Our Urban Experience: Day Three- Montbello High School, Reverend Kelly's Open Door Youth Gang Alternative Program.

We are up early on Wednesday morning to pile into cars and head to Montbello High School. This is going to be one of the more immersive parts of our experience, as we will be spending two days at the school, one shadowing a teacher in our content area and another shadowing a student.

We show up as the morning bell rings. We meet for 10-15 minutes with the principal and then are introduced to members of the student council. Each of us takes a student and we are escorted to our classrooms to meet our teachers.

Montbello is a huge school, compared to anything that I am used to. Although there are a number of schools in the Denver and Boulder area that are larger, the 1200 student population doubles, if not triples any school that I have ever visited. The population at Montbello is 40 percent Hispanic, 50 percent black and 10 percent white. Here, I do not look like anyone else in the classroom. The school itself is in excellent shape, with spacious hallways and attractive classrooms.

I meet with Mrs. Dickson in the Business Department. She is a large black woman with some 20 years of experience. She is teaching Computer Applications and Accounting this semester. I introduce myself to each of her four Computer Applications classes and then help the kids with their current assignments. It is apparent that Montbello High School does not have the technology, even in their computer labs, that I am used to. In Mrs. Dickson's classroom, there are about 25 computers. Only the teacher's computer is connected to a network of any sort. The kids are working on a graphics project to design a birthday card. The program that they are using for this project is Microsoft Word. Yeah, they are using the drawing tools of their word processor to design graphics. I am thankful for what I had at Cache La Poudre Junior High School.

Most of the kids are hard working and respectful. Mrs. Dickson has to bellow a number of times when kids got a little loud in the classroom, but not much. She is rather sharp in her redirections and the kids seem to respond quickly to her. I make a mental note of this disciplinary approach.

One thing that I am rather surprised at is the polite nature of the kids. In the four classes with Mrs. Dickson, I am called "Sir" about 9 times. This is 9 times more than I was called Sir at CLPJH for 10 weeks. Mrs. Dickson and I talk about this for awhile and she tells me that "M'am" and "Sir" are the proper ways of addressing an adult in the Black community. She also tells me and then I notice it in the classroom, that the Hispanic members of her classroom call her "Miss," while the black students all call her "Mrs. Dickson."

All in all, it was an enjoyable day. The kids were pretty good and seemed willing to work hard on a rather menial assignment. I enjoyed having lunch with Mrs. Dickson and Mrs. Johnson, another member of the Business Department.

I am not too sure about shadowing a student tomorrow, but the first day at Montbello was an enjoyable experience.

As soon as the bell rings, we all dash for our cars. We drive over to a local 7-Eleven for a snack break, then we drive to another part of town and our next adventure.

We head to Reverend Kelly's Open Door Youth Gang Alternative Program, housed at Wyatt-Edison Charter School. This program works with school kids of all ages after school to provide alternative activities and instruction to try to keep kids out of gangs. We receive a short overview of the program and then are taken to the main gymnasium as the kids begin to arrive. As they have their snacks, we are told to "mingle." This is a little strange, just walking in off of the street and trying to melt into a crowd of mostly Elementary kids. Some of our cohort blends right it. It takes me awhile, but I eventually start talking with a cute young girl named Iola. Iola is in fourth grade. She is black and her older sister and younger brother are also in the program. She shows me the book she is reading and tells me about Reverend Kelly's program.

After snack, the kids are all taken to different rooms to work on their homework. Iola is working on grammar, filling out a worksheet where she has to read sentences and find the right words to go into blanks. We work our way through this exercise, point by point. I find Iola to be a charming little girl, quick to learn. After she finishes her worksheet, she says that she is to read for 20 minutes. She starts in on a book, reading sentence by sentence out loud to me, stopping to ask for help sounding out words whenever she gets stuck. After about 10 minutes, we are told to pack up and head back to the gym for activities.

The kids then spend about 30 minutes playing basketball and sliding around on little wheeled carts, closely monitored by program supervisors. Iola goes to the carts, I shoot baskets for awhile, but mostly just watch the proceedings.

Soon, whistles are blowing and older kids are streaming into the gym. Reverend Kelly is coming! Everyone needs to line up. The kids stand at attention with their toes on the line around the gym. They are arranged by grade. The members of the Project Promise cohort are not sure what to do, so we sort of toe the line in an uncomfortable manner. As everyone tentatively waits for Reverend Kelly to come into the gym, Iola leaves her classmates and comes running across the gym to me. "Will you come stand with me?" she says. "Of course," I say. I return to her side of the gym and stand at attention with her.

The Reverend Kelly comes into the gym and gives a talk. At intervals in his talk, he barks words of import, such as "Respect," "Responsibility," "Violence," "Perserverance" and so forth. After he bellows the words, each kid, in unison, barks the word and then spells it, following the ritual up with another sharp report of the word. It is impressive and strange, all at the same time.

One 5th grade girl begins giggling and is called on to "Represent." She steps forward and is grilled by the Reverend. He barks words at her and she has to repeat them and spell them, properly, then repeat them again. He is very sharp with her, barking when she misses a letter. After a couple of minutes and about 8-9 words, she is done. The Reverend calls her forward and gives her five dollars. She looks proud.

Then, the Reverend solicits another volunteer to "Represent." A young man steps forward from the kindergarten ranks. "That's Michael, my little brother!" Iola tells me. He proceeds to "Represent" for about 5-6 words. He performs flawlessly. He is pleased with the round of applause that he receives when he is done. Iola is obviously proud.

The Reverend then calls each grade into the center of the gymnasium, so that the shorter and younger kids are close to him in the center and the older kids stand about the outside of the circle. He then talks to the kids about respect, obeying their parents, staying out of trouble, doing the right thing, etc. He ends by telling the kids that he yells at them because he loves them and wants them to grow up right.

Then, the kids run for the exits and their parents, brothers, grandmothers, etc. I find Iola in the crowd and give her a hug and wish her well.

The Reverend then gives us a pep-talk as well. He asks us to get involved and do what we can for the kids.

I shake his hand on the way out. In my mind, I compare the Reverend's style of discipline with Mrs. Dickson's. They are similar, very sharp, very direct. Both seemed to garner respect with their actions. This is not how we are taught at Project Promise to approach discipline, but it appears to work, at least in some fashion, for the Reverend and Mrs. Dickson.

Then, on our whirlwind day, we move on to the evening's activities....