Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for December 24, 2006 FILLING A VOID

From the Wilmington News Journal...

Male role models help children enjoy learning

By ALISON KEPNER, The News Journal

WILMINGTON -- It is dinner time on a Thursday night, and Rodney Burruss Sr. could be home with his family.

He could be resting his feet after a full workday of scouring the mall for last-minute holiday gifts.

Instead, he is running up the basketball court in the Salvation Army gym on Orange Street, a whistle dangling from his neck. He is reminding the 40 first- to fifth-graders scurrying around him not to move with the ball unless they dribble and to pass to a teammate to get around a defender.

Burruss and four other dads started Kuumba Academy Charter School's basketball clinic three years ago to get more involved in their children's school. They meet three days a week for practice and games, focusing on discipline and teamwork as much as technical skills. The men do it not just to spend time with their sons but to be there for the others, especially the sons of single moms.

"They don't have their father figures at home," Burruss said. "We want to instill a male role model, a parent-type face in their lives."

Across Delaware and the country, educators are trying to get more men involved in schools, whether as parent-teacher association members, classroom helpers or after-school mentors. They see anecdotally what research also supports: Children with men involved in their lives enjoy school more, have lower dropout and expulsion rates, earn better grades and participate in more extracurricular activities.

In most schools, the most recognized parent group is the PTA. Most members are moms.

The organization began in 1897 as the National Congress for Mothers. Subsequent name changes haven't added many men to the ranks, so today about 10 percent of the 6 million members are male.

National PTA officials have pushed local leaders to attract more men, encouraging them to make groups more father-friendly by offering guys hands-on projects, well-defined roles and to-the-point newsletters.

They also suggested inviting them. A PTA survey found many men don't participate because they haven't been asked.

"It's good for the students to see that their dads are as involved as their moms," said Paula Sims, president of Gallaher Elementary's PTA. "You always want to be promoting that men care. They care about the kids, they care about their education."

Keene Elementary PTA President Jim Hill answered the call.

"The old adage is PTA is boring and it's not a fatherly thing to do, but it's been a great experience for me," he said.

Dave Carlyle is Maclary Elementary's PTA treasurer.

"I want my son to see me involved, and I want my voice to be heard," Carlyle said.

He wants other students to see dads participating, too. "Let them see us caring. Let them see us knowing how important their schooling is," he said.

Attracting men

At Downes Elementary, the PTA hosts a "Donuts for Dads" breakfast each November. Students may invite their dads, grandfathers, uncles or other men in their lives.

"If there is better communication and if the children feel that their dads are there, they can go and talk to them about everything," PTA volunteer Traci Hemphill said.

At Dunbar Elementary in Laurel, dads are invited to an end-of-the-year father's luncheon. Last year's meal attracted more than 200 men.

"We get to meet the fathers and speak to them and tell them how important it is that they get involved," said Bonnie Boyce, who heads the school's community involvement task force.

Dunbar also encourages men to volunteer at the school. Several retirees mentor children.

Both are the type of events suggested by WATCH D.O.G.S., which stands for Dads of Great Students. A father started the national organization after the 1998 Jonesboro, Ark., middle school shooting in which two boys killed four girls and a teacher and wounded 10 others. The founder of WATCH D.O.G.S. saw men as the missing element in schools and wanted to find a way to get more involved.

About 500 schools now have WATCH D.O.G.S. clubs, including some in Pennsylvania.

"While mom is great, when you can combine that child's life with a father or a father figure, things improve," said Scott Huse, national director.

"Back in the day of one-income households, mom had her role and dad had his role. That's the way life worked," Huse said. "Now, with two-, three-, four-income households, it's a shared responsibility."

A system and training

WATCH D.O.G.S. provides schools with a system to launch a men's club, offering training, programming and resources. One aim is to get dads to volunteer in the school one day a year, teaching them that even those who work or have busy day schedules can get involved.

"It's not about 10 guys. It's about hundreds of fathers in the school, finding one day to come to school," Huse said.

At Kuumba Academy, Burruss' group went a step further, creating what, in essence, is an all-male PTA. In addition to the coed basketball clinic, the Men's Club of Kuumba Academy organizes all-boy outings.

"We do a lot of fun things like [field] trips, going camping," said fifth-grader Derrick McNaior, 12.

Burruss' son, 11-year-old Rodney Burruss Jr., likes playing basketball or just spending time with his dad.

"It's fun because you get to bond with him," he said.

The outings are a way to spend time with the boys and build relationships. When the children need to talk with someone other than mom, they know the men are there for them.

"We basically take these kids under our wings as our own," Burruss said. "We've developed a great relationship with the kids. It feels like they are more comfortable talking with us."

Rainiera Cooper, whose fifth-grade daughter Dejah Seth plays in the basketball clinic, said the men go above and beyond. They teach the children to shoot a basket, and they show them how to tie a necktie, she said.

"They do so much for the kids, and they don't leave anyone out," she said. "Some of the kids don't have male figures at home. They can look up to somebody."

Maclary Elementary father Kevin Marcheski has a first-grade son who doesn't always have a dad at home. Marcheski and his ex-wife share custody, but he wants to see his son, Luke Marcheski-Parker, as much as he can.

That's why he eats lunch with him at school once a week, then joins Luke and his friends for recess. They play kickball or football. He goes to PTA meetings, too, and coaches his indoor soccer and flag football teams.

Marcheski remembers how involved his father was and how much it meant to him.

"Someday, when [Luke] has children of his own, he can look back and say the same things I am saying. I know how my dad made me feel," Marcheski said.

Dads aren't the only ones who can make a difference.

Ed Danisavich, a 68-year-old DuPont retiree, volunteers at West Park Place Elementary. He usually is paired with one or two boys for reading help.

"I like when the kids are below grade level in reading and by the time the school year is over, they are usually at grade level or above," he said.

In between books, they become friends.

"A lot of them are from single families, just a mother. They need somebody to be there, to be able to talk to them," Danisavich said.

He has been asked to be a substitute teacher but refuses.

"I don't want to do that because then I am an authority figure. This way I am just in there and helping them out," he said.

Retired science teacher Carlton Tappan, 77, volunteers at the school, too.

"Some of the kids don't know what it's like to have a father around. I guess I thought a man's touch would be a change from the usual routine," he said.

There is one boy who Danisavich worked with last year with whom he remains close. A few times this year he has been having a bad day, leading his teacher to seek out Danisavich.

"The teacher says, 'Ed, he needs to talk to somebody,' " Danisavich said. "So I'll sit and have lunch with him and talk to him. By the time the half-hour lunch period is over, he's happy and having a good day."

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FATHERING FACTS

• 17 million Children live with single mothers (25 percent)

• 26% of absent fathers live in a different state than their children

• 40% of children living in fatherless households haven't seen their father in a year

• 50% of children who live in fatherless households have never set foot in their dad's home

• Fathers in two-parent families are about half as likely as mothers to be highly involved in their children's schools; the involvement of fathers who head single-parent families is similar to that of mothers who head single-parent families.

• In two-parent families, involvement of both parents is associated with a greater likelihood that their children get mostly A's and enjoy school and a reduced likelihood that they repeated a grade.

• Fathers' involvement has a stronger influence on children getting mostly A's than does mothers' involvement.

Sources: National Center for Fathering; National Center for Education Statistics' 1997 report "Fathers' Involvement in Their Children's Schools"