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DEL.ICIO.USOut of the Mouths of Truants
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today I was a Career Day speaker at DeKalb Truancy School, a program for students who got in trouble for missing too many days of school. About 50 middle and high school students attend the school at one time. They get smaller classes and more attention from their teachers. They don’t get a school bus driving up to their door to pick them up, though. They have to take MARTA.
So, I was in luck. A veteran teacher gave a presentation before mine, and she got the class completely under control. Never raised her voice, either. She talked about the difference between legal money and illegal money, and told them teaching may not bring you a lot of money, but it is all legal and you can use it to buy a house, a car, an airline ticket, which is not always the case with ill-gotten gains. She had these kids’ full attention.
When it was my turn, oh joy!, there was some residual discipline left over from the teacher. The class was extremely attentive and respectful to me.
I talked about my writing career and asked if they had any questions. They wanted to know what I knew about the recent crimes in Clayton County. Some had connections to one of the victims. We talked about what it’s like to live in a neighborhood where violence is the norm. I told them education opens up more choices in where you live.
I showed them a story I wrote about DeKalb Superintendent Crawford Lewis getting a raise from $190,000 to $215,000. A student raised her hand. “Is Mr. Lewis… what race is he?” I told her he is black. She said: “A black man making all that money???”
I walked away from this Career Day thinking we need more alternative schools for kids with a variety of problems. This school is exclusively for chronic truants. They have other problems, too, but the “presenting” problem is that they generally hate traditional school.
In a traditional school, I suspect all these kids would be sitting at the back of the classroom. Some would be cutting up and others would be sleeping. But at the Truancy School, classes are small, about a dozen or so kids, so there is no real back of the classroom.
Since these kids would otherwise not be in school, it’s not a money drain, either. The district gets state funding for them it would not get if the kids were at home watching television or running the streets.
Not every kid can be saved, but some can, and are, at the DeKalb Truancy School.
Comments
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By Gil Gibson
April 28, 2005 02:15 PM | Link to this
What’s wrong with this picture? The kids who go to school everyday and try their best are in large classes with clowns in the back disrupting. The kids who skip school or otherwise screw up are in much smaller classes with better teachers and more personal attention.
By cp
April 28, 2005 03:10 PM | Link to this
Good for you, Patti, taking time out to speak to some students. You will likely never know what impact you had today.
True, Gil, it doesn’t seem right, but I’d sure rather see them off somewhere else, than disrupting 29 other students who may be trying to learn. I agree with Patti, we need more of this kind of thing — divide and conquer for lack of a better phrase. But it’s gonna cost you.
Otherwise, we will have to leave these kids behind. We’ll have no choice.
By LISA
April 28, 2005 03:15 PM | Link to this
You know most kids are highly gifted!! and the work the teacher is teaching in not challening!!! Most kids are dyslexic!! which mean there IQ is much higher and they have to be taught in a diffrent way.I know first hand as a parent my son was born with the gift!!That which it is!! he is a artist and can bulid thing with his hands very well,he also is good with numbers even though he don’t think so, I know and his teachers always tell me.even though he can’t tell them how he got the answer he just know.I think they need to build more school with less students,we have a lot of kids who can’t express there gifts or talents due to traditional ways in the education system.I know when you talk to a kid with a soft voice they can hear you better, instead of screaming at them, you know sometimes we assume due to certain kids enviroment thats who they are, in realization there not.we need to always respect them and treat our young people who do have there own mind and is developing into there young adult hood.we need to understand our young people are not growing to young kids they are growing into young adults with there own indivdual views of self.It’s almost like a flower we plant a seed you just water It and guess what It’s a flower!! Lets just give the kids what they need not what we need.I find that so many parents try to live thru there kids!!! thats why college have so many kids in school and they flunk out!!! because they go for there parents not for themself.Parents realize this, your children is not you!! Allow them to be who God have call them to be!!!
By Clear Thinker
April 28, 2005 03:39 PM | Link to this
Lisa is completely out of touch with the world. Most kids are not highly gifted. Her rants and raves on yesterday’s topics showed how out of touch she is. Parents need to be involved in supporting their child’s education, but not in taking up for their children, lying for their children or pointing the blame at their child’s teacher for everything.
You will get a flower to grow with all the manure that you are putting out in your posts. Give it a rest.
