At-risk kids get extra nudge along straight and narrow path

Every third-grader at the school, 1560 E. Cherokee Lane, takes part in the Success for Kids program, taught by the school’s sixth-grade teachers, for one class period each week. Success for Kids is an international nonprofit group aimed at helping ensure that at-risk children develop personal skills and strengths so they can become productive citizens.

The Las Vegas-based We Care, We Share Foundation subsidizes the local program, which costs about $50,000 annually for teacher training, supplies and licensing fees.

The group plans to spread the program to fourth- and fifth-graders and other schools, if funding is available.

The We Care, We Share Foundation is a year-old group whose members already had a relationship with the school.

A group of local businesswomen donated turkey dinners over Thanksgiving 2009 to needy families at the school. A few months later, they formed the nonprofit foundation.

Foundation President Marie Sarno and others suggested the Success for Kids program to principal Dennis Kubala, who was excited for the opportunity.

“I’ve been looking for something like that,” Kubala said. “(Students) are not taught social skills explicitly.

“I need a program that makes sense and enables kids to develop a common language with adults.”

The language of the program focuses largely on two opposites : “true voice” and “opponent voice.”

Kids are taught that their “opponent voice” is bad. It tells them to focus only on themselves and not to think of the feelings of others.

Violence, bullying, vandalism, name-calling and swearing fall under this category.

The “true voice” is good. It tells them to care and share with others.

During sixth-grade teacher Patricia Johnson’s March 11 class, students learned lesson 17, titled, “Why Care and Share?”

Specific goals for the lesson were to understand that change starts with the individual and that students should be caring and sharing with others.

When asked by Johnson what the purpose of the program is, students replied in unison, ” To be the best that we can be.”

Three groups of six worked together with specific responsibilities. There was a leader, a workbook keeper, a timekeeper, a presenter, an errand monitor and a cleanliness monitor.

Students discussed how their behavior, good or bad, could affect themselves, the community and world.

At the end of the lesson, Johnson reiterated a talking point from a previous lesson. She reminded students about Mahatma Gandhi’s saying, ” Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Then she asked everyone to draw a picture of their perfect world.

Semajaya Palpal-Latoc, 9, drew a person picking up garbage on a littered beach. She said it’s important to keep the beaches clean because turtles or other animals might eat the trash and die.

Semajaya, donning a Justin Bieber T-shirt, said the program has helped her a lot. She used to say bad words and make fun of people but no longer.

Kubala, who also went through the training with his teachers, liked the lesson where each student was given a geode rock, which is opened to reveal the crystals inside.

“They may all have rough surfaces,” he said, “but inside they’re beautiful, wonderful people.”

Other lessons included giving a bag of cookies to only half the students in the class. Without being told to do so, every student willingly shared his cookies with classmates.

Another time, the teacher turned off all the lights and lit one of two candles. The students suggested using the first candle to light the second, which she did. The first candle didn’t lose anything by sharing its flame, and together they made the world a little brighter.

Kubala said behavior referrals among third-graders decreased and attendance increased since the program began last fall. He believes the program will ultimately help the students’ achievement in the classroom because the better they behave, the less time they’ll have to spend out of class for disciplinary reasons.

Most of the 850 students are at-risk, and 12 percent are homeless.

Kubala is encouraged by the progress his students continue to make because he knows it’s tough for them, given their environment outside of school.

“A lot of them have issues that most adults couldn’t handle,” he said. “If I had half the problems they have, I’d be thinking about suicide — it’s that harsh.

“I’m impressed they actually come to school. They aren’t always perfect, but they made it. I’m proud of them.”

For more information visit wecarewe
sharefoundation.org.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.