sapoman says:
SAVE THE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
THEY WORK MIRACLES IN NYC
By SOL STERN
May 1, 2007 -- THE schools that have the best record in our inner cit ies are also the most endan gered. It's a system that largely started here in New York City, too: America's Catholic schools.

Consider Rice HS in Harlem, run by the Christian Brothers religious order. For decades, Rice has rescued at-risk African-American boys and turned them into responsible men who go on to college and then give back to the community. Yet it nearly closed down two years ago, and remains on the edge.

Demographic changes and financial pressures have led to the closing of thousands of excellent inner-city Catholic schools and needlessly deepened the nation's urban-education crisis. Philanthropists - and policymakers - need to help these schools continue their mission.

It's hard to exaggerate the challenge that Rice and similar schools voluntarily take on. Young black males lead the nation in homicides, both as victims and perpetrators; have the highest rates of unemployment and incarceration; and lag behind every other racial, ethnic and gender subgroup in academic achievement.

More than 70 percent of Rice students are black - and more than 90 percent of its entering students finish high school and go on to college.

Of course, studies galore have shown that Catholic schools do a better job of educating inner-city poor and minority children than do public schools with comparable student populations. Why this "Catholic school advantage"? One explanation - perhaps the most powerful - is discipline.

Above the doors leading to Rice's lobby, through which all its students pass every morning, a plaque admonishes: "The 'Street' ENDS here!"

That message is Rice's alternative to the metal detectors in so many of our public high schools. It's there thanks to Rice's head of school - 61-year-old Brother John Walderman, a lifelong Christian Brothers educator picked to save Rice two years ago, when enrollment had plummeted from 400 students in 1999 to a bankruptcy-threatening low of 265.

In his two years at Rice's helm, Walderman has managed to stop the hemorrhaging, though the school's condition is still precarious.

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http://www.nypost.com/seven/05012007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/save_the_catholic_schools_opedcolumnists_sol_stern.htm

Answered 10 months, 1 week ago

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thetalk says:
hello hrsxo2b, I completely agree with you. There are many issues in the black comunity, but they are not unique only to us. All teens today are being bombarded with negative programing, advertising, entertainment, MTV, rapp music, violent video games, it is just horrible what is out there. We need to pull back the reigns on what our young kids are exposed to. As parents we need to stop trying to be our childrens friend, and start being the parents we are supposed to be. Which meens saying NO a lot more than what we are, and we don't need to buy them everything under the sun. Spending more time with our kids, and living the life we are telling them to try and live is what needs to happen. If we don.t start making a change soon, we'll have more of the same. Young girls getting pregnant, guys taking off not taking their resposibilty. Young kids getting shot Rampant drug use, and on and on and on.We can't allow our kids to be out at all hours of the night. We can't allow them to hang out with just anybody in the neighborhood. We must know where our kids are and what they are doing 24-7. It means playing the jerk at times as a parent, but that is what it takes.


Source: http://www.thetalk.us
Answered 9 months ago

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sayjuan2006 says:
Enter your answer here. I have been telling my son ever since he could truly unerstand me "I am your mother, you will do what I say, when you turn 18 and can take care of yourself until then I don't want to hear it, and if I do, you can not play your D.S., you cannot play with your friends and you cannot do anything that makes you happy, you know why? because if you were at place of employment and tried to do something like that, it could be anything use your imagination for your child, you would be fired, now get it together". He knows I am not having it and so does his friends when they come over to play, but I have aslo taught him that it he allows himself to get in trouble because of some nonsense he did not think to leve from then he will suffer the consequnces, "Don't allow yourself to get in trouble because of your friends" because your child will say so fast "well so and so was doing this" no I am sorry that does not fly. Let your child know that if they think it its better with their friends then let them go and see what it is really about. My son pulled a crying fit at the grocery store one day because he wanted to go to his fathers. I walked away with him standing there and finished my grocery shopping. I was not about to plead with him, he is a child, and when we walked out of the store I pointed him to the street that would take him to his fathers and said get to walking. he looked at me like I was crazy, I told you do not tell me what you are going to do. I am not about to let my child punk me into doing what he wants. If as a parent you can pass what you are doing along to yorur childrens friends then you are accomplishing a lot. Remember they are watching you a long with your kids, and if the friends of your kids don't won't to come over because of your strictness then that should let your kids know they really were not there friends, but anytime they want to make that right choice again you let them know you have open arms for them......

Answered 6 months, 2 weeks ago

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