THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 22, 1997 TAG: 9702220261
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON
STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 82 lines
George Pender never dreamed he'd ever see THE MAN in person. Number 23. His Royal Airness. Michael Jordan.
The 14-year-old fingered the number ``23'' on the jersey he wore Friday, before boarding a bus headed for a Chicago Bulls and Washington Bullets game in Landover, Md.
``This is the reward,'' Pender said, ``for all of our hard work.''
For the past four months, Pender and about 35 other students met once a week as members of a mentoring and tutoring program at Rosemont Middle School. Pender, who made one D and five E's two report cards ago, teamed up with C-average and A-and-B-honor roll students to help each other. Honor roll students helped those will poorer grades while the experience helped boost their confidence.
Learning responsibility was also a thrust of the program. Students were allowed to take the $90 NBA trip if they earned the money. And they earned the fare a quarter and a dime at a time.
Students had to perform chores at home at a set rate: $1 for cooking dinner, 25 cents for setting the table, 50 cents for washing one load of clothes and an extra 50 cents if they folded them.
They also lost money for shoddy work. A penalty of 50 cents was given for not cleaning up after themselves and 25 cents was deducted for forgetting to cut off lights.
Dean of students, Michael Harris, developed the program at the beginning of the school year to help students at risk of dropping out do better academically and to help the straight-A students lead the groups and shed their often too-shy demeanor.
``Many of our honor roll students made good grades but never made the National Honor Society because they were too shy and didn't have the leadership skills,'' Harris said.
``But this put them in the forefront and they did a fantastic job . . . and it let the at-risk students see how they worked, how they organized themselves.''
Harris and other administrators identified students for the program and placed at-risk students on teams with C-average and honor roll students. The teams developed goals such as increasing the number of A's on the next report card and decreasing their number of unexcused absences. Local businesses donated money to help students make the trip and also sent in guest speakers to talk to the students about career options and staying in school.
The group started out with 13 honor roll students and now has 20, including some of the students who had C-averages when the program began. Pender, on his last report card, made one A, three C's, a D and an E.
The students met every Wednesday to do homework but often discussed more than science and math.
``We'd go over a lot of things, fashions and peer pressure,'' said eighth-grader Mary Douglas.
``And we helped each other out. One kid had a problem getting organized so the honor students helped him get organized so that he could do his work.''
But the evenings and weekends belonged to their parents.
Jorel Smith, 12, mowed the lawn, washed dishes, set the dinner table, cleaned his room and swept the garage on a regular basis to get his seat on the bus. Each week his parents initialed and dated a form letting Harris know that Smith had completed the work and sent in the money for the ticket.
``He already had chores,'' said his mother Susan Smith,``but now he would say, `I have to complete this to go to the game'.''
Douglas' mom loved the program. Douglas is a straight-A student but her mom said her daughter improved in other ways.
``Mary was tickled that she was able to help other kids,'' Debbie Douglas said.
``And she's taken over the laundry. It became such a routine, she continues to do it.
``And I love that.''
The next mentoring group will begin in April with the golden pot being tickets to see the Washington Redskins play the Dallas Cowboys next fall. Harris wants to make the Super Bowl the reward for the following year.
Harris said: ``Hey, I've got faith.'' ILLUSTRATION: Brian Banks, 12, left, and George Pender, 14, donned
their Bulls jerseys for their reward trip for taking part in a
mentoring/ tutoring program at Rosemont Middle School. These and 34
other students worked on teams to help improve their grades.
LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot