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Children
The following article originally appeared in Salt of the Earth. It is posted here for private use only. It may not be reprinted in whole or in part without the permission of Salt of the Earth magazine.
High-yield bonds:
How to keep kids invested in school
Carol Kotlarczyk
IN A STOREFRONT LOCATED IN A HISPANIC neighborhood on the northwest side of Chicago, the East Village Youth Program is in after-school swing.
High-school students dawdle in, books under arms. There's a friendly, unfocused atmosphere as students pick up an orange at the front of the bright storefront office. English and creative-writing tutor Bob Boone lounges on a chair in the midst of three long brown tables, chatting with the students as they snack.
Two green chalkboards are blank now, filmed with chalk dust. For an hour the students will work on their schoolwork or just relax. Some are hunched over their books already, the sound of crinkling pages punctuating the quiet conversations. Later Boone will conduct an hour-long language-arts class.
One student is high-school sophomore Rosario Garc¡a, who smiles broadly when asked about a writing project completed for school and proudly shows off an A on a paper about her family and its Mexican heritage. Tutor Boone had helped Garc¡a with editing, suggesting that she add more details about the people in her story.
Garc¡a comes for tutoring once a week. She explains that she was lucky to get into the program. Her test scores were not that high, she says, because she attended bilingual classes in elementary school and missed a lot that was going on in the regular classroom. Her teachers noticed her ability anyway and recommended her for the East Village Youth Program.
After-school specials
MASTERING SCHOOLWORK THROUGH TUTORING is the main thrust of the East Village Youth Program. It is a program begun by Jess Levine, a Chicago jewelry consultant, to help students with academic ability from the Hans Christian Andersen Elementary School get to college.
The East Village Youth Program is an example of the many programs—based in schools or in communities—that help kids overcome difficulties or find the keys they need to succeed, both in school and in facing the challenges of growing up.
The Youth Program evolved after Levine "adopted" the Andersen school eight years ago as part of a Chicago Board of Education program to provide support for the public schools. He became a sponsor of the school where, he says, 100 percent of the students live at the poverty level and only 13 percent are performing at grade level.
Levine financed after-school activities and field trips, paid for incentive programs—such as certificates and award stickers—for teachers to use to motivate their students, and provided funds for each classroom teacher to use in beautifying his or her classroom.
As he became more involved with the school and its students, Levine found, "There are so many wonderful kids out there who, with a little assistance, could really make significant contributions."
He set up the East Village Youth Program in 1988 to provide educational support for children who had the potential to one day go to college.
WHILE TUTORING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT facet of the program, those in the youth program also get involved in a range of enrichment activities, available at various age levels, including visits to museums, movies, and college campuses, as well as an annual ski trip and White Sox ballgame. Eighth-grade graduates can look forward to a summer-camp program.
The children in the program are all students or graduates of Hans Christian Andersen Elementary School. They were selected at the sixth-grade level by their teachers, on the basis of grades, test scores, and other recommendations.
From the day they join the program until they graduate from high school, students are required to attend weekly tutoring sessions. Around 80 Andersen students or graduates now in high school are part of the program.
The goal of the East Village Youth Program is to provide all the educational, financial, and emotional support possible to help kids from Andersen with academic potential get into college. The culmination of the program for those students who have attended weekly tutoring and other program activities is an annual $1500 college scholarship.
Eight students from the East Village Youth Program have made it all the way through and are now freshmen or sophomores in college. One is Fabian Perez, a freshman at Roosevelt University in Chicago.
Perez says, "From a long time ago, I wanted to go to school. I come from a low-income family. I didn't think I'd be able to [go to college] because of the money."
Perez feels that the East Village Youth Program is a kind of family. He remembers, "There was a point when I was going to drop out of [the program] because I had to work. But Mr. Levine called me at home and told me that things could be worked out. They look out for you. They get real concerned about you. They want to make sure that you do fine."
