While watching BET’s news special on Detroit Public Schools recently, there was a particular block towards the end of the one-hour show that reminded me of what I did for a relative a few years ago.
A mother said her son was hanging with the wrong crowd and on the brink of dropping out. Initially, he was doing fine in school, but then it faded. He start skipping school and she put down the law: either you do it my way or you walk. If you walk, you’ll soon find out you’re not as grown as you think you are.
Of course he decided to do it her way. Little did he know what was in store. The mother started popping up at the school and the phone and other luxuries were taken away while he was home.
Six years ago while I was on maternity leave, one of my teenaged relatives was having a difficult time in school. He just got tired of getting up early and sitting in classes for an extended length of time. On average, he went to school about two days each week.
He is from a single-parent home and his mother couldn’t always take off work to make sure her son made it to school each day. She was at her wits end.
Since I was on leave I volunteered to do daily checks on her son. I would pop up at the home during school hours to see if he was there. Plenty of times he was. And, you know what happened next…he was in the car headed to school.
His mother presented a letter to the school authorizing me to obtain a list of his schedule and for me to do unannounced pop-ins to make sure he was not only walking in the school doors in the morning, but was actually attending each class.
There were times when I showed up at the school, in specific classes, unannounced, to see if he was present. He was absolutely horrified when my face appeared in the door’s window. The teachers came out, I explained why I was there and showed them the note his mother sent. Each teacher exchanged phone numbers with me and appreciated the investment I was taking in a student.
It took some getting used to, however, my relative shaped up. I’m sure it’s because he knew that getting an education was in his best interest, but also because I “don’t play that.” I didn’t care about embarrassing him in front of his peers or the teacher.
Again, watching that block reminded me of my experience and hopes that many others are doing the same for students at risk of dropping out.
- Kathy Chaney
