Apr 7, 2017

An Update on the Life Transformations of Evelyn Patterson, Damon Preston, and Javon Jakes

A Note to My Readers     >>>>>    All names for people of reference in this article are data privacy pseudonyms. 


The evolution in the lives of Evelyn Patterson, Damon Preston, and Javon Jakes continues to bless my own life on a week by week basis.

 

In a life spent doing everything I can to bring excellent education to the economically most impoverished members of our society, and having for many years served the poorest young people and families in the Twin Cities Metro, this is the most impoverished family that I have ever had the privilege to serve---  and they have responded with such successful exertions of their own efforts that they give me great joy every day my feet hit the ground.

 

In communications of autumn 2016 and very early 2017, I recorded how Damon, who had his ups and downs in the course of academic year 2015-2016 (which was full of the familial challenges that I also conveyed to you during that period), has thrived since making the move to Coon Rapids.  On his most recent grade report in this present month of April 2017, as we move into the spring of his Grade 8 academic year, Damon is making “A’s” and “B’s” in all of his courses;  to my delight, these include “A’s” in an advanced math class and “A’s” in physical science and English, three subject areas in which student performance is a strong indicator of success at the college and university level.

 

I have talked week after week with Damon about the importance of exerting the kind of effort that earns these kinds of grades, and he has responded with an outstanding school performance.   Even more important in terms of his accumulation of key knowledge and skill sets, Damon absorbs great stores of subject area knowledge in his two-hour academic sessions with me, as we continue to study the material in my Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education.  Damon now has a grasp of microeconomics and macroeconomics;  a multitude of concepts from diverse schools of psychology;  and major ideas from both the theoretical and behavioral spheres of political science.  He is very excited about this college preparatory journey and is in high anticipation of studying the chapters of my book focused on world religions, world history, American history, African American history, English usage, literature, fine arts (visual and musical), university mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics.  And, as I have mentioned in past accounts, Damon at just grade 8 is looking ahead to a career as an attorney specializing in contracts.

 

This is a young man who I followed through two residences in North Minneapolis, one in South Minneapolis, and one in East St. Paul, before serving as mover for the family from the latter shabby tenement to a better duplex situation in Coon Rapids.

 

The stories told in the lives of Evelyn and Javon are just as inspiring and rewarding:

 

Javon is only in Grade 2, has mastered his multiplication tables to the point of automaticity, and reads at Grade 5 level.  I continue to do a great deal of explicit vocabulary building with Javon:  Words such as pernicious, meritorious, credulous, confluence, and empathetic now come easily to this verbally adept second grader.  I can now foresee a situation in which Javon begins to read Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education with me by the latter stages of Grade 3, thus moving into material written for advanced high school and university students and intellectually ambitious adults.  Javon is a gem of a student, extraordinarily talented, extremely responsive to my instruction, ever eager for the next challenge that I put before him.  All of this becomes even more remarkable when we remember that just a few months ago Javon’s behavior at school did not match his intellectual precociousness;  now, though, after many a discussion with me as to how better to handle the issues at home, class, and on the bus that were impeding his progress toward his best self, his anger issues have now abated and his behavior is calm and respectful.

 

Evelyn is in a very different frame of mental and physical health than was the case at this juncture one year ago.  I have chronicled how she struggled to divest herself of the degenerating relationship with Marcel Gibbs, her partner of eight years, as the latter’s own emotional issues grounded in tough circumstances growing up in Southside Chicago were vexing both him and the trio described above.  For many moons that spring, through summer 2016, and through the move to and settling into the residence in Coon Rapids, Evelyn worked to terminate that relationship.  After doing so in early autumn 2016, she intensified her academic study with me, quickly recovered the high school level skills that had atrophied, sent for her transcript at a community college that she had attended in the Chicago area, and is preparing to enroll this coming summer of 2017 in Anoka-Ramsey Community College, with dual interests in criminal justice and computer technology.    

 

Late every Saturday afternoon, I swing out to Coon Rapids to give Evelyn a ride to a job she has secured in Uptown Minneapolis.  The bus route between Coon Rapids and Uptown is temporally inefficient and limited;  a cab ride would eat up much of what she earns.  So before I run my last academic session on Saturday at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, I make that run to give Evelyn the ride.  This provides additional time for us to talk and cover any issues of importance that have arisen during the week.

 

………………………………………………………….

 

I feel blessed each day my feet hit the ground to be able to give these three appreciative and responsive people different prospects in this one earthly sojourn than would have been possible without the requisite level of academic instruction, psychological counseling, and assistance with all manner of life demands. 

 

These three precious human beings now have ascendant prospects for ending the cycle of familial poverty that has heretofore endured for decades.

 

My commitment to the overhaul of K-12 education is similarly ascendant as I seek to induce change in the Minneapolis Public Schools that will make such life transformations possible for all young people living at the urban core.    

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