The Burning House: Educating Black Boys in Modern American
Desmond Williams @Nylinka

Book Summary

Picture
The house is ablaze! What are we going to do? This is the question posed by award-winning educator and former principal, Desmond Williams. His first book, The Burning House: Educating Black Boys in Modern America is a manifesto on the issues confronting Black boys in today's schools. Speaking from the perspective of a teacher, principal, parent, and concerned citizen, Williams confronts issues on Black boys with a fresh perspective. He tackles disengagement, anti-intellectualism, the relevance gap, the school-to-prison pipeline, relationship building, special education referrals and whiteness as individual houses on fire within a house. Williams offers a divergent framework for viewing these problems and provides workable solutions to extinguish the flames. Armed with data and expert experience, Williams's work is shifting the paradigm on how to best educate boys of color for the 21st century. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s post-civil rights thinking, Williams challenges readers to evaluate the educational gains of African American males. Williams references a myriad of scholars including, Henry Giroux, Lisa Delpit, Dr. Janice Hale, Dr. Amos Wilson, Dr. Robert L. Williams, Dr. Cheryl Matias and many others. If teachers want to firefight for Black boys, this book is a must read.

Desmond Williams

Picture@Nylinka
Desmond Williams is a career teacher, principal, author and thought leader. The only things he wanted to do growing up were design Transformers and be a sitcom writer. After having many teachers tell him those dreams were stupid, he decided he wanted to teach because he knew children deserved better. He has spent his entire professional career serving as a special educator, classroom teacher, assistant principal and principal.
​
He received his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Howard University in Washington, DC, and later received his master’s degree in Education and Human Development from George Washington University. He started his teaching career in DCPS as a special educator. He subsequently moved and became a special education coordinator because of his business acumen and understanding of children with special needs. Soon afterwards, Mr. Williams, worked in Central office for DC Public Schools in the Office of Special Education.