Headline: ASK
THE STUDENTS ABOUT BEAUMONT
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman
Publication: ST.
LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., May 29, 1994
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 4B, Edition: FIVE STAR
SOME STUDENTS
AT Beaumont High School made one thing very clear to me last week: In this day
and age of school desegregation, it's not always easy going to a non-magnet,
all-black school.
It's
not because the facilities are bad or the teachers are lousy or anything like
that. In fact, the youngsters I talked with had high regard for their school,
the facilities and other parts of high school life that most teen-agers enjoy.
But when it comes to what others say about them - what the news media sometimes
say about them, even what other black students who go to racially mixed suburban
schools say about them - they think they are getting a bad rap.
I sat down with
a bright bunch of Beaumont juniors and seniors who wanted to talk about their
school and offer their thoughts on school desegregation.
They
had no trouble expressing them.
Twanisha McDaniel,
a senior, said she had attended grade school in the Ritenour School District.
"There they kept me in remedial courses, " she said. "They never
tested me for remedial, they just assumed I should be there. I don't feel the
teachers pushed me like they should have, and I never did get the attention
that I needed."
She's
got that at Beaumont, she said. "None of my classes have more than 20 students,
and the teachers care about me, they work with me and push me to do my best,
" she said. So far, she's been offered $70,000 in scholarships and has
a 3.75 grade point average.
"That's
not because my classes have been easy, " she said. "They're not. But
my teachers have given me the attention that I've needed, and that's helped
me a lot."
Chakakuan Johnson,
another senior, has a brother who goes to school in St. Louis County and wonders
if teachers in suburban schools have stereotyped city kids. "My brother
says he raises his hand in classes and the teachers ignore him, " she said.
"I wonder if it's because many of those teachers believe that students
from the city can't make it, so they start off with the idea that those students
can't do the work."
Chakakuan
repeated what most of the students said: They thought the difference was in
the teachers. "The teachers here really care about us, " she said.
"They stay after school all the time to work with us or help us when we
need help." She pointed to a recent experience when she needed to stay
after school to do some research in the school library.
"The
library closes at 3:30, " she said. "But the librarian stayed until
5 so I could get my work done. A lot of the teachers are like that."
Said Lavell
Gordon, a junior: "Most of the teachers end up being like a good mother
or like a best friend."
The Beaumont students
say they often must deal with ribbing from teen-age friends who attend suburban
schools. Those friends think their own education is better than that offered
in the city schools, the students told me.
Junior
Anita Keely, who went to McCluer North for her freshman and sophomore years,
said: "A lot of the kids in the county schools have a feeling of superiority
when it comes to talking about students in city schools. But I don't see it.
In a lot of ways, I think our school is better than many of the country schools."
Several students
noted various programs targeted to city students, allowing them to study advanced
subjects and to get college credit.
Several also referred to the St. Louis Internship Program which,
through the St. Louis Board of Education, pairs students who have interests
in certain areas with businesses. The students work as interns and are paid
as well. That program started out for youngsters interested in law, pairing
them with St. Louis area law firms. Now nationally recognized, it has expanded
to include a wide variety of careers.
The students said
they're frustrated by the news media, which they said often focus only on the
most negative aspects of their school. I pointed out that their complaint is
no different from that of many who believe those of us in this business are
only out for bad news. While I don't believe that's true, the students said
they thought their day-to-day activities and the good things that they do are
ignored by the media.
"People
think things are really awful in the city schools, and they're really not nearly
as bad as they think, " said Isis Mann, a senior.
Regular readers
of this column know that I speak highly of school desegregation because it allows
students from different backgrounds to know one another and erase stereotypes.
Sometimes, though, we have stereotypes of city schools and their students as
well.
When
it comes to city schools, like most things in life, it can be dangerous to make
generalizations. The Beaumont students made that very clear.
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