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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