THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509140008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Another View
SOURCE: By ARLENE CHAPMAN
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
I didn't know whether to feel amazed or amused by the letter (Aug. 23) in which J. M. Hickman took Norfolk schools Superintendent Roy Nichols to task for using the term ``street urchin.'' Hickman portrayed Dr. Nichols as a man with a bad attitude toward kids, a man who resorts to name calling.
Websters defines ``urchin'' as a ``small mischievous child.'' The term has also come to have a sort of Dickens-era connotation, suggesting neglected, hungry children who have no one at home to teach them respect, decent manners and generally civilized behavior.
And for that reason, it was an entirely appropriate choice of words. Dr. Nichols, the man in charge of fixing problems in Norfolk public schools - and the worst of the problems is classroom discipline - has diagnosed the reason with painful pinpoint accuracy: There are far too many children in Norfolk classrooms who are neglected, hungry and who have no one at home to teach them respect, decent manners and generally civilized behavior. There are too many of these highly visible children with seemingly invisible parents.
The fallout from that one ``simple'' fact affects everyone. When even a minor number of kids consistently disrupt classrooms, everyone suffers, and Dr. Nichols is the man who is publicly accountable for our schools. J.M. Hickman suggests that school administrators should never refer to any children except by their given names. If Dr. Nichols names these kids publicly, he would be fired, sued or both. Besides, there are too many of them to name.
Far too many children in Norfolk elementary and middle schools come to school without breakfast. And without lunch money. So they learn to beg or bully lunch money from others. After school, they roam the streets instead of doing homework because no one at home cares if they do homework or not. For some, there is no one at home. There are children in my neighborhood (Colonial Place), some as young as 6, who have the run of the streets from the time the school bus drops them off until the time I am putting my own children to bed.
As a parent volunteer in both a middle and an elementary school, I see the results in school: inability to read, inability to focus, inability to respect themselves and others. Inability to see any reason why school really matters. Anger. Defiance. As they get older, some of them assault teachers or other kids, and sometimes they get suspended - which puts them back on the streets.
Since J.M. Hickman dislikes the idea of using a sad, pathetic term like ``urchin'' to describe children who are growing up in sad, pathetic circumstances, I wonder what term should be used. I've heard some parents, mostly those who volunteer in middle-school cafeterias or chaperone middle-school field trips, use the word ``thugs.'' Some parents, fearing censure or not wanting to sound politically incorrect, use no words at all. Their children just quietly disappear from public schools. Many high-achieving kids go straight into college-prep or parochial schools after fifth grade because their parents are well-aware that even just a few classmates who are 15 years old, still in seventh grade and adept at stealing and fighting, are a few too many.
So it works like a silent brain drain, where everyone is afraid of using the wrong words. The public-school system is left to deal with all the low achievers while struggling both to protect and to meet the needs of the higher achievers whose parents either can't or won't give up on public schools.
Ironically, it sometimes seems as if just about the only people who have not given up on the street kids are the public-school teachers and administrators. I've seen firsthand, often, how they keep on trying, each with his/her own unique mix of compassion and discipline. Norfolk public-school educators are among the finest you'll find anywhere. Yet many of them feel frustrated and helpless because nothing they do in a classroom can counteract years of neglect, years of children forced to live as - well, as street urchins.
J.M. Hickman implies that Dr. Nichols simply lacks tolerance. Dr. Nichols is not getting paid a superintendent's salary to tolerate the neglect of the children nor to keep silent and do nothing about the growing number of them who would rather make trouble than make the grade. His job is to figure out what's wrong in the public-school system, call the problem by its right name and work toward solutions. And the fact that many valuable children - valuable African-American children and valuable white children - are being forced into the role of ``street urchin'' is the biggest single problem we've got. MEMO: Ms. Chapman is a resident of Norfolk.
by CNB