New Haven Independent

Posted by: Sally Tamarkin | February 21, 2008 7:36 AM

Every time I hear about Amistad's behavior policies I get a little weirded out. There's always talk of some kind of emotional bribery, or I guess, snack bribery. I know it's deeply unpopular in New Haven nowadays to criticize the model because of, I guess, raised test scores and grades?

I visited there once and a kid who had behaved badly had to wear a yellow shirt, separating him from the rest of the group until his behavior got better. I remember him sitting all alone in the computer lab, looking forlorn while the other kids chatted and worked happily together. I couldn't imagine how making him sit alone (and dressed differently than the other kids) did anything other than make him not want to get caught behaving badly. In other words, how does it address why he was misbehaving or, most importantly support him so that he doesn't need to act out in the future? That seems like the most important piece to me, rather than an insta-response that has the immediate goal of getting the kid to fall back in line.

I know people are always saying "What Amistad does 'works,' so stop judging it." I must just not be understanding how it works as a whole, or something?

When I was at West Hills from kindergarten to 8th grade what seemed to work was parents, teachers and school support staff working closely with kids and teachers to get at the root of the behavior and deal with that (in a supportive, collaborative way) until the behavior or grades or whatever got better. I remember even the baddest asses of the badass kids after talks with teachers and staff were mellower, kinder and participatory. It sounds like Brandon Hogan and his parents and teachers worked as a team, which is awesome. But there are just some things about Amistad's "arsenal of incentives" and other methods of getting kids to be good members of society that smacks of social control.

Posted by: Walt | February 21, 2008 5:52 PM

Sure it smacks of social control Ms Tamarkin, Isn't that the intent?.

An inspiring story.

Very successful social control it appears.

The teacher, the administrator, the parents and the student, Brian Hogan, are happy and hope the success of Amistad's actions will continuie.

What is your problem? I don't get it.

Posted by: Ned | February 22, 2008 8:24 AM

Ms. Tamarkin: Don't you think it was the kid's own behavior that separated him from the group? Some people are sociopathic and no amount of socialization is going to change that.

Posted by: JMAC | February 22, 2008 8:51 AM

I agree that Achievement First schols have weird policies. Not just weird - oppressive even.

Walt - I don't think this is an inspiring story. Cute maybe. But for who? Parents, students and teachers? It read more like a big pat on the back for AF.

Beyond overly strict policies, AF has bad politics in this town. Sure - New Haven Public Schools aren't even close to where they need to be. But I don't believe that AF is the solution either.

Posted by: Sally Tamarkin | February 22, 2008 7:17 PM

Don't you think it was the kid's own behavior that separated him from the group?

No--kids misbehave all the time. It's part of being a kid in a school environment. What separated him from the group is the school's policy of, well, separating him from the group.

Some people are sociopathic and no amount of socialization is going to change that.

See, this is the exact attitude that leads to authoritarian punishing. When we start basing our discipline models on "they're probably sociopaths!" I think we've really missed the point. I think people with intractable emotional instability or mental illness are not the majority of kids in schools, wouldn't you agree? And, by the way, even if they were, these discipline strategies would be even more out of place.

What we should, in my opinion, base our discipline strategies on is working with kids to figure out what's going on with them and address the roots of the problem. Yup, punishment is sometimes necessary and helpful, no doubt about it. I've sent many a kid to time out. But the strategies in this story make us--the adults and readers of NHI--feel great about how the school is getting kids to fall in line. Let's not mistake that for a school model that helps kids learn and grow.

Also, picking up on JMAC's point--I agree that NHPS have a long, long way to go to get to where they need to be (which is why groups such as Teach Our Children are long overdue) but the endless lauding of AF that I hear all the time makes me feel like too many people are drinking the Kool Aid rather than thinking about the best way to work with young people.

Posted by: ericaholahan | February 23, 2008 5:33 AM

I have been intrigued and mystified by Amistad ever since it opened in New Haven. I read the article in the NY Times magazine a few years ago that reported on it and schools that had evolved from its model.

Clearly Amistad is doing good in New Haven. It enrolls students from underserved neighborhoods and lower-income families (I think there's an income cap? not sure).

The test scores and performance data don't lie, plus the people who work at and attend the school are living testimonials that it is a good place. People who know and have lived it speak highly of it-it seems to work. I think that Elm City Prep (is that right???) and one other school in New Haven have used Amistad as models.

That said, I agree with Sally in the sentiment that if you are questioning about Amistad in New Haven, you are put into a category of less-than-believer, or worse, condescending and "incapable of relating to the realities of today's urban, lower-income family". I didn't bring ethnicity into that sentence-if another poster wants to go there, more power to them.

The reality is, that every parent in this town below a certain income level (say 30,000? or lower? 25,000-depending on family size, of course) and whose best choice for school for their kids is the public schools is basicly in the same boat: time and resources are limited; even if one didn't have to work as a parent, it would be impossible to safeguard your kid from having a bad experince at any given school for any number of factors. Parental, teacher and administrative involvement only goes so far. Some schools, some administrations, some teachers, some classes just don't function well for every child.

Amistad seems to function well for the population it serves. I'm not clear on what the definition of that population is, but maybe someone could advise. For example, I don't think my daughter would be eligible, because even though we are low-income, I am a single mother, and she is an ethnic minority (I am not), she is by no means "at-risk" as the system likes to say.

The most hopeful part of the above article for me was where I read that Brandon's peers encouraged him, and treated him like he had circled the moon after earning his new shirt. It's a cliche (and I'm not a Hillary supporter) but the village concept of raising a child is working at Amistad. And since Brandon's parents have a large family, he can go home and be a model for his siblings as well.

