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By Dr. Harry Tennant
Friday, February 24, 2012 Education Ride 365: Developing & Exercising Patience With The Undeveloped Seemingly In Need Of Exorcism! On Day 45 (Feb. 14) I had a busy day of school visits planned. This post is about one of them...as well as a followup visit to a related campus the following day, Day 46. I'd been in Humble TX preparing for the next leg of my trip...through southern Texas...and stayed the prior evening with friends Kevin and Ellen Churchill, at their home just a mile from the Johnson Space Center in Nassau Bay TX. I got an early start that morning because Ellen Savoy----Director of Federal Funds for the Harris County Juvenile Justice Education Services----and Oliver Burbridge---- principal of their most restrictive setting, located on multiple floors of the building pictured below---- were meeting with me for a discussion of their system and a tour of this six-floor lockup facility in downtown Houston. This is the most restrictive of the four campuses in this juvenile justice system. The students are organized on the various floors largely based upon gender and size. Each floor has two pods of cells, with a common area for each pod (separated by an enclosed guard observation room) where the education of these wayward youth is delivered. Subject-area specialists (teachers) circulate from pod to pod, students do not. Special education teachers are also present, as is a guard for each class. Teachers typically handle the proactive discipline, while officers handle most reactive discipline.  A variety of lessons are listed on the board in front of each class. For any given subject area, where a teacher may be teaching 10-16 students, there are around five varied lessons written on the board. This is differentiation based upon student readiness and need. I use the word differentiation loosely here, as truly differentiated instruction would be impossible in this setting. In fact, perhaps the correct term is more individualized instruction. Out of necessity, most of the work is book learning. One student I saw doodling was challenged by the teacher, before an officer stepped in to address the matter. In this case, a cell "timeout" was the cost of the offense. Ms. Savoy and Mr. Burbridge are passionate educators. One would be completely incorrect to characterize them as jailers. They are genuine educators. In this environment it would be easy to become callous, to become jailers. It is clear, however, that neither of these individuals will fall into that trap. They care about their students. They have hope for their students. They nurture their students. As different as their school setting is, they seem just as dedicated to the task of delivering quality education as passionate educators in the "free world" are. I heard it in their words and I saw it in their actions. Our discussions about education closely mirrored those I tend to have with educators outside of lockup. Perhaps this is because they have a clear understanding of what they are dealing with. We all know that a young person's brain isn't fully developed until they are about 25 years old. In fact, by a cruel twist of fate, the decision-making portion of the brain is one of the last parts to fully develop. Thus the need for adult guidance and supervision of young people. Physiologically they are not fully developed, sociologically many are not nurtured properly, and they lack much of the wisdom that only comes with age. While this is a justification for adult guidance, it is also a clear rationale for understanding and forgiveness of mistakes made in youth. How can we hold them as accountable as we do fully developed and seasoned adults? By the same token, is it wise to allow them the same freedoms and responsibilities? How can we foster and nurture the maturation process if they are not held accountable? Ms. Savoy and Mr. Burbridge understand this logic. They exercise it. They educate young people many have given up on. Ms. Savoy arranged another campus visit during my time in Houston. The following day, Day 46, I visited the Harris County Juvenile Justice Education Service's least restrictive campus in Seabrook TX. This facility is called the "Youth Village" and it too is a live-in campus with significant security restrictions. Principal Diane Hubbell and her AP Festus Edokpa showed me around their campus. They are very proud of their record of seeing students who otherwise would dropout (and possibly enter a lifetime in more restrictive correctional facilities) through an academic program aimed at equipping them with a GED and---in many cases---practical trade experience at the local community college. Their task is not easy. Issues such as lack of motivation, significant learning gaps, disrespect of authority, and other impediments to success witnessed in every school are certainly more common-place in this setting. Educators must defer to probation officers and the courts on matters involving significant discipline issues, often making it difficult to remove students to a more restrictive setting as a response to chronic non-compliance. It is not unlike the procedural and other due process hurdles public schools must observe when dealing with chronic rule-breakers on mainstream campuses. As many of us are painfully aware, often the valuable time of educators is disproportionally expended on these "trouble-makers" and the hurdles to addressing their demands on the system. When this is going on, it is that much more important to remember the physiological, sociological, and experiential factors contributing to bad decisions made by young people. This brings me back to the first individuals introduced in this post---> Ms. Savoy and Mr. Burbridge. These two individuals seem to be prime examples of professionals who have internalized the lesson above to the degree that they are constructively educating young people who are acting most destructively towards themselves and others. They fully understand the physiological, sociological, and experiential factors contributing to the bad decisions made (and being made) by the young people they are charged with educating. They are an example for us all as we deal with our own "trouble-makers." There is hope for all young people, no matter how wayward they may be. Are we educators patient enough to hold out hope for all? Posted at 5:51 PM Keywords: Education Ride 365 , EdClick , Cycle Of Education , Day_45 , Day_46 , Discipline , Juvenile Justice 1 Comments |