How to raise a successful Black child.

Preparing the next generation to compete is the ultimate form of economic empowerment, Here's what we can do to help our children reach--and exceed--their potential.

ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING facets of American history has been the willingness of African Americans to struggle for a future that they themselves would never experience and had no reason to believe would ever be realized. America's slaves struggled and endured so that their children would one day know freedom. Once free, illiterate African Americans who would never cast a vote fought for their Children's full citizenship, which meant equal access to education, public facilities and the ballot box.

The civil rights crusade for equal opportunity was carried forward by domestics and postal workers who prepared their children to become judges, surgeons, executives and political officeholders, despite the fact that most universities, corporations and public offices were for whites only, as a matter of policy and even law.

African Americans have always known that freedom, equality and opportunity were the prerequisites to full and productive participation in American society. We have also accepted that, while we have made grudging progress, we are not likely to realize that empowerment for ourselves.

So, our children are the vessels of our hopes, as we were for our ancestors. Even in the face of pronouncements that our children are doomed to failure, the black community battles forward against despair, never losing faith that a Reginald F. Lewis, Ida B. Wells, H. Naylor Fitzhugh or Mary McCleod Bethune has been born in Harlem, Birmingham, Houston or South Central Los Angeles.

Yet, the task of raising successful children seems as formidable as ever. Nearly 70% of the respondents to our 25th Anniversary reader survey (see "Having Your Say," this issue) believe that public school teachers have failed to provide quality education and learning skills to black children. And more than half believe that public schools have gotten worse for black children during the past five years. Meanwhile, a conservative movement, marked by thinly veiled racism, threatens to close the window to educational and employment opportunities cracked open by affirmative action. For these and other reasons, including rapidly changing social mores and near-omnipresent violence, the situation often seems far bleaker for our children than it was for us when we were their age.

But the fact is, our parents faced worse to get us where we are. In turn, we must face today's problems in order to position our kids for possibilities we may not even imagine. Here's a sample of what's being done--and what you can do--to help our children reach their potential as full participants in the American economy.

MISSIONS OF MENTORSHIP

Ask the average kid what they want to be when they grow up, and they'll tell you, "I don't know." This isn't alarming; most children have a tough time envisioning themselves as anything other than who they are today.

But for too many African American children, the problem is not an inability to choose but an ignorance of the choices. Adults, and particularly black entrepreneurs and professionals, must take responsibility for exposing our youngsters to career options. After all, you're not likely to prepare for a career that you don't know exists.

Fortunately, efforts such as Take Our Daughters To Work Day, a national campaign of the Ms. Foundation held on the fourth Thursday in April, have served the need to expose young people to career options. However, many African Americans are concerned that Take Our Daughters To Work Day does not meet the needs of the black community.

Many African American children, boys as well as girls, are underexposed to career options. Now, many black organizations and black-owned companies have modified the Ms. Foundation's idea to include young black males. For the past two years, the New York Association of Black journalists has conducted a concurrent program called Brothers Back To School in cooperation with some of New York's public schools. On the same day that most of the girls are out at businesses in and around New York, black men of a variety of professions are recruited to speak about their career experiences to the boys back in the classrooms. "Brothers Back To School was rewarding for the students as well as the men who visited the schools," says Sherie Holder, assistant editor at Sports Illustrated For Kids and coordinator of the program for the past two years. "Several of the men have stayed in touch with some of the boys, and a couple have established mentoring relationships."

NURTURING THEIR ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Exposing young African Americans to the option of business ownership is now a priority. Emmanuel Modu, director of the Center for Teen Entrepreneurs (CTE), is one of the leaders in the growing youth entrepreneurial education--kidpreneurship--movement. "I don't expect all black kids to become entrepreneurs," says Modu, author of The Lemonade Stand: A Guide To Encouraging The Entrepreneur In Your Child (800-438-TEEN). "I just want to plant the seed in their minds that business ownership is a viable option; that they can be employers as well as employees."

Earlier this year, Modu left his job as a senior treasury analyst for Merrill Lynch to launch Newark, N.J.-based Gateway Publishers, which publishes business and personal finance books. Modu will also conduct the second summer Teen Business Camp (August 6-19) at the campuses of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University in Newark.

Campers will learn about finance, marketing, stocks and bonds, job-seeking skills, business plans and much more. Last year about 20 teens managed a $2,000 stock portfolio and launched their own gift basket business with help from Palate Pleasure, a gourmet restaurant and gift basket business in Newark.

Programs like these do a lot of good, but they're not a substitute for a personal commitment to mentor young people. Here are just a few ways each of us can help fulfill our mentorship mission.

* Arrange for tours of nearby businesses for pupils at a local school.

* Recruit at least one college student for an internship at your company.

* Let a young person "shadow" you as you go through your workday

* Sponsor student memberships at your professional association.

* Organize tours of colleges for children in your neighborhood.

* Join or organize a mentorship program for a school in your neighborhood.

Exposure to job options can make the vital connection between the need for reading, writing, interpersonal and computing skills, and the one incentive to succeed that even kids can relate to: the profit motive. Illiterate slaves once risked their lives so their children could learn to read and write; later, Freedom Schools were launched in the South to prepare a generation for full citizenship. In the same way, today's black professionals must teach young people how to earn, manage and generate wealth, to help create a better future for all African Americans.