Part Three: Another Illustrative Case to Consider in Observng the Principles of the New Salem Educational Initiative in Motion

Interaction with Ezekiel Jefferson, Melinda Parks, and Family on 19 August 2013

Note:  Data privacy pseudonyms are used for all people and schools cited in this five-part series of articles.

Part Three: Ezekiel Jefferson’s Turbulent Grade 5 (Academic Year 2012-2013)

I attended numerous meetings at Kaufman K-5 School centered on Ezekiel’s behavioral incidents. A team formed at the school, composed of a counselor, administrative staff, Ms. Keller, a psychologist, a school liaison, and math and reading specialists. Ambitious plans were proposed for dealing with Ezekiel’s struggles, both academically and behaviorally in the school setting. But on the part of the team and in the implementation of the plans, there was insufficient follow-through.

Ezekiel appreciated my efforts in behalf. He would typically run up to me and give me a hug when I appeared at Kaufman for one of our meetings. But during our academic sessions, he would often be in a foul mood from his day’s experience at school. I strove mightily to keep Ezekiel on course academically, even as I became ever more important as a counselor to this troubled young person and his family.

Ezekiel’s lack of focus hurt his math skills acquisition ability during his Grade 5 year. He and I struggled even to maintain his fundamental skills pertinent to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The increasing importance at the Grade 5 level of operations and applications in fractions, decimals, percentages, rudimentary algebra, and basic geometry provided us with severe challenges in skill acquisition as Ezekiel wrestled with his mood swings and I refereed these wild emotional shifts tenaciously.

Ezekiel’s struggles came in the form of his biological dad’s misguided verbal utterances; chronic bullies and situational opponents at school; and the rivals that he perceived in the persons of his younger sister, Anna (Grade 1 during that 2012-2013 academic year) , and newborn brother, Denton. The latter was something of an unplanned surprise for Rolanda and for Drake Parks (Deontay’s de facto stepdad, also the father of Anna). Ezekiel was avowedly jealous of the claims that the younger children made on Rolanda’s attention.

Even as Ezekiel’s biological dad’s calls diminished, and Drake made strenuous efforts to strengthen his own role in Ezekiel’s life, Ezekiel’s Grade 5 year required an ongoing, titanic effort on the part of Ezekiel and his family just to survive emotionally and financially (Rolanda also lost her job in the course of these months) from week to week. As the last six weeks of school approached, Ezekiel’s behavior resulted in serious disciplinary action.

Expulsion loomed, but a kind of indefinite suspension (a less serious classification) persisted. Ezekiel did not go to class, but rather was given assignments to work on at home. A homebound teacher from the school district was supposed to monitor Ezekiel’s progress, but such a role became the promise that was never realized. I became Ezekiel’s sole source for academic instruction.

I often added an extra two-hour academic session per week during this very rough period in Ezekiel’s life. I typically lingered long after the session to discuss critical issues with Ezekiel, Rolanda, Rebecca, and Drake. Somehow, Ezekiel stayed on track with his reading skills at the Grade 5 level. In math, Ezekiel for the most part succeeded in demonstrating skill maintenance in the four basic operations and other fundamental skills absolutely necessary for mastery at Grade 5. As summer winds to a close, Ezekiel and I will continue to work toward full manifestation of skills pertinent to fractions, decimals, percentages, rudimentary algebra, and basic geometry so that he has maximal chance at success during Grade 6.

By the end of Ezekiel’s Grade 5 (2012-2013 academic year), he, Rolanda, Rebecca, Drake, and I breathed a collective sigh of relief. Ezekiel had survived. We all had endured. Ezekiel would never have made progress through this trying period in his life without his participation in the New Salem Educational Initiative, so that the adult members of his family were enormously robust in their words of gratitude. I thanked them in turn for their ongoing support of my efforts and for their persistence in addressing Ezekiel’s ongoing issues.

Ezekiel and his family unfortunately had an unexpected visitation from Drakes’s mother, arrived from Chicago, at the time of our 8th Annual New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet on 4 June 2013. This was an occasion at which Ezekiel and sister Anna were both slated to demonstrate their reading (and in Anna’s case, mathematical) prowess. I lamented this absence, because the positive attention that Ezekiel would have received for excellence in reading would have been a considerable emotional boost after a tough year.

But this summer, we have kept things on track. During a two-week span when I traveled to the Southwest to visit family, Ezekiel continued to finish the book of readings on which he and I were working as the academic year came to a close. I frequently called Ezekiel to see how he was doing while I was traveling, and I continued with such check-ins for several days after my return.

Then came the remarkable day of 19 August 2013, the events and interactions of which are recorded in Part Four.