By LISA
April 28, 2005 03:46 PM | Link to this
CLEAR THINKER:It amaze me that you clear thinker like you continue to put everyone in a box!!! we are all diffrent please realize that!!! I’am not like you and you are not like me!!! And thats how we need to look at our kids!!! so you know you can continue to bash believers like myself and other all you want!!! I appreciate your insult but like the kids say SHAKE THOSE HATERS OFF!!! PEACE BE UNTO YOU MY BROTHER!!!
By C.R.H.
April 28, 2005 04:41 PM | Link to this
I have to say, MOST kids are NOT gifted & MOST kids are also NOT dyslexic. I know because I teach gifted and “normal” learners as well as some that are functioning too low to even be called remedial. It’s great that Dekalb has a school for truants, keep them away from the general population. BTW, they also don’t get “better teachers”, it is easy to look like a “great teacher” when the kids know that stepping out of line just 1 time will get them kicked out into the streets! In every public school, students know they get several chances to act the fool before there will be any REAl consequences. I am happy that these kids get an opportunity to get their education.
By Ernest
April 28, 2005 05:01 PM | Link to this
Patti:
Hats off you for sharing something from the classroom and helping out with career day. I may need to add you to my kids school list for next year :).
From my perspective, you highlighted one of the good things about public schools. Neal Boortz might say otherwise but we do attempt to educate all children, regardless of circumstances. Do the neighboring school systems offer similar schools?
By Lisa Gray
April 29, 2005 09:10 AM | Link to this
I teach in an alternative school that has smaller class sizes and a self-paced learning environment. The students even get to choose when they go to their classes. Many students who do not do well in a traditional setting make significant progress at our school. We also look at each student’s Multiple Intelligences to determine how best to teach that child. Not all children learn in the same way at the same rate - something current education practices do not address.
Students having difficulties (class clown, truant, sleeper, general disrupter) in school is often a symptom of a larger problem outside school. Giving students some control over their education and providing smaller classes are small steps to giving these students a chance at success. But until one looks at each individual child, one cannot make any assumptions about a child’s motivation or lack thereof.
Gil makes an excellent point. My personal belief is that ALL schools should be modeled after my school and the one Patti visited. However, this would require a monumental shift in thinking of parents, teachers, students, administrators and taxpayers.
By Randy
April 29, 2005 11:44 AM | Link to this
There is a strain on resources. Some kids don’t like or perform well in a conventional classroom setting. Most of them probably shouldn’t have been born into a 21st Century American Society. With my own son, who is 16 without a clue as to how the world works, and other the poor youth of today are lazy. To start a school to accommodate these criminals to be is a waste of time money and resources. Black people are being targeted for elimination and everybody is afraid to hurt young folks feelings. Man this war and if you don’t wont to survive you wont. I say spend the money on the ones trying; the rest put on an island and let nature balance it out.
By Robert
April 29, 2005 12:14 PM | Link to this
I offer up the idea of making school OPTIONAL beyond the 8th grade. If the student can pass the 8th grade CRCT test, then it is OPTIONAL to continue. School is not for everyone and it is crazy to think that our society is doing a great job at this.
This assumes that the CRCT is a real test to ensure the reading/writing/math skills that are minimally necessary in today’s world.
If a student choses to leave for a few years, then they have the option of coming back. Hopefully if they come back they will be more mature and more dedicated. If they never come back then that is their choice and society has completed its responsibility.
There is no reason that schools should be a baby sitting service and/or a free lunch service for any student not wanting an education.
By ann
April 29, 2005 01:32 PM | Link to this
Robert, I totally agree. If a student doesn’t want to be at school, then let them try to make it in the world without an education. If they come back, they will be more motivated. If not, that’s fine too. I would’t require them to go to school at any grade, not just 8th grade. Let the parents decide if they want their children to go, and if they don’t care, fine. That way, we can also eliminate the parents who are a drain on the education system.
By Patti
April 29, 2005 01:42 PM | Link to this
Ernest, as far as I know DeKalb’s program is one-of-a-kind. That’s not to say other districts aren’t trying to address truancy in various ways. But a stand-alone school exclusively for truant kids is unique. (Lest anyone think these kids are housed in a state-of-the-art palace, I’d say it’s the opposite. It’s an aging building with a leaky roof.)
My recollection is that the Truancy School was a joint effort between juvenile Judge Robin Nash and DeKalb school official Garry McGiboney.
Nash was ordering hard-core truant kids to return to school, but sending them back to the same school they left didn’t make a lot of sense.
Patti
P.S. I’m happy to participate in any Career Day as long as I don’t have a scheduling conflict. Unfortunately, I’m rarely asked.