Principles of the New Salem Educational Initiative That Should be Extrapolated for Application by Decision-Makers in the Minneapolis Public Schools

I initiated the New Salem Tuesday Tutoring Program in 1994. That program serves mainly students from families who are members of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church and is attended also by other young people (and adults resuming or continuing their formal education) in the Twin Cities, especially North Minneapolis. The program features a traditional tutoring scenario. I have four tutors working under my direction, serving about 15 regular attendees who may be joined by 10 or so additional students on any given evening. The emphasis is on mathematics and reading, many of the materials for which I generate


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The seven-days-a-week program features 17 small-group (one to five students) sessions conducted solely by me. This program offers the full range of principles that the Minneapolis Public Schools should extrapolate for application at the level of the central school district. I perform all functions of the small group program:


>>>>>  I typically pick up students at their homes and transport them to New Salem Missionary Baptist Church for their academic sessions.


>>>>>  I generate the curriculum, ensuring that students speedily ascend to grade level performance in math and reading if, as is almost always the case, they lag behind grade level as they enter the program.


Participants in the New Salem Educational Initiative attend institutions of the Minneapolis Public Schools, overwhelmingly those of North Minneapolis. All of my students qualify for free or reduced price lunch; many are young people from families facing the challenges of dysfunction or the array of difficulties presented by economic impoverishment. Such students almost always need very aggressive tutoring to rise to grade level performance.


>>>>>  Once students are performing at grade level, I launch them on a college preparatory curriculum. Except for students still at levels K-3, the young people in my program now study the chapters of my book, Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, as their chief source of knowledge at a level of sophistication and with the breadth and depth necessary for embracing college and university classes.


The book features fourteen chapters, focused individually on economics, psychology, political science, world religions, world history, American history, African American history, literature, English usage, fine arts (visual and musical), mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics.


We also read and discuss articles from newspapers, magazines, and academic journals--- either from original print versions or from online sources printed out in hard copy form. I introduce my students at grades 4-12 to high quality literature such as the plays of Shakespeare, Greek drama (Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides), the epics of Homer, poetry and fiction from the Harlem Renaissance, and great 20th and 21st century playwrights such as Arthur Miller and August Wilson.


As my students enter Grade 8 I start training them explicitly in the skills specific for taking the ACT college readiness exam, for which the foundation has already been established in my challenging curriculum, which contains sophisticated vocabulary associated with university level material.


With younger students, I use mathematics and reading materials that I generate myself, augmented by high quality literature and material drawn from the Core Knowledge series edited by E. D. Hirsch. I always have a vision for my K-3 students leading to the knowledge intensity of Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education and other college preparatory materials.


>>>>>   I do anything necessary to assure that students who will be first-generation university students stay on a course leading to that status. Students whose family lives are described by poverty or dysfunction require adroit and specific care.


Thus, in superintending the New Salem Educational Initiative I memorize three or four telephone numbers for each student, via which I can get hold of adults with some association with the young people. I know not only their residence of most frequent occupation but also other homes or places where I am likely find them on any given day. I counsel my students and their family members; help them to work through any difficulties in human relationships; provide labor and physical assistance around the home as requested, and refer them to services necessary to deal with the array of difficulties faced by people mired in the circumstances of poverty.


>>>>>   Thus, my students have via participation in the New Salem Educational Initiative, preparation for advanced knowledge acquisition that follows the four principles that I have been emphasizing for extrapolation by decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools.


Student participants in the New Salem Educational Initiative are presented with


1)  carefully sequenced knowledge-intensive curriculum throughout the K-12 years;


2)  a teacher who has trained assiduously to provide knowledge-intensive curriculum;


3)  aggressive tutoring as necessary for establishing the grade-level knowledge and skills in mathematics and reading that are required for advanced learning;


4) an array of services that extend right into their homes, upon firm relationships established with family members, and involving thorough knowledge of the life circumstances of each young person.


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Decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools must follow these four principles to achieve success in behalf of every single precious life under their care.


Failure to do so would be that of inept professionals at the Minneapolis Public Schools.


The students themselves are eager for knowledge, masterful teaching, supplementary academic instruction, and attention to home and community. They have been waiting a long time for lives of cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction toward which excellent K-12 education leads.


Education professionals have heretofore failed them.


I will not let this situation continue.


The future of the Minneapolis Public Schools must entail excellence of education in accordance with the four principles manifested in the New Salem Educational Initiative.


Hence, I am exerting pressure via several media to impel revolutionary change in the Minneapolis Public Schools.


Articles soon following upon this one will provide further detail as to my efforts to revolutionize the K-12 experience of students in the Minneapolis Public Schools.