Developing Self-Determined Young Adults

Over the years, I have witnessed the determination of our kids as they persevere and defy the stereotypes, low-expectations, and difficult life situations they endure. Their ability to press forward inspires me.

Just last week I spoke with Kieva, who will finish her Master's degree in Public Administration in August. Her sister is working on her graduate degree as well. Jessica just started her Masters program in January and plans to continue straight through to get her Ed.D. Bridgette is almost finished with her graduate degree as well. Tiffany, Erica, and Fredrick will graduate from Baylor, UNT, and Lamar University this year. They have thought about pursuing Master's degrees as well.

The voices in the video are representative of the rest of the kids we see each day and some of the ones who have dropped off over the years as well. We are working hard to keep improving our programs and expanding them. Take a look at my new attempt at a newsletter about our programs here: College Successes.

Email me at jmorrison@centraldallasministries.org if you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive these periodic updates.

The failure of Extreme Makeover

I've never been a fan of Extreme Makeover. I love seeing the houses transform, but I've always been irritated by their claim to help the lives of people.

Extreme Makeover is for people who have little to no money to fix up their own homes. Extreme Makeover comes in and gives families the finer things of life that they could never afford. While the finer things of life are nice, I always have to wonder how the people who can't even afford repairs on their older, sometimes dilapidated, home will be able to afford the repairs on flat screen TVs, specialized germ-free air units, an outdoor pool, etc. But even before the stuff gets old enough to have to repair, how do the families afford the monthly bills of all of that stuff?

In my little 1400 square foot house, I know electric bills can cost a good bit. If some great TV show came in and turned my small house into a two-story home, complete with all of the bells and whistles, there's no way I could afford even the monthly electric bill!

I've said this for years. My friend tweeted me the other day proving what I had always suspected:

Extreme Makeover Houses in Foreclosure

Though I often enjoy being "right," this makes me sad. I wish someone would have provided me a video link explaining that every home provided through Extreme Makeover came complete with all bills paid for the rest of the adult's life. Instead, families are borrowing against their homes and going into even more debt.

As a society, we have got to think differently. Charity and handouts are not the solution. Sustainable living and long-term solutions are.

Livable wage jobs...quality education...safe neighborhoods...responsive city services...

Anyone want to create a reality show that fights systemic injustices? It's not near as easy and romantic, but the long-term impact sure would make a difference.

People just don't understand

I'm just reading this article from the Dallas Morning News:

Dallas ISD's plan to raze homes for new school leaves some angry over offers 

I have lived in the Jubilee neighborhood for the last 15 years. A friend of mine called the other day asking my opinion on the DISD desire to use eminent domain to tear down all of the houses where he used to live. He has since moved out of the area, but many of his friends and neighbors still live in the houses they intend to tear down and they are upset because they will be losing their homes in the upcoming rebuild of O.M. Roberts Elementary.

They have legitimate concerns. Many people have lived in the Jubilee neighborhood for decades. So this comment by "CabMeb's Girl" on the Dallas Morning News article caught my attention:

Let's face it, those houses on that land are not worth $120,000 to $150,000. Although I feel sorry for them,I have to ask if they wanted to put the place on the market today, would they be able to get more than $50,000? DISD does not owe them anymore than what the home and property are actually worth. We would all like to retire to a nice house or see our parents be able to do so, but we retire to what we can afford be it a $50,000 house or a multi-million dollar mansion.

Allow me to address CabMeb's Girl or anyone that feels that way...

You are right. The homes the families live in may not be worth $120,000-$150,000. Often, the homes people in my neighborhood are dilapidated. If they aren't dilapidated, they are old. To sell them at market rate, they might only bring $50,000, as you suggest. However, those families aren't making the decision to sell them, are they? Those families probably recognize that they can't sell them for much so they stay in the homes, regardless of their condition. As the article suggest, many of the residents are older and only bring in a small pension every month. They know they can't afford buying a new home so they haven't even bothered trying. They are content where to live with what they have.

