Update >>>>> Academic Success under Circumstances of Extreme Poverty: The Continuing Triumph of Damon Preston and Javon Jakes in the New Salem Educational Initiative

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The names used in this article are data privacy pseudonyms---  my practice always for participants in the New Salem Educational Initiative who gain reference in articles posted on this blog.




This article is connected to another posted on 5 September 2016, and part of an ongoing saga that I have frequently related for this family of longtime participants in the New Salem Educational Initiative.


The saga provides a salient example of my efforts in the New Salem Educational Initiative to provide assistance to students and families in their life situations, with the ultimate goal of imparting to my students knowledge-intensive college preparatory education that will maximize their chances for lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.


As I have recounted in prior articles posted on this blog, the family of reference below is one that I have known for eight years, following Evelyn Patterson and her sons Damon Preston and Javon Jakes in their occupancy of three residences in Minneapolis, one in St. Paul, and one recently secured in a move (for which I was the moving company) to Coon Rapids;  this and other accounts also include reference to the relationship between Evelyn Patterson and Marcel Gifford.
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Through August and much of September, Evelyn Patterson and her sons Damon Preston and Javon Jakes were doing well in their new home in Coon Rapids.


Damon and Evelyn were getting along amicably. Ever the old soul and mature in many ways beyond his years, Damon was working hard to be respectful and helpful to his mom. Javon was not acting out with his former frequency.


Evelyn and I talked frequently. I complimented her for how neatly she was keeping the new place, which is much better appointed than the apartment in eastern St.Paul (her key social worker in the program in which she is enrolled helped her secure some quite decent furniture and lighting for the new residence). I always told her that she looked good (she had dropped a few of the many extra pounds that she carries for her average frame and height) and was glad that she seemed in fine spirits.


On one such occasion, Evelyn said, “Thank you, Mr. Gary.  [Despite my encouraging students and their families to call me simply, 'Gary,' many prefer to confer on me the title culturally bestowed on an honored elder.]  And thank you for all that you have done. Thank you for not turning away when I said all that crazy stuff. My boys and I just would not be where we are now without your help.”


I just replied: “It’s all been my pleasure--- and your efforts to gain your current situation are all that I need for thanks. I love you and the boys and will always be here for you, whatever you need.”


Her eyes teared up behind an expression of relief and joy. I hugged her, Damon, and Javon and then departed with a share in that joy.


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As for Marcel, he came around every so often and from the beginning of Evelyn’s move to Coon Rapids was a too-frequent source of irritation.   Marcel went to work at midsummer as a cook in a mid-range quality restaurant; he knew that he needed greater stability to avoid doing something rash, including any unwise impulsion back to the life of the street in Southside Chicago.


But Marcel missed too many days by calling in late or being a no-show for the new restaurant gig, the sort of behavior that has been a chronic behavioral disease for all of Marcel’s adult life. By mid-September, Marcel was showing up at the Coon Rapids residence far too often.


Unfortunately, a woman that Marcel had known lives close to where Evelyn and the boys have settled;  Marcel seized on this coincidence of proximity to reconnect with his old acquaintance and to deliver numerous false shadings of the truth about Evelyn’s treatment of him in their relationship. Some of the resulting rumors circulated the neighborhood.


When Evelyn got firmer about Marcel’s needing to stay away from her house, he launched a verbal tirade. He did not get physical, but she and the boys felt ascending fear.  Evelyn’s social worker counseled that she get a restraining order against Marcel.


Evelyn consulted me concerning the restraining order, and I concurred. I have great empathy for Marcel and love him as I have Evelyn, Damon, and Javon for the eight years that these people have been part of my life. But for the good of everyone, Marcel needs to make a clean break for a long stretch of months and, better, years, so that all concerned can try to move on toward more productive circumstances.


As I write this article on 10 October, Evelyn is due soon for a second court appearance that should definitively caution Marcel away from her residence at the peril of bearing the judicial consequences.


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Meanwhile, Evelyn, Damon, and Javon are welcoming academic year 2016-2017.


With favorable prospects for securing the restraining order, Evelyn seeks to maintain her newfound stability and decency of residential circumstances, and to realize her hopes for her boys. I continue to assure Evelyn that I will never fade from view, as so many others on whom she has placed hopes have been lost to her in this one earthly sojourn.


Damon and Javon are both doing splendidly in their new Coon Rapids academic environs:


Javon is reading now at the Grade 4 level and now has most of his multiplication tables memorized at only Grade 2.


Damon, on the strength of his achieving grade level performance on both math and reading components of last spring’s Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs), was placed in an accelerated math class of just ten students and is one of the top three achievers in the class. He is making “A’s” “B’s” in all of his classes, and he continues to move through the Political Science chapter of my Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, the third chapter that he has negotiated in this advanced text.


I remain adamant that Javon and Damon will receive the mentorship and academic training with me in the New Salem Educational Initiative that will assure futures more typically descriptive of children of upper middle class parentage.


And I continue through advocacy in the many venues that I've created for the K-12 revolution to exert pressure on decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools to deliver that excellence of education for all of our precious children that will make of our nation the democracy that we imagine ourselves to be.