Gary Bracey
MLS
MA, US
Eleven years ago Gary A. Bracey and Ayele Shakur first walked into a classroom full of students labeled most likely to fail and repeat the grade. We affectionately called them the bottom dwellers and believed we could, as the principal said, "make a difference in one of these kids' lives." We launched the BIFF (Building Inspiration from Failure) Program in 1999 and have since helped over 1,000 Boston students to succeed in school and in life when nothing else seemed to work.
Gary A. Bracey and Ayele Shakur are authors of the book Stop Flunking! A Guide for Parents - How to Motivate Your Child to Get A's in School and Boost School Performance - A Parents Guide to Better Grades Fast and have been trailblazers in the field of motivational learning for the past decade. Since 1995, they have run the Boston Learning Center which is a non-profit agency that provides tutoring to over 500 students a year in grades K-12. Together they co-created an innovative program called The BIFF Paradigm Project: A Motivational Learning Skills Program, which uses high-energy motivational methods and the latest accelerated learning techniques to motivate failing students to honor roll success. Since 1999, Gary and Ayele have taught the BIFF (Building Inspiration From Failure) Program to over 1,000 students in the Boston area. Gary, a native of Queens, New York and a successful entrepreneur, brings the "street smart" motivational aspects to the program while Ayele, a native of Boston, who is a Harvard-trained educator with over eleven years of classroom teaching experience, brings the "school smart" aspects to the program. Together, they are redefining what it means to be "cool in school" for kids all across America.
One of my favorite questions to ask the audience at our Smart is Cool workshops is this, "If you knew then (when you were a teenage student) what you know now (a working adult) would have done a better job in school?" Almost every hand in the room goes up. How do we, as parents, as teachers, and as a concerned community change the answer to this question for now as well as future generations, because the current trend is heading in the wrong direction? This generation has more students failing and dropping out than in previous generations.
We found the answer to how we can motivate our young people to do their best in school by taking the advise of a mother truly worthy of imitation. Dr. Martin Luther King's mother told my farther, when he asked her, "How did you get M L to get good grades in school?" Her response to my farther was automatic and as matter of fact tone. She said, "Ooooh, that was easy, if he came home with an "A", I would give him a quarter, if he came home with a "B" I would give him a dime, he liked the money so he always brought home good grades."
This is the basis of theory of our cash incentive program. The amount may have changed with the times but the percentages have stayed the same and the results are as encouraging for us as they were for Dr. Martin Luther King's mother. Cash incentive, although not for everyone, do work extremely well for many. In our program The BIFF Paradigm Project - A Motivational Learning Skills Program we have moved 80% of the alumni from failure to passing everything and 25% go from failure to honor roll. We have proven with ten years of research that students can become motivated and with this new type of motivation it has been proven to be sustainable and perpetual in many students creating life long learners that do their best in school and in life.
Today BIFF is the only program or model of student motivation that could compete and reverse the dominance the world has proven over us in recent years in education. Failure of public education has caused vulnerability in national security, void in our military and is referred to as the civil rights issue of our day. To increase high school graduation, reduce the drop-out rate, reduce college drop-out rates and increase college enrollment. BIFF is the only program that can consistently deliver America's promise. Its founder and chief motivator is available to speak, demonstrate and inspire your students, parents, teachers, principals, administrators, school board, government officials or your child on why the more "A's" you get in school the better off you and the better off America will be for future generations.
Eleven years ago Gary A. Bracey and Ayele Shakur first walked into a classroom full of students labeled most likely to fail and repeat the grade. We affectionately called them the bottom dwellers and believed we could, as the principal said, "make a difference in one of these kids' lives." We launched the BIFF (Building Inspiration from Failure) Program in 1999 and have since helped over 1,000 Boston students to succeed in school and in life when nothing else seemed to work.
Gary A. Bracey and Ayele Shakur are authors of the book Stop Flunking! A Guide for Parents - How to Motivate Your Child to Get A's in School and Boost School Performance - A Parents Guide to Better Grades Fast and have been trailblazers in the field of motivational learning for the past decade. Since 1995, they have run the Boston Learning Center which is a non-profit agency that provides tutoring to over 500 students a year in grades K-12. Together they co-created an innovative program called The BIFF Paradigm Project: A Motivational Learning Skills Program, which uses high-energy motivational methods and the latest accelerated learning techniques to motivate failing students to honor roll success. Since 1999, Gary and Ayele have taught the BIFF (Building Inspiration From Failure) Program to over 1,000 students in the Boston area. Gary, a native of Queens, New York and a successful entrepreneur, brings the "street smart" motivational aspects to the program while Ayele, a native of Boston, who is a Harvard-trained educator with over eleven years of classroom teaching experience, brings the "school smart" aspects to the program. Together, they are redefining what it means to be "cool in school" for kids all across America.
One of my favorite questions to ask the audience at our Smart is Cool workshops is this, "If you knew then (when you were a teenage student) what you know now (a working adult) would have done a better job in school?" Almost every hand in the room goes up. How do we, as parents, as teachers, and as a concerned community change the answer to this question for now as well as future generations, because the current trend is heading in the wrong direction? This generation has more students failing and dropping out than in previous generations.
We found the answer to how we can motivate our young people to do their best in school by taking the advise of a mother truly worthy of imitation. Dr. Martin Luther King's mother told my farther, when he asked her, "How did you get M L to get good grades in school?" Her response to my farther was automatic and as matter of fact tone. She said, "Ooooh, that was easy, if he came home with an "A", I would give him a quarter, if he came home with a "B" I would give him a dime, he liked the money so he always brought home good grades."
This is the basis of theory of our cash incentive program. The amount may have changed with the times but the percentages have stayed the same and the results are as encouraging for us as they were for Dr. Martin Luther King's mother. Cash incentive, although not for everyone, do work extremely well for many. In our program The BIFF Paradigm Project - A Motivational Learning Skills Program we have moved 80% of the alumni from failure to passing everything and 25% go from failure to honor roll. We have proven with ten years of research that students can become motivated and with this new type of motivation it has been proven to be sustainable and perpetual in many students creating life long learners that do their best in school and in life.
Today BIFF is the only program or model of student motivation that could compete and reverse the dominance the world has proven over us in recent years in education. Failure of public education has caused vulnerability in national security, void in our military and is referred to as the civil rights issue of our day. To increase high school graduation, reduce the drop-out rate, reduce college drop-out rates and increase college enrollment. BIFF is the only program that can consistently deliver America's promise. Its founder and chief motivator is available to speak, demonstrate and inspire your students, parents, teachers, principals, administrators, school board, government officials or your child on why the more "A's" you get in school the better off you and the better off America will be for future generations.