So, when you say they should be happy with what they are getting, you aren't taking into account that they are not the ones choosing to move. Providing them with $50,000 and asking them to find a new home gives them just enough money to put them in major debt. They deserve to be compensated with enough funds to find a home somewhere else. Even the homes that have been built in Jubilee Park over the last five years average about $95,000.

I'm guessing your next comment might be that if they're willing to live in a dilapidated or old house now, then it shouldn't hurt them to move into another home just like that. But let me ask you if you would be willing to do that. Most of the families in my neighborhood have lived there for years. They have friends and neighbors they know and trust. They have people to watch their home when they are gone, they have friends to borrow sugar from when they run out, they have children who have established friendships with other kids in the neighborhood. So for me to ask or expect them to move out of their neighborhood, incur debt they don't currently have, or move into a low quality home they will not have the funds to fix up is unconsiderate in the least, but more accurately very arrogant.

I truly hope that DISD begins thinking about and considering the families in the neighborhood. They are not asking for any handout. They are not trying to get rich. And I am sure that they, too, would love a high quality school for their children and grandchildren. But what may seem like an easy thing to do in a neighborhood where people have a lot of access to disposable income, that is not the case in my neighborhood.

Please, let's think of the families.

Unique field trip experiences make a difference

You can see all kinds of great things going on at our After-School Academy these days!

This morning, I finally had a chance to catch up on some emails and found this video posted on our After-School Academy blog:



Danielle Evans runs our After-School Academy and goes way above and beyond her job to make sure the kids are constantly engaged and learning new things. The first Saturday of every month, Home Depot offers a free class for kids to build things like rain gauges, a car display rack, a bird house, and now a butterfly house. Danielle has started taking some of our more active boys and has also recruited a parent or two. Phillip is Lamarcus and Joshua's dad and has taken to attending every Home Depot trip to help his boys build new things. I spotlighted Bridgett and Phillip here...and both are still going strong with their involvement in the program.

One thing I feel very strongly about is to expose kids to opportunities that aren't the normal, run-of-the-mill activity. We rarely take the kids to movies (unless they've read the book and then the movie comes out) or Speed Zone or something like that. I believe every child deserves the opportunity to be exposed to as many new things as possible so that they can begin to determine what they really enjoy and what area gives them the most fulfillment.

So far, some of our kids have developed a big interest in gardening, while others have developed pride in their ability to interview people in our Junior Reporters program. The Digital Connectors have created videos at the Apple store and learned about video creation at Janimation. Last summer the After-School Academy learned about the environment when they went to the Waste Water Treatment Plant, learned about emissions at Frito Lay, and visited the landfill, among other things. Our bottom-line focus is college, so the elementary kids take at least one college trip per year. Teen U has visited Texas A & M-Commerce, Prairie View A & M, Huston-Tillotson, UT-Austin, Navarro, and UTD just since September.

I just wish everyone else could see the progress I see.

David laughs and greets and talks. I wouldn't have known what that meant, except that his mother told me (see what his mother told me here).

Lewis has an understanding that he is filled with "knowledge" and will tell you that if I ask him the simple question of, "What do you have?" (if you met him last summer, you would know how important this fact is).

Randy (5th grade) is absolutely certain of where he will attend college. (I learned that when I introduced himself to a guest I toured through the program and he informed the man, "I plan to go to UTD." When asked why (I was even surprised he was so matter-of-fact about it!), he simply stated, "Because we took a field trip there last summer and that's where I want to go."

Unique and engaging field trips make a difference.

Rappin' and Writin'

Every once in a while I get on a kick to write. One of my goals is to write a book, but I can never seem to get out what I want to say. Even as I try to compose this and other blog posts, I get stuck. I can talk all day long, but when I try to put it on paper, I feel the need to be more formal and to make sure it is written well for you, the reader...and then I get stuck.

Today was one of those writing days. A few days ago I was inspired and figure out what I wanted to say (at least for the moment), so I started writing. I've been trying to work on it each day since. This afternoon, I was kind of stumped. I thought fresh air might give me some inspiration. So, I took my computer, set my camping chair up on my front porch and hoped the nice weather would get my juices flowing.

