverty. Education and poverty are well-established social determinants of health¹ and are ground in institutional biases plaguing a nation and directed against people of color.² Telfair’s Kenya seems to face social stigma related to both race and poverty in her classroom.

Social discrimination, of course, sits directly on the hypothesized mechanistic pathway linking health inequalities with disparities in academic achievement among racial/ethnic minority youths.³ Beginning in preschool and extending beyond graduate education, social factors, school quality and policies, race-based stressors, and perceived discrimination among racial/ethnic minorities are linked to reduced cognitive functioning and academic performance, impaired health literacy, reduced participation in and opportunities for health-promoting behaviors. These factors, in turn, directly predict socioeconomic position and social status and, subsequently, reduced health overall.^1–3

Gender and racial/ethnic inequalities in educational attainment are particularly evident in the STEM fields. A large body of literature points to poor retention and low academic success in STEM programs among minority women and, consequently, the underrepresentation of minority women in STEM careers.⁴ Racial/ethnic and gender disparities in STEM educational attainment and career success are attributed in part to poor preparation, self-confidence, and self-efficacy related to STEM coursework as well as attitudes toward STEM careers. These challenges are also prominent among youths, particularly among minority girls.⁵ What, then, can be done to mitigate these trends?

KENYA’S STORY: AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL

In this children’s tale, summertime symbolizes for Kenya Brown endless days spent indoors in her family’s apartment, watching television and supporting her grandmother as she cares for Kenya’s younger siblings. Kenya’s mother works long hours outside the home as a nurse or health aide. On the last day of school, Kenya’s schoolteacher notices the child’s somber demeanor and takes her aside to learn more. Kenya’s teacher successfully convinces Kenya that she holds the power within herself to change her outlook on and experience of summer. With her teacher’s guidance and encouragement, Kenya is able to transform her perspective from dismay to excitement as she envisions the boundless opportunities summertime has to offer, should she choose to take advantage of them.

Kenya immediately shifts from jealousy of her classmates for their summer vacations, camps, and family escapades to empowerment with the prospect of planning her own summer of joy and fulfillment. From day one, Kenya is leading her siblings in activities and projects, such as building three-dimensional cities with paper, glue, and scissors; playing word games with a dictionary Kenya’s mother buys her on request so that she can become a word detective; planting seeds and conducting water-based science experiments; and practicing health-promoting (physical exercise, hand washing) activities.

Kenya logs all of these adventures in her daily journal, perhaps a less-than-subtle allusion to the empowering potential of photojournalism practices in youth education.⁶ Indeed, this teaching technique, also referred to as photovoice, is grounded in participatory action research education strategies to teach youths to collect evidence that uncovers their community’s lived experiences. This approach also engages youths in critical thinking with respect to strategies for change targeting enhanced health and wellness. Kenya’s mother, who takes on the role of a mentor and witness to Kenya’s progress, arrives home each evening surprised, proud, and supportive; correspondingly, Kenya and her siblings are filled with excitement, achievement, and anticipation of what is to come next.

Telfair’s book provides a wonderful, albeit creative, example of how to tackle health inequalities with a comprehensive social determinants approach. Reducing health disparities is a World Health Organization priority, and the global scientific community has rallied for translating research evidence into public health policy to address health gaps attributable to political, social, and economic factors.⁷ Strategies consistent with this approach aim to support people of all ages in self-advocating for the reduction of health disparities related to gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic position.

In regard specifically to the connection between education and health, the literature prescribes methods for promoting STEM success in minorities and women, such as fostering in girls positive self-efficacy and confidence in academic potential, a strong STEM self-identity, and pride and enthusiasm in the STEM fields, as well as parental involvement in and support for early exposure to STEM coursework and careers. Kenya, in this sense, provides a model for other at-risk youths to emulate. She is her own and her siblings’ advocate, playing an active role and being closely mentored at an opportune point of intervention^2,5; through this, she increases her academic self-concept, her resilience, and her eventual potential for health equity.

Telfair’s mission as an author reiterates the education-health disparities reduction theme. Telfair began writing children’s books seven years ago, after a three-decade career in public health, including almost 20 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Jane Stirling Publishing, her publishing company, is named after her maternal great, great grandmother, a free Black woman living in the Southeastern United States around the 1780s, and aims to increase the quality and variety of books available for children of color worldwide.

As a former schoolteacher and a mother of three children, I admit that when I first read this text I was somewhat skeptical. Kenya’s story seemed to me a fairy tale version, if not a far cry from what is reasonable to expect from most children who are entering the second grade. However, this extremely important narrative—a girl of color finding from within herself the power to make a positive shift in her experience, learning, and outlook and to effect positive change for her family through supportive mentorship—should be shared with children and adults. I appreciated reading Kenya Brown’s Summer Time Blues, and I applaud Telfair for making a concerted effort to promote academic self-efficacy in youths. Children’s literature is one important mechanism by which we can initiate in young individuals the attitude that they have immense potential for success, that they hold the power to inform a life of achievement, and that we as the adults (parents, teachers, and role models) in their lives can play a vital role in encouraging and mentoring that achievement. All children and adults can benefit from this messaging.