Revolutionary. Relevant. Resilient.

We all, as Black parents, have felt defeated for more than 20 years and when the pandemic became a magnifying glass to what Dr. Bradford witnessed in classrooms over the last two decades. Children were not taught how to break down the code of words and then make meaning of the words in sentences, stories, social studies projects and written assignments. From urban cities to suburban communities and rural towns across the United States. Whether it be California, Texas, Utah, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina or Maryland, a large percentage black children can not read. 

Additionally, we as black parents, who have limited funds to pay for tutoring outside of school, rely on white school teachers to be the main source of growing our children’s vocabulary and nurturing their ability to apply meaning to these words in context. The honest reality is, these teachers long stopped home visits and have not heard the cultural spoken language that seeps through the walls of our homes, at our kitchen tables or basement hangouts. They do not attend our cookouts, attend our community events and oftentimes misunderstand the universal “code” language that WE instantly "get" but, we know in the past is has been called "Ebonics" has not been rightfully acknowledge as African American English. 

African American English (AAE) falls within the same category as Spanish and even our sister languages in the African diaspora. We learn to speak our language a few years before entering school when how we speak at home does not look nor sound completely like what the teacher is saying in the classroom. The language that is used within the U.S. classrooms is General or Standard American English (GAE/SAE). This is the universally recognized language that our black children take standardized tests and are judged against by their nonblack classmates. This is the universally recognized language that is used to test our black children into behavior programs and IEPs. 

Our black children are not taught that they go to school and use a language that has approximately 14 less speech sounds than their nonblack classmates. Yet, most of the teacher force has only begun to embrace this scientific research since 2021. 

Our black children are not taught they use approximately 21 alternate versions of the verb “to be” at home, with friends and family that are not accepted in academic settings. 

Our black children have no clue that they will struggle to write stories and papers in proper formats and structures because they write in the same language that they speak that will be “bleeding” with red ink with lots of embarrassing comments and corrections because they did not “codeswitch” into General or Standard American English (GAE/SAE).

Our black children know what it feels like to be rejected and humiliated when it is their turn to read and write in the shared space with nonblack classmates. 

Our public education system and its partners have failed to meet the needs until we were all at home learning in "squares" and watched the teachers who could not breakdown the 'code’ of words, failed to explain the why behind the spelling of different words and could not offer activities that would begin to close the gap fast enough to decrease children repeating the same grade again, increase high school graduation or successfully support our youth in applying these reading and writing skills to life as an adult. 

What the Latest Research Says. . .

The latest research states that one-third of fourth graders—1.3 million children in the U.S.—cannot read at a basic level. In fact, if these fourth graders are not reading on grade level by the time they go on to 5th grade, they are four times as likely to drop out of school, earn low paychecks, have difficulty maintaining or keeping a job or commit a crime. It does not get better for black students. If they have a learning difference, live in food deserts and have limited access to community supports, being successful in school and in life becomes a mere dream and not reality. 

BUT THERE IS GOOD NEWS!!!! 

There is help for African American and African families! Dr. Bradford has taken her 23 years of classroom teaching using African American English and General American English, observing and coaching diverse teachers in all grades, planning and starting reading projects at the school, district and state levels to help all of our children read. 40,000+ hours of teaching, coaching and supporting children and families with twice as many words learned and read per progress check over a 60 day period!!!

Gardening Greatness is a EdTech firm that provides software-as-a-service (SaaS) to African American parents, families, community organizations and HBCUs, in the form of lessons, activities and services. While the elevated focus is on the 8 subskills of reading, based on Science of Reading (SoR) principles; additional supports for social-emotional (behavior) skills, counseling and services for children with IEPs (special needs) are being offered.

We want parents and families to embrace that we have a part to play at home by reinforcing what students learn in-school with their classroom teachers.

Gardening Greatness has developed its patent-pending teaching support for parents and families called Parent-led Organized Teaching. Parent-led Organized Teaching, or P.L.O.T ™ , is our approach to providing concrete, bite-sized, sequential learning at home. The content of our lessons focus on the most critical areas of need for children and the methodology provides a replicable structure for parents to follow. PLOT lessons may be used at home, as a supplement to traditional schooling, or parents who home-school their children may use the lessons as a component of a specific content area. 

Our flagship course, Seeds for Reading Series is grounded in the following:

a) Teaching sounds before words

b) Changing sounds within words in a predetermined order to create new words;

c) Multiple checks for growth (CFG)

Get Started by selecting the right option for you and your child(ren).

“Confidence makes you unstoppable, knowledge gives you power and kindness brings you community.”