As s I sat, staring at the screen more than watching my fingers move and compose anything, my neighbor's grandson walked by (he's about 23 years old). He's always really sweet and says hi or waves as I come and go from my house. If I'm outside or walking to my mailbox, I always try to say something chit-chatty just to be friendly or to joke around with he and his cousins and friends. Today, when he walked by my house to go to the store I asked where his "peeps" were (he's usually walking with a group of cousins and friends). He just laughed at my attempt at slang (Don't worry, I don't use the word "peeps" in every day language...only when I'm trying to get a laugh out of the kids). On his way back, I guess he was returning the chit-chat favor. He saw the computer on my lap and asked if I was surfing the internet. I told him what I was really trying to do was write, but it wasn't working very well.

In my mind, I was really working on something...or trying to. I expected him to just nod and keep walking. Instead, he completely identified with me. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Just like when I'm working on my songs." It took me by surprise as I realized what he was talking about. When he's not working at his day job, he and his friends often perform their rap music at a club. I don't know why, but though I knew they wrote their own lyrics, it just never dawned on me that they have to utilize the same thought process I do when I write.

His comment launched us into a 10 minute discussion and commiserating session on how challenging writing can be and how great it feels when the "flow" is there. We talked about sitting, staring at the page trying to figure out what to say and how much easier it is to "freestyle" (for him) and talk (for me) than it is to actually get those thoughts down on paper. It was an amazing and rich conversation.

It reminds me of a blog post I wrote a few months ago, "Skills of a Thief." I think a lot of times we overlook the skills that the kids use when doing things that we don't necessarily agree with. Maybe if we looked past the act that we scrutinize and ban from our presence and looked more at the skills they utilize when reaching for their dreams, we would be able to affirm and tap into the knowledge our kids already possess. And, who knows, maybe if we affirmed those skills and utilized them in our lessons, the rap songs they create might have a deeper message and the "licks" they hit (in Skills of a Thief) might end up being challenging business ventures.

Irregardless, our kids deal with so much discouragement and assumptions that they don't possess skills that kids in other schools or other neighborhoods do. As an educator, it's my responsibility to help them see how much knowledge they actually possess...and then help them figure out how to channel that knowledge into something productive.

Facts of Systemic Racism

"I continue to believe that in this country the opposite of poverty is not wealth. I really don't think that's what we're talking about. I think in America, the opposite of poverty is justice." ~Bryan Stevenson

As soon as I heard that quote, I stopped and had to reflect on that. "The opposite of poverty is justice." Wow. It's not wealth we're striving for to keep someone out of poverty. It's justice. That's powerful.

You can watch the entire segment on this week's Bill Moyers Journal.

Since Monday is the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the segment takes time to point out his involvement in the Poor People's Campaign right before he was killed. King recognized that how we all deal with poverty was and is an even bigger obstacle than dealing with race, though the two often go hand in hand. I have often heard it said that his fight for justice among the poor is what led to his death.

Poverty and racism are systemic issues. Yet, despite my understanding of that, I often revert to challenging people to take personal responsibility. I tend to believe that my weakness in this area is because I have not had to experience that systemic discrimination and injustice on a personal level. While personal responsibility and how people interact with others is definitely part of it, there must be a deeper understanding of how the problems are ingrained in our society and need to be dealt with in order for us to change course.

On Bill Moyers Journal, Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander do a great job of pointing out how it is so ingrained in the fabric of our existence.

Did you know that...

• In 2004 Alabama tried to get rid of segregation language in the state constitution, and a majority of people in Alabama voted to keep that language in that prohibits black and white kids from going to school together?
• Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman made it a point to figure out a way to make black people appear to be the problem stating, "The whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to."
• Over the last 35 years, there haven't been tremendous fluctuations in the violent crime rate in this country, yet we've gone from 300 thousand people in jails and prison in 1972, to 2.3 million people in jails and prisons today. With nearly 5 million people on probation and parole. 
• Black people are 13 percent of the population of this country. They're about 14 percent of the drug users. But they end up being about 60 percent of the people sent to prison.
• If you are a black man, you have a 32 percent chance you're going to jail or prison, but if you live in a poor and/or minority community, urban community, rural community, it could be 60 or 70 percent.
• The rates of drug use are about the same among all racial groups. But also, the rates of drug sales are about the same among people of all different races as well.
• The Reagan Administration actually hired staff whose job it was to publicize crack babies, crack dealers in inner city communities, in the hope that these images would build public support for the drug war and persuade Congress to devote millions of more dollars to the war. 
• In some states, we spend $45,000 a year to keep a 19-year-old in prison for the next 30 years (or $1,350,000) for drug possession, yet we're only willing to spend about $1500-$4500 a year to educate a child in his younger years.