LEVINE FINANCES THE PROGRAM THROUGH his own private family funds as well as through the contributions of foundations, organizations, and individuals. He says of his reasons for setting up such a program, "I attended Chicago public schools for about seven years. I have very strong feelings about Chicago. I feel fortunate I'm in a position to give something back."
The East Village Youth Program is a program that gives kids the extra boost that will help them succeed. Many programs in schools and communities provide kids with that something extra to help them achieve their goals or deal with the issues of growing up. Mentorship, tutoring, support from peers, and parental involvement are all important ways to help kids feel special and feel a sense of belonging and purpose as they grow up and find their place in the world.
Mentors model success
HEROES ARE IMPORTANT TO CHILDREN. Looking up to someone else and thinking "I want to be like that person" can help shape a child's self-concept and goals. Mentorship programs provide adult role models who help kids learn more about who they are and what they can be.
One especially good mentorship program is Black Achievers, a national YMCA program begun in Harlem in 1971 and now running in some 50 communities across the United States. In Louisville, Kentucky, the Chestnut Street YMCA Black Achievers program has grown from serving 450 participants in 1987 to 1,100 currently.
Adult Black Achievers are individuals from middle- or upper-management positions who have been nominated by local corporate executives. The YMCA honors these employees with a dinner. They are then invited to become leaders of middle- and high-school-aged African American students from the community.
Black Achievers who become youth leaders design a program of activities, field trips, and talks for a cluster group of 50 to 100 kids who are interested in their professional field.
MORE THAN JUST TALKING goes on at these youth meetings. Hands-on learning is important. Beverly Brown, director of the Louisville program, says that one engineering cluster built a computer. A business cluster started its own temporary travel agency and traveled to Atlanta to visit African American businesses there. One law-and-government cluster divided into Democrats and Republicans and staged a mock debate, not for broadcast, at a local TV studio, and a communications cluster "covered" the debate.
One of the best aspects of the program, according to Brown, is that the parents are very involved in the program in fund-raising and as chaperones for the activities.
Natalie White, a bank branch manager in Louisville, is an adult achiever who teaches a business cluster at the Y. The experience is especially meaningful to her because she was once one of the children who listened to others tell about their professions. Her mother had heard about the program and encouraged her to join.
"I was very fortunate to have a mother that kind of pushed me in that direction, and I'm very glad that she did because it's been rewarding for me on both ends—not only being a youth going into it but also coming back as an adult achiever and bringing back what I've learned to the kids. It's been great."
AS A YOUNG PERSON, White stayed with the program for four years.
"It opened a lot of opportunities for me. It allowed me to see adults in roles I traditionally would not have seen them in—as professionals. It let me know that there are things that I can do. It let me know that I could be successful in anything that I tried."
White also received a scholarship for college through Black Achievers.
The program can give kids more than information on professions. It can provide a sense of belonging. White says that the students in the program "know we're there not because we have to be but because we want to be . . . and they're there because they want to be. It just creates a bond. It makes them feel special."
Positive peer pressure
KIDS HELPING KIDS IS ANOTHER STRATEGY that works. Many teachers use peer tutoring in their classrooms, where students who understand the subject matter help and instruct classmates who "don't get it."
Peers can provide more than academic support for each other. They can provide wisdom and advice. The influence of peers grows through high school. That can be a negative influence, such as a gang membership, or a positive experience, such as a connection with an older, more experienced student.
One peer program that helps kids succeed in school is the Peer Outreach Service Team. Administered through the schools in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the program affects nearly 1,000 kids who participate either as peer helpers or as peer receivers.
There are 12 peer programs in the Fort Lee Schools. One program is called Smooth Transitions. Its goal is to help freshmen get off on the right foot in high school.
Eighth-grade teachers and counselors recommend students for the program who might be unsure of themselves or easily swayed by negative peer pressure. If the students wish to participate and their parents agree, the incoming eighth-graders are paired with peer helpers. These helpers are older high-school students, recommended by staff and trained in peer leadership.
