Wayne State University
TED 7000
Dr. Bob Pettapiece
Master Student
123 Main Street
Detroit, MI 48200
Background-
I am currently a teacher in an alternative education program that services
ninth and tenth graders who are at risk. Our program has been very successful
in helping many of our students, but we also have a percentage of our population
that is unsuccessful in remaining in school. I have always been interested
in exploring what happens to our students once they leave our program, and
what options are available to them. That was the first goal I had in mind
when starting this directed study. My second goal was to spend some
time working with kids that are not at risk so that I could make some comparisons
between what is happening in the lives of seemingly normal teens compared
to the teens that I deal with on a daily basis. During the fall and winter
of the past year I completed 75 hours of volunteer work that would help me
accomplish these goals which, to state were:
Social Work-
Josi is a Family Service worker for the state of Michigan. Her basic
job description is to work with families so that they can keep their children
in the home, if this does not prove to be possible she is responsible to
place the children in foster care or in a program that can accommodate the
needs of the child. This may be a short term or long term arrangement.
There are always conditions put upon the parents and children for the child’s
return to the home. If the parents/children are successful in meeting
these requirements then their children are returned to their home. If
they are not the children may be permanently taken from the parent’s custody.
It is Josi’s job to make sure the children are appropriately placed and that
they remain in alternative care until the court deems they can return to
their parents. While I was with Josi we visited three programs that
house and educate children while they are not living with their parents.
Overall the programs tended to be very strict in there rules and schedule.
The teens were required to attend an onsite school and to contribute to the
overall success of the program through chores and other responsibilities.
In speaking with the site managers I learned that some of the teens in their
programs had problems with truancy but it was primarily because of extremely
difficult home situations that they were placed there by court order.
Many of the clients in these programs were also placed there because of neglect
and abuse charges brought against their parents by the state.
While I was with Josi I also spent quite a bit of time doing home visits with
the families of the children she was servicing. The majority of the
homes we visited were run down and I was surprised to find people living
in them, from the street they looked abandoned. The conditions inside
the home often mirrored the exterior of the house. It was an extremely
sad experience ? to see people living in those conditions in America.
My students at school do not come from the same type of environment so the
connections were hard to make, beyond the obvious. If you live in poverty
with drugs and abuse as your surroundings it is difficult to have the foresight
to see that education is important. Crime is not seen as a vice and
there are few jobs that pay well without an education.
TLP-
The Transitional Living Program (TLP) is a program that is sponsored by the
state and houses homeless teens. The teens may stay in the program
for up to eighteen months. While they are there they must work and
go to school, 60%-80% of their income is put into an escrow account and saved
for them until they leave the program, by which time they should have saved
enough money to get started in their own apartment. While teens are
living at TLP they are also required to continue they’re schooling, whether
through a GED program or regular high school. During the time that
I was volunteering at TLP I explained my goals to the administration but
I also told them I wanted my time to be useful to them as well. As it turned
out I spent the time I was there revising handbooks, manuals and documents
that they needed to have proofed and revised. The work I did for them
was helpful to them but it did not allow me to interact with the teens in
the program. I was able to sit in on two initial interviews but the
information I received was of very little use to me in regards to my goals
for this class. It was interesting to see the program because it is
an option for teens that find themselves in a difficult position but it was
not informational beyond that.
The Theater-
The last place I volunteered was a church. I have a theater background
and they were looking for someone to help direct a play and do some writing
with their teenagers. I thought it would be a good opportunity to have
some positive interaction with teens and also help me with the hours I needed
to complete so I offered to help. It turned out to be the most rewarding
and useful part of my directed study. My responsibilities were to help
the kids write a play, learn their lines and then put on the show.
While I was working with the teens I had the opportunity to develop relationships
with them and learn about their lives. Out of the twenty that I was
working with sixteen were involved in extra curricular activities at school
in addition to being at our play practice once a week and being actively
involved in the youth group at the church. Out of the twenty, eight
were on some kind of honor roll at school and seventeen said that they had
strong relationships with their parents.
Summary-
In the end my goals were only half met, I did see some programs that are
available to kids who are not successful in school but the programs I saw
were not available to the general public, they were primarily placement programs
for kids who were in trouble with the law or had severe home problems.
I was successful in spending time with kids who were not at risk and what
I learned was that they had strong families and activities that they were
involved in that helped to keep them out of trouble. There were very
valuable components to this process; namely it gave me a larger perspective
on the work that I do with my students. I believe it was important for
me to spend some time with kids who are in an even more difficult position
then my students, and to spend time with kids who have had more success then
my students. The overall result I believe was to renew my interest and
passion in teaching at risk kids.