It always amazes me when I hear quotes and statistics that demonstrates the bias in our country. We want to believe that racism is not our problem...that we didn't create it. We want to believe racism is a misconstrued perception by people of color. But the reality is that people of color have seen and heard...and still see and hear...what we overlook because statements like that of Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff wasn't calling me the problem, but was placing the blame on someone else. The fact that Ronald Reagan hired a staff to publicize the worst parts of the inner city kept the focus off of the similar problems in the rural, white area where I grew up.

Though all of the bullet points I stated disturb me, what completely baffles me is why we would be willing to spend $45,000 per year on a kid for 30 years to keep him/her locked up in a cell, but are not willing to invest even half of that in his childhood education. And from being in the inner city schools, I can guarantee that if that much money was spent on high quality learning opportunities, many things would be different for the children growing up in the inner city.

Maggie's Cleaning Service

I went to dinner with one of the college students last night. Now that she's in college, we go to dinner every once in a while to talk and catch up. As she has continued in college, she has found that, unfortunately, most of her friends from high school did not. Though she keeps up with some of them, most have babies now and she doesn't feel like she has a lot of similar interests. I am so impressed with her determination to persevere on her own. She often feels like the lone rider on her trek to graduate from college.

I am in awe of her hard work. Not only does she commute an hour back and forth to Denton each day to attend school at UNT, she also works with her mom cleaning houses and mentoring her brothers and sister. She's the oldest. She wants to ensure her siblings move in the right direction as well so despite her exhaustion, she makes sure to help them with homework, talk to them about college, and help the oldest brother try to figure out what he wants to be and encourage him to find a direction after high school.

When we get together, she often tells me about working for people who have so much money that they don't have to think about if they can afford something. She never speaks with any condescension. As she tells me, it's always with surprise that people can afford stuff at a whim and with no thought about the cost.

Last night as she was talking, she said one day she wanted to hire "Maggie's Cleaning Services" to clean her house. Since I knew she and her mother clean houses, I thought maybe her mom worked for someone else and that was the name of the company. She laughed and said, "No, I joke with my mom and call her Maggie because the people she works for call her that. I guess they think 'Margarita' is too long of a name to say."

We laughed about the ridiculousness of that. Quite honestly, I was rather irritated and appalled. Who gave anyone the right to change or shorten her given name? Why do people think they can do that? Does Margarita sound too Latino for them? I'm guessing 'Maggie' sounds more like a name in their community so they just decide to call her that. How insulting!

I always remember my mom telling me, "I named you Janet. If I would've wanted you to be named Jan or Janice, I would've named you that." I don't like when people change my name for me. I understand an unintentional mistake, but I will correct them if they call me something other than my name.

I'm going to try not to speculate and make comments about why I believe people have shortened Margarita to a more childish sounding name like Maggie. Instead, I'm going to hope they are reading this and have an a-ha moment of how degrading and insulting that is. I hope they will apologize to Margarita and any other people they might have disrespected in that way and make it a point from this day forward to take the time to learn and pronounce each person's given name no matter how different it sounds to them.

Names are important. We were each given a name and unless we decide to change that name, it isn't anyone else's right to change it for us.

Moments that make me smile

I absolutely LOVE being around kids...well, during certain moments. :) ...and today was one of those moments.

I went downstairs to the After-School Academy to get some footage of the mural the kids designed, drew, and are now painting. (I'll put it together in a post soon). As I stood watching three of the kids paint, one of the other kids stood beside me. Quite honestly, I wasn't paying him any attention whatsoever. I was focused on the mural painting for one, but I've also learned to ignore his antics at times when he decides to act out. So I guess I was unconsciously tuning him out.

