The If Project

Henry David Thoreau once said that educational institutions build castles in the air, with nothing underneath to support them. During this current climate of political educational mandates, such as No Child Left Behind, this statement could not be any truer. Instead of attempting to address the problems our schools are facing at local levels, we in education turns towards politicians to mandate solutions.

As an educator in a North Carolina public school system, I have found huge success in seeking outside programs & resources to reach at-risk kids. The implementation of these programs at my school, such as The If Project & Trips For Kids – Triangle, has opened the door for the community to take an active role in the educational development of my kids. In my experience as an urban public educator, I have found the only way we successfully reach our at-risk kids is when we rethink the way we define and deliver education.
For the past three years I have been using digital storytelling to give voice to my marginalized students. Each year, I change the focus of the program to include those students whom I feel could benefit from it most. This year I chose to make The If Project the framework of the digital storytelling program after honing in on my at-risk female students. For the first time ever, I am also keeping an online chronicle of my work with one student in particular, named “Hope”.

Hands down, Hope is the most at-risk kid I have ever worked with. At 14, she is a proud, unrepentant member of the Hispanic street gang, Surenos (also known as Southside). She is abreast of her legal rights, as our attempts to quash her “dressing out” (wearing gang colors) at school have been unsuccessful. She legally knows we have no authority to require her to stop wearing (or coloring her hair) blue. She is a walking billboard (and target, for that matter) for all things Surenos. When you consider she explicitly promotes her affiliation on a daily basis to over 800 middle school students, her impact in our building is far reaching.

The traditional educational response when dealing with a kid like Hope is to keep her suspended from school, while compiling the paperwork needed to transfer her out for someone else to deal with. Since August, she has already attended three different schools, and is back with us for the second time. Her next stop will be our alternative school, which is the polite term for our district’s educational dumping ground. She has two years before she can legally dropout.

Hope has experienced more at 14 than I have at 33. She’s already lost friends (and unfortunately lovers) to drive-by shootings, family members to prison, and most recently buried her “surrogate” Dad after he and his girlfriend were violently murdered in an apparent drug deal gone awry. She knows no structure or consistency as friends are here one day and in the hands of immigration officials the next.

I knew that if I were to have any chance at reaching Hope I was going to need to reach outside the classroom walls to find the appropriate voice to deliver the message. When I found The If Project, I knew I had just located the messenger for Hope. I had already attempted to begin this process with her before she left us for the first time in the early fall. I was the “Stay away from gangs” messenger and let’s just say that I didn’t get anywhere. She refused to discuss anything gang related with me, and used her legal knowledge to remain silent when I asked questions. She transferred out of my school before I had made even the slightest progress. She would cross my mind from time to time, as I would read newspaper headlines about missing kids and recent murders. I just knew I was going to be reading about her one day.

When she returned to us in late January, I was delighted! By this time I had located The If Project and given better thought to how I could successfully reach her. It took a few weeks of strong-armed negotiations on both of our parts, before she agreed to meet with me on a regular basis. She got lunch a few times, a free pass to class, and an afternoon hanging out in my office with access to the internet. In return, I gained “cool teacher” credibility, an ad-hoc education about the world of Surenos (as much as she could without jeopardizing her own safety), and an agreement that she would watch the stories of The If Project women.

It did not take long for the voices of the women to begin to reach her. The program gained immediate credibility in her eyes because of the nature of who these women are. It’s one thing for her to hear “gangs are bad” from our Student Resource Officer (or any other adult in the building) and another thing for her to hear it from an incarcerated former gang member. Once again, this only proved that the success of any educational message is often times dictated by who is delivering it. LaKeisha H. got immediate “street cred” in her minute and a half story, while I am still floundering sharing my middle class upbringing stories months later. By giving the women of WCCC a voice, an opportunity, and a chance to impact a child, The If Project is already changing lives.

Hope and I are only at the beginning of our journey together. There will be setbacks, and disappointments along the way, just as there will be progress and teachable moments for us both. In time, when she feels comfortable enough to do it, Hope will find the confidence to tell her own story. And maybe, just maybe her voice will impact another the way the voices of The If Project have impacted her.

To follow our journey, post comments or messages of hope, you can find us by visiting www.storycorp.wordpress.com.