I hope that Mr. and Mrs. Taylor do spread the good word about Amistad, and since they are strong in community involvement, use their experience as a teaching lesson for all of us. I would, for example, love to hear them speak.

Thanks Amistad, NHI and Taylor family, and especially Brandon. You should be very proud of your achievement, and New Haven is taking notice.

Posted by: ericaholahan | February 23, 2008 5:35 AM

SO SORRY- I got your last name wrong! The Hogan family! I was thinking of the director's last name, I think.

Posted by: Tori | February 24, 2008 12:26 PM

We are talking about fifth graders here. Some fifth graders can change poor behavior with a conversation, but not many. Many of them need some sort of incentive, either positive or negative, along with that conversation. And more to the point: Brandon will probably have many fewer behavior problems during the second half of the school year, and in sixth, seventh and eighth grade. He's been changed as a person through this process, and he's happier and so are his parents. I don't see anything wrong with that - and it means that he'll be able to learn much, much more in the next three years at Amistad, because he's already conquered a lot of his behavior problems in the first year.

Simply walking into an AF school and seeing a kid in a yellow shirt tells you nothing about how that kid got that shirt or what conversations happened and were probably still happening about his behavior. It's a bit presumptuous to assume that this consequence was unjust without knowing anything else about the situation. It looks extreme, sure, but is that kid going to make that mistake again? Probably not. You say, "Kids misbehave all the time." At AF schools, they don't, and they make major gains in achievement as a result. When they do, there are major consequences, and then they are welcomed back, as Brandon was.

Kids need structure, and AF schools provide that. Perhaps their discipline sounds "oppressive" to someone who did not have to go to a failing school, JMAC. I'm not sure what is "oppressive" if kids and parents are happy, like Brandon's seem to be. If I were a parent of a fifth-grader and I were choosing between a strict, structured school where kids achieved significantly and a more permissive school where test scores were low, I'd pick the first one. But that's just me.

Posted by: Sally Tamarkin | February 24, 2008 2:49 PM

Simply walking into an AF school and seeing a kid in a yellow shirt tells you nothing about how that kid got that shirt or what conversations happened and were probably still happening about his behavior.

This is no way describes my experience visiting an AF school. I spent a few hours with a few different teachers, at least three different classes at different grade levels and an entire lunch period in the cafeteria. I saw many student-teacher and student-student and teacher-teacher interactions and in fact got the whole backstory on the one kid I mentioned from his teacher. So, please do not assume that my opinions, because they differ from yours and AF's are rendered invalid because I "simply walked in" and wasn't privy to the context. I was and drew my own conclusions.

Tori, As a teacher at an AF school (which I was surprised that you didn't mention in your comment above) you have your own opinions about how what you do works, not to mention a certain investment in defending what you guys do there. I respect what you and other AF teachers are trying to do and I don't for a moment think that you and AF have anything other kids' best interests in mind. The AF staff and faculty members I know and have worked with in other contexts are great people.

That said, I don't agree with how you all do it. Period. Your assumptions about any one child's future achievement based on how they've been disciplined are exactly the point of what I don't like about the AF model. Discipline=achievement is simply not acceptable to me. It saddens me that AF's answer to the achievement gap and low test scores is social control.

If I were a parent of a fifth-grader and I were choosing between a strict, structured school where kids achieved significantly and a more permissive school where test scores were low, I'd pick the first one. But that's just me.

I envision a situation in which kids can get high test scores and be able to spend their long school days in a less punitive environment.

As for your "kids need structure and incentive" argument--sure. But what kind, is the question. In my own opinion, not the kind AF dishes out.

Posted by: ericaholahan | February 25, 2008 12:21 AM

Sally,
I used to feel exactly the way you do, and I probably still do, on a certain level. But when I became a single mother, some of my original ideals of childrearing went out the window.

It's not that I enjoy a disciplinarian's approach to raising my daughter, I just simply do not have the time, energy, resources, or quite frankly the parenting skills to make it through the day without being strict and setting limits, and constantly doing rule-enforcement. I feel like a classroom teacher doing management instead of parenting most of the time. (I hope the self-righteous single-parent haters are not being given fuel for their fires here.)

But I am doing the best I can with the reality of my life, and I think that the reason that so many parents approve of a highly disciplined approach in the schools (and the higher achievement that follows) is that this is the way their lives make sense. This is how to establish some order in a world that is very chaotic and sometimes quite traumatizing for children.

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't scrutinize and ask if there's not a better, different way. There is a sort-of mind-numbing, almost military style to what I hear about AF schools. But if parents want this, and they're happy with the results, isn't that a step in the right direction?

But what about the kids, you'll say? Are they happy? Maybe not. But it does seem like this school is providing the means for them to be potentially happier (and more successful) in the future.
ps-West Hills was also great for my sister, who was a classmate of yours. I miss those days-times seemed simpler, or something.

Posted by: Sally Tamarkin | February 25, 2008 1:32 PM

Erica, I agree with pretty much everything you said. The only thing that gives me pause is the "are the kids happy, maybe not" thing. I know you can't guarantee another person's happiness at all times, but banking on discipline leading to achievement leading to happiness is too circuitous and vague for me and not something I'd bank on in designing a discipline model.

Bottom line, I think, is that my personal philosophy about working with children doesn't gel with AF's. However, there are many schools and institutions that don't subscribe to the Sally Tamarkin Philosophy. That's not the only thing that bothers me here. Much of what rankles me about AF is the attitude people have about its superiority and the unwillingness to take a step back and consider if it's really the best thing there is, particularly when the majority of kids in New Haven go to NHPS, not an AF. That said, I see your points about being a single mom and resources and choices and so on and I appreciate the perspective you brought here. Thank you.

Yup, Kerry and I went to West Hills together. That place was fantastic.