The Ripple Effect of Setting High Expectations

One day last week I received about 10 emails in my in box begging people to employ 14-15 year old teenagers. The teenagers are employed through Texas WorkSource so there is absolutely no cost to the organization. They only have to be supervised and given work. Yet, WorkSource is having a hard time finding placements.

Thinking about my dad and the blog post I wrote recently, I inquired about the teenagers. Katrina explained that 3000 teenagers had applied, but they had only been able to take 1400. She kept asking me to please take more than one, explaining that they were having a hard time placing the kids because no one wanted 14-15 year olds, even though the younger ones are often the best workers because they are so eager to have a job.

She did explain that these are "at-risk" teenagers so they do need coaching sometimes, but as the supervisor, she would step in at any time. If they didn't improve, they would replace them with one of the other 1600 on the waiting list.

Unfortunately, I could only agree to take one. Katrina told me he would report to me at 10:00 a.m. on Friday.

Shaquomm showed up precisely at 10:00 a.m. As he walked in, the first thing he told me was, "Fred said hi." Confused, I asked him if he was talking about the Fred that I knew...the Fred that I've known since he was 9. He explained that Fred was his step-brother. And then I had to laugh as Shaquomm reiterated the lecture Fred had given him before leaving the house. "Pull your pants up. Make sure and wear a belt. Do your job. Janet doesn't play."

I love it when the kids set the expectations for me. I'm sure Shaquomm is a great kid. In the right setting, my experience has been that the majority usually are. Shaquomm came in knowing the expectations put forth before him, without me saying a word.

Shaquomm's job is to scan in and label all of the photos I have taken of the kids over the last 14 years (about 40+ photo albums worth). I was afraid this would get extremely tedious and boring. But as I showed him the process, I saw him grin at one point. He mumbled half way to himself, "I can't wait to see my cousin." I asked him why. "I can't wait to tell him, 'I know more about computers than you do!'"

I smiled, knowing that that's exactly why I love interacting with and employing teenagers for the summer. Shaquomm's a quick learner and a quick worker. I left him in "his" office scanning away, listening to his mp3 player through his headphones and singing loudly (obviously not realizing others could hear).

Since I'm the only other person in the office, we'll work later on the professionalism and appropriateness of his singing-in-the-shower type performance. :)

Making education possible

President Obama has continued to talk about and focus on education, despite his critics who say he should focus solely on the economy. I am glad that President Obama sees a much larger and further reaching picture than today's immediate needs. As a result, President Obama has pushed for expansion of the Americorps program.

AmeriCorps is a U.S. federal government program partnering with non-profit organizations, public agencies, and faith-based organizations that was created under President Bill Clinton by the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993. More than 70,000 individuals currently join AmeriCorps annually, totaling more than 500,000 past and current members since 1994. The work done by these groups ranges from public education to environmental clean-up. ~Wikipedia

Americorps allows us to recruit people living in the neighborhoods and communities where we serve. There isn't a lot of pay attached...a small stipend each month and an educational award once the service hours are completed. But I have found that the people in the community *want* to be able to give back to their community. So often, jobs exist far away from their community so they are forced to travel to the other end of town to do something positive.

Americorps provides the opportunity for jobs within the community, as well as providing hope for paying for their education. I am so excited to know that not only is President Obama pushing for an expansion of the program to "employee" more Americorps members, but that the educational award will increase by $500 to provide $5350 toward an Americorps members' college education once they have completed their service hours.

I applaud President Obama's efforts and foresight....and I look forward to receiving more Americorps members to help us run our education programs at Central Dallas.

If you are interested in applying to the Central Dallas Americorps team (and/or would like to apply to work with our After-School Academy in particular), click here.

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Bill Tripling Size of AmeriCorps Heads to President's Desk

Washington — The U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval today to a bill that would expand the federal national-service programs by the largest amount in 50 years, sending it to President Obama for a signature.

The bill, recently renamed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act (HR 1388) in honor of the longtime Massachusetts senator, would more than triple the size of the AmeriCorps program, to 250,000 slots, up from 75,000. The Senate passed the measure last week, and the House, which had earlier approved a separate bill, adopted the Senate version today.

The legislation would also increase, to $5,350, the education stipend that volunteers receive for each year of service, bringing that award in line with the maximum Pell Grant. Older volunteers could transfer up to $1,000 of their stipend to a child, foster child, or grandchild.

Finally, the bill would create, but not finance, a grant program to encourage service learning. As many as 25 institutions would be named “colleges of service” and would share a $7-million award, which would have to be appropriated by Congress. —Kelly Field

Cutting education to better our country

I'm sitting on my couch, reading this article in USA Today and my head is beginning to hurt. My brow is furrowed and I can't seem to make my face relax. I'm confused...befuddled...frustrated.

But as I began to write and think about..."How can a super-power country made up of wealthy people who gained their wealth and power by their intelligence not see the need for investing long-term in the education of our children????" it became a little clearer to me that my question was all wrong.

In one sense, the people at the "top" are intelligent. Many of them, I'm sure, have big name degrees and important titles. But, it is also many of those same intelligent people who are manipulative, greedy, and have created our demise. When they are inwardly focused, it's no wonder that they don't care what happens to the rest of our system and our children and the educated people of our future. From my point of view, it is a very self-serving set-up.