IN SMOOTH TRANSITIONS, THE HELPER and his or her eighth-grade partner meet in May. They participate in group activities and have one-on-one talks to "allay some of the anxiety of coming into high school," says Smooth Transitions advisor Adele Garber from Fort Lee High School.
Helpers call their partners before school starts and during the first six to eight weeks of school. The partners meet once a week to talk about such things as how to get involved in school, find friendships, change one's reputation, find support, and feel a part of the school.
Another area of peer leadership is in the special-education field. An example of a peer activity used with special-ed students is a "values auction." It is conducted by older peers who are themselves special-education students.
The younger children suggest personal qualities that are important to them, such as love, friendship, and trust. Peer helpers write these on the chalkboard. They then distribute play money and the kids bid, either individually or by pooling resources with other children, on qualities they would like to "purchase."
At the end of the auction, the kids see which qualities are most highly and universally valued and work on strategies to develop these qualities in themselves and in their friendships and relationships with others.
Conflicting advice
CONFLICTS ARE PART OF LIFE. Learning how to deal with them without coming to blows can provide feelings of success and competence in dealing with other people. Learning to look at problems from another person's point of view as well as one's own is an important part of growing up, understanding oneself and others better, and learning to be a responsible person.
In a program called Peer Mediation, kids learn how to resolve disputes among themselves. Bassick High School in Bridgeport, Connecticut is one school that uses the program.
Peer mediation is called for when two kids have a fight or dispute. A teacher, counselor, or even another student might suggest that the kids talk to a peer mediator.
THE IDEA BEHIND THE PROGRAM is that "kids understand each other better than teachers do," says Ann Schwartz of the Dispute Settlement Center of Durham, North Carolina, where the curriculum for the Bassick program originates.
The peer mediator sits privately with kids who are having a dispute and lets them talk out their differences. No adults are in the room. Among other things, mediators are trained to listen, question, probe, paraphrase back, and to not show partiality.
When those in dispute reach an agreement, a contract is signed by both parties.
"It's a win-win concept. It's no longer like a football game where somebody wins and somebody loses. It's a totally different attitude," says Joyce Diaz-Hennessey, a social worker at Bassick. "They might agree never to speak to each other again. As long as they both agree, that's okay. At least there was no violence."
Diaz-Hennessey believes in the program, now in its second year in the school. She tells of one student, now a senior, who stopped by her office and told her with pride, "I just stopped a fight!"
Diaz-Hennessey notes with great satisfaction what a difference this development has meant for the student himself.
"Two years ago it was he who was in the fight. The feeling he gets [from mediating], it's almost the same feeling [he got when he won] a fight. He feels like a hero."
ONE OF THE PEER MEDIATORS, 17-year-old Mary, describes a recent incident: two boys were fighting over a chair in the classroom. Mary sat with the boys and listened as they talked it out. She describes her role as essentially that of a listener. They signed a contract and parted friends.
"If they ever get into another conflict, they'll think about what's happening before they fight," says Mary.
Programs such as these can give kids extra tools to help them experience success, competence, and achievement at school or in their community.
Tutoring programs enhance kids' abilities in school, and that success helps them believe in themselves.
THROUGH PEER PROGRAMS KIDS SEE the importance and value of the contributions of their equals. Seeing that their classmates are capable of giving wisdom and guidance can encourage children to believe in their own ability at their age level to solve problems successfully.
Through mentorship, children see adults who have achieved worthy goals, goals they might aspire to, as adults impart a "You can do it!" attitude and show how to achieve these goals.
For those who give help—the tutors, mentors, peers, and leaders—the joy of helping another is an empowering emotion. It is an emotion that binds together the giver and the receiver. Sharing knowledge, experiences, wisdom, and keys for success are ways of expressing the love of God through caring about and investing in others.—END
© 1997 by Claretian Publications