I can't quite explain my brain, but I could hear him talking, but it was little one or two word phrases so I guess I thought he was just talking to himself figuring someone would notice and tell him to be quiet or something (that's the way he often gets the attention he desires). Something in my brain told me what he was saying was familiar, but I guess I was just too focused on other things to pay him any mind.

"Hey. Who?"

"Oh?"

"Me?"

"You."

"Yo.Yes."

His words somehow soaked in to my brain and I realized what he was doing! I turned on my heel and faced him with a big smile on my face. He looked at me with a big grin and said, "I saw it."

See, on our After-School Academy blog I post a Story Time section that I or someone else has read to our Flip video camera and I have posted on YouTube. I started it thinking of Reading Rainbow and thought we could use our technology to re-create something similar. I didn't know if it would catch on, but I figured it couldn't hurt and it doesn't take a lot of effort.

Yo! Yes! has been up quite a while. I'd never heard any kids comment on the story so I didn't know if they were listening to it. Evidently some are. ...so much so that they've memorized the words to it. This particular little guy has, at times, been one of our biggest challenges. Either the book, the readers, the computer, or all of the above drew him in. It doesn't matter what it was that drew him in. We all know that reading books leads to improvement in all areas. Since he started with us last summer, I've seen all kinds of improvement in him. This is just one more moment to add to the list. :)

Yo! Yes! is one of my favorite children's books. I'm sure you'll love it, too. You can listen to it here:

Dream Walkers

Some of our DREAM Act kids, Monica and Anabeli, are headed to Washington D.C. as I write so they can attend the Immigration March on Washington on Sunday. I wish them the best and hope their actions Sunday will move people to action.

Meeting Ms. Martin

Getting out of the office is always the best thing I do. It's not the most productive in terms of what needs to get crossed off my to do list, but it oftentimes feels way more productive and beneficial than checking off the list of things I need to do for work.

So, I was happy to show off our programs on a tour. Guests are always impressed by the way all of our youth greet with a formal handshake, eye contact, and, "How are you today?" Because we expect the kids to greet every new person they see, it also challenges me to do the same. So, as we toured, I introduced myself to an adult who walked in.

She introduced herself as Rose Martin, David's mother. I knew immediately who she was talking about. David will be 6 years old next month. He is enrolled in the After-School Academy. I hear funny stories about David all the time because he answers with incessant stream of consciousness when you ask him a question. His stream of consciousness talking makes you think his brain is working so much faster than he can tell you, but he's going to keep talking until he gets his point across. Though David talks a lot, his verbal skills are not that great. He is a little difficult to understand. However, like just about any person, when you listen long enough, you begin to understand everything he says.

Knowing all of that, I never expected what Ms. Martin told me. After our introduction she explained she was there to pick up David. She went on to thank us for what we are doing. She explained that she had never been able to communicate with her son. For some reason, his verbal skills had always been delayed. When he got into school, they tested him as having the verbal skills of a 3-year old. She said for the longest time he could never communicate with her. She was frustrated as a parent because she wanted him to talk to her. She wanted him to be able to tell her what was wrong, but he simply couldn't verbally communicate.

Since he has been in the After-School Academy, she explained, his verbal skills have increased dramatically! She told me that his teacher was now thinking about moving him on up to the first grade (which, I'm guessing, is where he is supposed to be age-wise). They will be testing him for learning disabilities just to make sure he is developmentally ready. She thanked me several times for our program and for what it has done for her and her child.

I invited her to our Parent Academy that evening, but she explained she was just there to pick David up so she could run him over to his speech therapy place before she went off to school. Ms. Martin is working on her basics and preparing for nursing school. She is hoping to transfer to TWU in the fall in order to complete her degree.

Days like these encourage, inspire, and challenge me. It is because of and for Ms. Martin that I will go back to my office and continue to work on my to do list and figure out ways for us to measure our progress so that we can continue to exist.

If you would like to help make sure we can continue to exist, please consider donating to our Children's Education programs at this link: http://www.centraldallasministries.org/donate/index.htm (be sure "Children's Education" is designated)