From: charlie
Date: 10/19/03
Time: 7:55:18 AM
Remote Name: 209.240.198.63
Jean, I agree. I don't know about any gold necklaces--that seems too sterotypical to me.
But to bring in visitors, speakers, mentors, and have people from the community volunteer in the classroom is an excellent idea.
I found that many of the black children had NO role models in their daily lives. They could not tell me of people that they even knew who had jobs much less were successful in them.
It is a shame but it is one of the reasons that some communities (even NYC) are trying all black schools...with a black teacher and black principal, etc. Some are successful--some not. The one that was tried here--was not...or has not been yet.
A friend of mine was the principal but he lost his job there---and I believe it was because he was trying to have Discipline in the school and that didn't go down well with the parents or the administration. And they weren't having enough "fun" at the school---it was too much work.
You know, sometimes people with good intentions can have unintended consequences....and being too lax or too fun filled or too soft is NOT what is needed to succeed.
Just as parents who are too lax with their children end up with the kids being out of control--the same goes for organizations and schools---too lax, few expectations, etc.---end up with the kids not learning and being out of control. And you have that in most of the schools--no matter what race the students are. charlie