by Donna Shreve
I have been retired now since January 2006. Just in the years I have left the profession, education has become more problematic. My oldest son is currently teaching middle school math to very reluctant learners who have real life issues that interfere with their classroom behavior and success. I tried to remember what I had experienced as a teacher that was successful with reluctant students. How do you make the classroom a learning experience instead of a war zone?
The year was 1990 and I had the challenge of teaching math to seventh graders at Morada Middle School in Lodi Unified. The student population spoke 17 different languages in their homes. Diversity was a norm and there were problems with gang membership, poverty, runaways, pregnancy and various other directions seventh and eighth graders could go towards to get into trouble. I was frustrated and wanted to do something that could be effective in reaching some of these students. Why should they listen to a middle-aged white woman? I knew I needed some “street cred.”
I discovered the unique help I needed at a workshop sponsored by the San Joaquin County Department of Education. Stockton area has the distinction of containing a large number of prisons that included juveniles. The California Youth Authority had set up an out-reach program where wards were counseled and taught to share their experiences with area students to help prevent future lock-ups. It was designed to target only a small number of students at a targeted school where membership was limited to the most at risk.
I had another idea. I wanted about 60 students to be able to participate instead of the usual dozen. The first step was getting district permission to even set up such a program. Keep in mind that Lodi Unified was quite conservative and was very restrictive about sex education, let alone expanding such other real issues as gangs, drugs, truancy, etc. Fortunately I had a supportive principal and vice-principal who were willing to go to bat for me as they believed in the program. The next step was finding a room big enough that did not interfere with a choir or band class. I also needed the gym teachers permission to take away 60 students to their fourth period once a week. The next challenge was to get a good group of students interested enough to get their parents signature on the required permission form.
Somehow I lined up all of the requirements and confirmed with the leader of the program that Morada Middle School was a go. I emphasized that we were a diverse population and he assured me he would be coming with appropriate shades of humanity. The first session arrived and my 60 students waited in anticipation of meeting the group of inmates. The leader arrived with three guys in tow. We were in the choir room sitting on tiered rows. The wards began mingling with the students passing out juice containers and a snack bar. As they ate, the wards introduced themselves and what the programs would entail. So far, so good. The trash from the snacks was collected and we began the program.
The key speaker started by telling us why he was locked up. He confessed to us that he was responsible for killing three human beings. I remember the feeling of looking around the shocked looks on the students and being very aware I was the lone teacher in a room with 60 students and three convicts plus their leader. His statement certainly got their attention. I did not need to worry about maintaining discipline with this group.
The first week’s theme was gang membership. The key speaker told of how he joined at about the same age of the kids in the room. The promises and assumptions of gang membership were related. When he got caught doing gang dictated business, no one in the gang was there for him. No one visited him or contacted him in any way. He was on his own. He had been used and thrown away when his usefulness was over. After his presentation, the students were put into random groups with a large piece of poster paper to work on. They were given various prompts and then given a ward who was their leader and organizer. Toward the end of the session each group shared their key points with the group as a whole.
Each week there was a theme and a group exercise with a wrap-up at the end. Some of the key moments that stood out to me were the boy who was sent by his family to Hawaii to live with his uncle. Under his uncle’s care, he was taught how to cook meth. He lasted a few years before the uncle decided he was ready ad then he was sent back to California to help the stateside group. When he got swept up in a few months, he was locked up and abandoned by family as they were now locked up also. Another described various assignments he was given to carry out. He told of his horror when he actually killed his first victim, a rival gang member the same age he was at the time, 14.
Truancy was a theme several weeks in. Several of the speakers had mentioned how their choices narrowed as they dropped out of school. Strategies were mentioned to help a student get through when times seemed hard. The breakout sessions that week were intense. The problem was real. None of the original speakers were there at the end of the series of six sessions. They were close to being released and their time was up before our sessions were done. Each week was a surprise of who would be there and what the theme was. I was hearing a lot of positive feedback from other teachers who overheard the kids discussing certain incidents they had seen with enthusiasm.
The last speaker was a surprise to all of us. The leader of this group of CYA wards gave the presentation with his story. No, he had not been arrested or locked up but he had an important message. He told of his time in high school in Modesto. He was doing well in school and was a star player on the football team. He was on top of his world. He had a darling girlfriend who ended up pregnant their senior year in high school. When he told his father and mother, his father gave hm a whipping he would never forget. But the worse part was his family’s disappointment in him. He had a sister a few years younger. HIs girlfriend had to quit school to have the baby while he graduated and was ready to attend the local junior college. He had just had a minor inconvenience. He found out soon that the father has legal obligations. He had to take on a part time job to pay child support. If he did not pay, the law would get the money from his family. The laws have changed and the guy is no longer able to walk away. He shared some of his smooth lines he used on his girl friend and he got back together with girl friend and she became pregnant again. Now his responsibilities were starting to sink in. His girl friend was a full time mother and he now was paying support for two children and doing some babysitting. Now his girl friend asked him to come over on his day off so she could interview for a part time job as money was a problem to feed, clothe and support these two little guys. He arrived and was able to maintain order for a few hours. Now the baby’s mother was late. He called around to various friends and family and no one could give him any answers. He then checked in her closet and dresser drawers. They were empty. She had left him with the 4 and 2 year old and she was not coming back.
He currently had a 10 and 8 year old boys who he had to get to school each day, went to work and then picked them up and had family chip in when he had classes at the junior college where he was trying to complete his degree. He also had to carve out time to study so he could be successful with his education. He was on quite a treadmill but he had survived. The boys in the room were paying attention. The breakout groups included the lines boys use to have sex and lines girls can counter with. The students now had tools to use in possible future situations.
The Breakfast Club was funded through a grant and it ran out the year I had used it. It was not available the next year. I felt for the first time I had provided some real life help for some of my most needy students. Education has to become more relative to their students. Too many students have more pressing needs in their lives than learning algebra. Just because some of the students can survive in the current education environment does not mean the current curriculum should continue when it leaves so many students out. I am grateful I no longer have the challenge of meeting the needs of students but I feel so sorry for my son. He is more prison guard than educator. Society has to find a better way to reach our youth.
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