Human Voices Wake Us

I good friend of mine has taken it upon herself to become a mentor of a step team. Think Stomp the Yard. She has no dance training and really no clue of what stepping is, other than the basic concept. So why did she agree to do it? Because she has a heart for kids. One of her students last year asked her if she would sponsor a step team. My friend brilliantly recognized an opportunity to mentor. She asked for and was granted a dedicated period to spend mentoring the girls who would be the step team members. She held a meeting and did some research. I believe that the girls who attended the meeting had something close to 4oo referrals combined, not to mention high rates of missed days and tardies. Wow. What a challenge. My friend has gathered articles and has great plans. Because the school doesn’t have a mentoring program in the traditional sense, the step class will be mentoring for some at-risk girls. When a school can’t or won’t create a school-wide mentoring program, teachers can (and do) make a difference by creating one themselves. I am so proud to be able to call Cherry my friend.

For several years I’ve been trying to get a high school to reinstate a mentoring program. There are always reasons why it can’t be done, and all of them make perfect sense. Research shows that having one sustained adult mentor in a child’s life can make all the difference. Why are we so unwilling to do what’s necessary even when it might be difficult? It’s like the teacher who gripes about a student being out of her/his class to meet with someone who is trying to get the kid on track. So often schools put a bandaid on the problem instead of going to the root. Yeah, the kid might miss a couple of periods, but if that fixes his/her problem of not studying, being tardy, being a discipline problem, wouldn’t that be worth it? I guess I get frustrated that people don’t see the big picture. But I’ve learned that I am a big picture person and some are not. How do I come to terms with that when I think that I obviously see what’s best down the road and other people won’t bend? Maybe in some way that’s the frustration of all educators.