160 pages
234mm x 156mm
July 2009

This positive and empowering book looks far beyond the notion that institutional racism is responsible for low attainment at school. Instead it explores the complexities surrounding masculinities and argues that Black boys, like all young males, share instincts of sex and violence and that these instincts need to be transformed into a positive force. The book shows the ways in which this can be done - by providing boys with a framework of love, ritual and schooling.

Generating Genius is Tony Sewell's triumphantly successful project, which he and boys who attended describe here. Black boys in England spent their summers at Imperial College in London, and Jamaican boys attended summer schools at University of the West Indies. The project was underpinned by new research from schools in Jamaica and - uniquely - in Samoa where boys are failing too. Dr Sewell relates how the concerted and consistent interventions made in the sample schools have turned around the lives of their pupils. And he shows how these approaches inform the Generating Genius project.

One strategy is intellectual rigour - the 12 year-olds in the project worked at a level demanded of 18 year-olds. Another is that such rigorous demands are accompanied by caring and reliable support and exciting physical and cultural pursuits.

Ultimately, the project is about teaching Black boys how to succeed in a system that seems to work against them. Sewell doesn't quite let teachers off the hook, nor does he deny the reality of racism and its impact on boys' lives. What makes this book indispensable for all who work or are preparing to work in education is the key strategies he outlines for schools and teachers to cultivate the genius within their students and help Black boys to grow a skin not of resistance but of resilience.