Too Busy to Learn: A "Competing Behaviors" Explanation of Cross-Cultural Differences in Academic Ascendancy Based on the Cultural Distance Hypothesis

Many explanations have been made about the differential secondary school drop-out rates, college attendance levels, and over-all academic performance discrepancies of Black and White students. This article presents a model to describe the difference between the two groups in academic ascendancy based on the Cultural-Distance Hypothesis formulated by Grubb (1983). Basically the poorer Black performance in the formal educational system can be blamed on the need for African American (and especially poor) children to learn a group of functional behaviors related to community survival but unrelated to academic advancement. Euro-American children are spared these responsibilities and their mastery until later in life, usually post high school or college. Blacks and other groups described as "deprived" are therefore seen as having to learn a great many "adult" behaviors at an earlier age than do their White or "privileged" counterparts. This competition for their learning potential during the formative school years can be seen as the cause for lower school performance and higher dropout rates.