I know at this point, there seems to be no other way but to keep bailing people at the top out, hoping everything doesn't crash and burn. But I just can't see the rationale in contuing to provide funding (and bonuses!) to people who have created the failing system and, at the same time, require cutbacks from our schools.

Take to heart this information, pulled from Larry James' Urban Daily:

Last Friday morning Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert shared a horrifying statistical profile about our public schools and male students.

Consider 100 boys in public schools. . .

•32 will end up in prison. . .
•44 will graduate. . .
•Of those who graduate, only 4 will read at grade 12 levels and only 1 will be able to do grade level mathematics.

Is that really how we want our country to move forward??

However, it is the people who are affected by those statistics who I tend to believe might have the answers--people who have dealt with little for so long tend to have answers many of us have never thought about. They have innovation and creativity when it comes to making ends meet. They understand what happens when a system doesn't educate children adequately. Perhaps if we invested billions on the other end of our spectrum...the education of our public school children...the investment of technology in our low-income areas...offering unique opportunities to those who have not been given the chance to discover new interests...we might discover answers and solutions people who never had to struggle could never imagine.

Have we lost our minds?!

Florida is thinking about changing their public schools to a 4-day week. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the school district is financially strapped and is looking for cost-cutting alternatives.

What in the world are we thinking???

Rearrange city services...cut legislator's pay...let the banks fail...arrange for bartering systems or something...but NEVER cut education!!

I am a big fan of being "green." Part of Florida's plan is to eliminate the 5th day of school...probably a Friday...so that they can power down the electricity for three days in a row. Saving electricity makes sense to me. Cutting kids' education doesn't.

Not only does cutting out that 5th day lesson a child's exposure to education (I didn't read anywhere that said they would extend the other days to make up for it), but it also creates a system of more unsupervised children on the streets for an entire day of the week. Cutting out an entire day would either require businesses to restructure for their employees or will cause children to be at home alone and unsupervised.

If we are going to change the way schools operate (which I am not opposed to that...we are working on an agrarian system that was developed long ago), we must also change the way we offer day care, create work weeks, and design education to maximize learning.

Why can we not make the connection that the way we choose to educate students now is going to affect our economy, our society, our communities? If we don't look at the entire picture, the devastating results are going to happen sooner than later.

We've got to change this mentality of cutting or even simply sustaining our schools. As I mentioned, I'm a fan of restructuring the schools. We need major investment into our schools. Every school wired for the internet. Every child using a computer. Every child required to take an annual technology class that would teach them innovative uses of technology. Technology incorporated into every other class as well. Practical application of basic subjects (e.g. DNA studies for science, dance classes for math, use of checkbooks and debit cards to pay for lunch and a financial literacy class to help them balance their checkbook, business simulations, etc.).

Right now, several states have let elementary and secondary schools switch to the shorter weeks, including Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota and Montana. Others, including Missouri and New York, are weighing it.

What do we need to do to get our voice heard on this?? Who's making the changes...and who are they asking for advice? If it's not parents who have children in public schools...and if it's not teachers who truly have an interest in educating children...they are asking the wrong people.

The Obama Effect: Setting Black children up for failure

As I read this article, Study Sees an Obama Effect as Lifting Black Test-Takers, I winced.

Researchers have documented what they call the "Obama Effect." Researchers from Vanderbilt, San Diego State, and Northwestern administered a 20-question test four times throughout the presidential campaign. When they administered the test after Mr. Obama's nomination acceptance speech and then again after President-elect Obama's election victory, they concluded that the difference between White and Black performance had become “statistically nonsignificant.”

I do believe that having a Black man in the highest office of our country is bound to change the thinking of Black students about themselves, as well as change the perceptions people of other ethnicities have of Black people. However, to say that this effect happens literally overnight is disconcerting. It opens up the floodgates of being able to "blame the victim" and exclaim that Black people are responsible for their own inability to achieve.

Since they provided a test to "high school dropout to Ph.D" students, the research can be read two ways. 1) Having a Black man in the highest office changes people's perceptions of themselves, or 2) Black people have been provided with equal opportunities and simply haven't used their abilities and opportunities to this point. If we go with the second point, which I believe people are bound to do, it has the potential to cause us to sit back, justified, with the inequities of our current system.

I do believe that Barack Obama has caused a shift in our thinking that may have some immediate effects and definitely will have some longer-term effects if we continue to embrace the diversity he brings to the table. But I also believe his presence in that office is our opportunity to recognize the injustices that exist for children of color all over the United States.

President Obama allows us to say to our Black children (and other children of color), "Yes, it is possible for you to become president of the United States." And because of his background and childhood circumstances, Barack Obama provides us with the example that allows us to challenge our kids to dream big dreams and aspire to heights they may not have previously thought possible. For some children of color, that is all they need. But, for others, primarily in areas of concentrated pockets of poverty, where children of color are disproportionately represented, school systems are inadquate, healthcare is limited, and economic development is nearly non-existent, more needs to happen to create true change. Without improving the systems in those areas, and without providing adequate educational skills that will allow them to compete in a highly technological world, it is ludicrous for us to say that just because Barack Obama now stands in the White House Black children should perform better.

We need to work hard to challenge the systems and to challenge people to recognize that our inner cities, our communities of poverty, our segregated minority neighborhoods just might hold the next president of the United States, the next Secretary of State, or the next Nobel Prize winner. But in order for the children in those neighborhoods to develop those talents and achieve greatness, we must include them and their communities in our plans of improvement.