Two Students: A Study in Contrasts

The New Salem Educational Initiative blog offers a unity of theory and practice, of thought and action. That is, everything of which I write of a philosophical nature is informed by my many years as a teacher of students of the inner city and, very importantly, by my ongoing experiences teaching small-group sessions seven days a week as instructor and director of the Initiative.

Tomorrow's blog will return to my message of a more philosophical bent, with comments on the second component of an "excellent education": a strong liberal arts curriculum.

Today I share with my readers recent experiences in session with two very different students, which will add to an accumulating understanding of the extreme diversity of students served by the Initiative, while also highlighting the very different needs that can be associated with students who are enrolled in the Initiative because they do share in common free lunch status and attendance in schools with many academically struggling students.


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Student Experiences in the New Salem Educational Initiative: Pedro


The first student I shall for data privacy reasons assign the pseudonym of "Pedro." Pedro is the son of two loving immigrant parents from Ecuador. There are a number of other family members living in Minneapolis and nearby areas, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Pedro's parents have a strong and loving marriage, and they care deeply about the education of their children (Pedro is in Grade 8 and has two brothers, Grade 3 and Grade 9, who are also enrolled in the Initiative). Four of Pedro's cousins are also enrolled in the Initiative and enjoy the same quality of parental love and interest in academic success.

Pedro was functioning below grade level in both math and reading when he first enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative as a Grade 6 student. But he quickly proved himself highly intelligent and had no trouble becoming one of those students who rose to grade level (in both math and reading) during his first year of enrollment in the Initiative. From that grade level foundation he quickly rose far above grade level, so that at the present time Pedro has mastered all Grade 8 math and reading material that will be covered on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs, the standardized test that determines Adequate Yearly Progress for students and schools in Minnesota). Pedro now is utilizing this material as he moves forward on a challenging college preparatory track in both math and reading.

In my most recent session with Pedro, we read and discussed two selections from a practice ACT reading test. One of the selections was from Joseph Conrad's short story, "Gaspar Ruiz: A Romantic Tale," about a young rebel soldier who is falsely accused of deserting to the Royalist camp. The other was from a social scientific monograph, >When School is Out and Nobody's Home<, synthesizing research on the fears that children and adolescents have about coming home to an empty house. Through these and other readings, Pedro's reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition (with items such as "truculent," "recondite," and "perspicacious") rapidly are ascending to the level of a first year university student.

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Student Experiences in the New Salem Educational Initiative: Markesha


The second student will be designated with the pseudonym of Markesha. Markesha is a Grade 3 student who also receives free lunch and attends a school with many academically struggling students. But there the similarity largely ends. Markesha comes from a very unstable family situation. She has a loving and attentive aunt with whom she has at times lived, but her single mother has now regained custody after struggling for many years with substance abuse and associated psychological issues. The family lives in extreme poverty. Markesha's diet is poor and she frequently does not have proper clothes to wear.

Years of living in shifting residences and being shuffled from different school to different school have taken their toll. Markesha frequently manifests the behavioral characteristics of a preschool age child. She is extremely insecure and desperately afraid of failure. Her first experiences with practice MCA-based pretests were disasters and seemed to reveal a child who was academically far behind and perhaps intellectually damaged.

I work with students in groups of up to five, but I immediately decided that Markesha needed a strictly one-on-one situation and reserved a weekly session strictly for her. I joked with her, fed her the steady stream of malapropisms through which I give my very young students a chance to correct the teacher ("we've got to snow now." "No, man, it's go--- We've got to go."), and rewarded her with great praise for every legitimate academic accomplishment. I do not believe in falsely building "self-esteem" on shaky ground, but I do believe ardently in quickly and lavishly acknowledging real success.

Through our developing relationship, abetted by the fact that I have known her exended family for many years, and unfolding incrementally as prior success led to the next success, Markesha has at this point exceeded my own high expectations. She is astonishingly approaching grade level performance and demonstrating that she can handle most items on the practice Grade 3 MCAs. She may be one year away from demonstrating this on the actual MCA standardized test (an instrument administered each year in April, and in which I firmly believe), but she has already made up two full grade levels in this single academic year based on her entry pretest.

This is a child who has a chance to escape the cycle of family poverty and dysfunction by building a future of academic and professional accomplishment if she stays connected to the support system that has been offered through her participation in the New Salem Educational Initiative.


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As these two cases show, one should not generalize about students in the inner city. Some students come from poor families with descriptors and values usually associated with the middle class. Others come from families of such extreme dysfunction that middle class assumptions must not be made. These students need very careful handling by culturally sensitive people with real knowledge grounded in the community. These latter cases are those that most demand the kind of skills that a superior quarterback makes with audibles called on the spot to address a situation that is in flux.

All students must be presented with a rigorous academic curriculum with ambitious goals of genuine accomplishment. In this sense, "One size..." does indeed "...fit all." But the particular circumstances wherein each individual student dwells should be deeply understood by the concerned educator. Schools and academic programs serving students from challenging home enviroments cannot shirk responsibility by claiming that grave problems press in from family and community. Such problems do of course present challenges, challenges that the adroit and compassionate educator embraces and meets.