Educators must inspire urban youths
By Del Stover
When Salome Thomas-El launched an after-school chess program at Philadelphia’s Vaux Middle School, he hoped to keep his inner-city students off the streets and create an opportunity for them to improve critical thinking skills.
He had no inkling, of course, that his students would go on to become eight-time national chess champions. Nor could he have known that he would help them raise their own expectations and inspire hundreds to graduate and go on to college.
But that’s exactly what happened. And it’s why the nationally acclaimed educator was the keynote speaker for the Council of Urban Boards of Education meeting at the Annual Conference.
Thomas-El believes a key role of urban educators is to inspire and motivate inner-city students.
Of course good parents are out there, he said, but many fall short. He told the story of a father who got into a shooting exchange on the street -- and shot his son by accident. The father fled. It was a school counselor who ran out and shielded the boy’s body with his own.
“For many children, school is their home,” he said. “It’s the only place where they feel safe.”
School also can be the only place where students hear messages of hope, said Thomas-El, principal at Philadelphia’s Russell Byers Public Charter School and coordinator of the district’s after-school chess program.
His almost two decades of work with inner-city students hasn’t always been easy, he said. Particularly painful has been the tragedy of attending the funerals of students -- some as young as 10 or 11 years old -- who were struck down by street violence.
What’s helped him live with such realities is the pride in seeing other students succeed academically and take steps to a more promising future, Thomas-El said. One day, he recalled, he received a telephone call from a former student who announced he was graduating from college -- and then decided to make the long trip to attend the graduation ceremony.
What was particularly telling, he said, was that no one from the young man’s family saw him receive his degree. But several teachers were there.
“The children you work with are blessed to have people like you,” he said. “That’s so encouraging for young people” who experience so much violence, disappointment, and neglect. “The only thing they want to hear from an adult is, ‘I’m here today, and I’ll be here tomorrow.’ ”
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