Page 3 Portland Observer AUGUST 31,1989 Con't from Page 1 toon o f achievement that more than 90 percent o f the students earn in »me top New Y ork schools. “ T aft was near the top o f every negative ••si the city produced,“ Principal Warren remembered. “ It had one o f the highest drop-out rates, just about the lowest attendance and achieve ment rates, nearly the highest sus pension rate. The school had a very bad reputation. I had kids com ing into my o ffice w ith tears in their eyes, saying, “ W e don’ t think w e’ re that bad.’ I said, ‘ L e t’ s prove it.” They did-and Warren is proud o f the fact that he never used bullhorns or baseball bats or any o f the other flamboyant devices that have been glorified in the media in recent years, "y o u can’t intim idate people into learning,” he said, “ you can’ t use a baseball bat and say, ‘Hey, you:Leam.’ you have to serve as a positive role m odel.” There are few better role models than Jimmie Warren, who lives north o f the Bronx w ith his w ife, Freda, and their two sons. He was raised in Harlem. He worked his way through college-acquiring a bachelor’ s de gree from Long Island U niversity and a master’ s from C ity College o f New Y ork.(H e is now earning a doctorate at C olum bia.) By his own account, he was the o nly kid in his neighborhood to make it to college- and many o f his friends ended up dead o r in ja il. S till, kids at T a ft had life rougher than he ever knew. “ I was shocked,” he said. “ I had a teacher com plain to me about one student who was not doing his hom ew ork.l said, ‘ B ring him in. I ’ ll read him the rio t act.’ They brought him in, and I said, ‘James, I want you to bring your mother in .’ He said.’ I can’ t. She’ s a drug addict. The courts took me away from her.’ I said, ‘Okay, bring your father.’ He said, ‘ M y fa ther’ s a fugitive. I haven’ t seen him in fo u r years.’ I said, ‘ W ho are you liv in g w ith ? ’ He said, ‘ I was liv in g w ith m y aunt. She threw me out.’ “ W arren worked w ith a social w orker to fin d the boy a foster home, and the new p rincipal realized the kind o f challenge he was facing. Instead o f a quick, g litzy solution, W arren developed a series o f an swers to T a ft’ s many problems. A child in danger o f dropping out would be enrolled in the Adopt-a-Student program, in w hich faculty members- Warren included-in vited kids to their homes, called them on weekends and during vacation, and constantly en couraged them to keep trying. There was a program fo r pregnant girls, another fo r kids w ith low reading scores. O lder students who had amassed a few credits entered an in school GCD diplom a program. Kids w ith high absenteeism rates were enrolled in special after-school makeup classes that enabled them to gel back in step w ith their class mates. Warren added extra periods o f b io log y, math and chem istry to help his students do better on stan dardized tests-and teachers at T a ft w illin g ly volunteered their time. “ I wanted those teachers to think that their m iddle name was T a ft,” W ar ren recalled w ith a smile. The results were startling. The school now has a parents’ associa tion and active com m unity support. Eleven percent o f the graduates now get Regents diplom as, and 80 per cent go on to some form o f higher education. “ D on ’ t get me w rong,” Warren said. “ W e d id n ’ t solve a ll the problems at T aft. The dropout rate is s till too high; the attendance rate is s till too low . B ut we made some dents in the problem s.” w ith T a ft on the road to recovery, New Y o rk C ity decided it needed Warren in another tough school. O ut in the fro n t hall at Monroe, the kids scurried post in a class change. You could spot every type you ever knew in high school-the dreamers, the intellectuals, the wise guys, the jocks. They passed by a display o f photographs o f famous Monroe gradu ates: Regina Resnik, the M e tro p o li tan Opera star, is there; so is Leon Lederman, who last year won the Nobel Prize in Physics. But nobody has updated the lis t o f 20 years or so- since the school’ s demographics changed and the students’ faces be came largely black and brown. Jim mie Warren says he plans to make that honor ro ll current, finding d is tinguished recent alum ni to recog nize. “ When I see a k id w alk through the door at M onroe,” this principal says, he sees the makings o f another Nobel Prize-winner. “ These kids have the potential. A ll they need is proper encouragement.” Jim m ie Warren is going to make sure they get it. Walnut Park Apts Bob’s Outlet ★ Best Cash Prices ★ 5001 N.E. Union Speedy Service Factory Close Outs Overstocks DAD’S OIL SERVICE H eating O ils 104 N.E. 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