Project LIFT hopes to join the Million Father March in a big way, summoning fathers and male stand-ins to walk 7,500 students to school Monday morning.
The march is an effort led by the Chicago-based Black Star Project, designed to boost academic achievement among African American and Latino students by getting fathers involved in their education. This won't be the first time local groups and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools parents have taken part, but LIFT has extra money and energy behind the push.
Parent engagement is a key part of the five-year, $55 million quest to turn around West Charlotte High and its eight feeder schools. Those schools have high poverty levels and a large number of students being raised by single moms or grandmothers, so Project LIFT is also recruiting local fraternities and members of Men Who Care Global and 100 Black Men of Charlotte to escort students on the first day. While the first-day walk is symbolic, the real goal is lasting involvement by fathers and male mentors.
LIFT staffer Christian Friend posted on the project blog about the impact of having a loving but distant father and losing him too early. "For years I resented by father," he writes. "I resented not having more time with him. I resented the lack of attention and emotion I got from my father. As I approach 40, I really appreciate my father. ... His work allowed him to provide a great life for my brother and I. More importantly than that, my father blessed me immensely because I did see him and I knew he loved me.
Click here to read more about the Project LIFT effort or to register. Of course, dads at any school can take part by showing up with their child on Monday -- and staying involved afterward.
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13 comments:
As they say, it takes a village...
Unfortunately.
If the goal is lasting involvement by the father, how is a fraternity brother walking a child into school on the first day going to change anything? Sorry to be a pessimist but this is a sad commentary on lives of many of our young ones here in Meck county.
I hope this group might also help dispel the idea that young African American boys should get a pass on discipline issues because of their "culture". Perhaps in addition to encourage walks to school they could emphasize that self control and respect for teachers are two of the cornerstones of academic success.
Gosh , I just hope someone does background checks on mne walking kids to school. I mean come on folks wake up. Project LIFT your ideas are from the stone age. Great results though on graduation rates Heath says so. I am jsut not buying it.
81% graduation rate my foot! Sounds like fuzzy math to me.
11:36 anon- CMS and Heath say so to the 81% grad rate. How dare you question a system held in such high regard? With the history of CMS and public math numbers they could be off by as little as 30 to 40% of that number. The PR leader got promoted so she is probably in charge of the Fuzzy Math Department. Keith W. Hurley
...wonders if you have to wear fuzzy slippers and have a perpetual warm fuzzy in the fuzzy math department.
The ACT testing data cannot be manipulated by CMS.
THIS TOLD THE TRUE PICTURE !
Another MOrrison changing the names ( Zones , Learning Communities, Pay for Performance, PTP and on and on and on} will come next with another name for the same BROAD playbook. Frontline teachers will continue to loose salary and benefits as they move the deck chairs around. The only ones that will get a bonus are the front office (market adjustment) people. This is the year Charlotte begins a MAJOR setback with the quality of educators that will take a decade to catch back up.
Another program. Do we really need more programs? Where have any of the old programs gotten us? Don't most programs cost money? We just need adults to act like adults and parent their children.
Ann, why are parents getting class room assignments for their kids as vacant. Poor poor communication from CMS. Heath you want to get ahold of this thing before you lose control. It's slipping out of control and no party is going to improve your mngmt skills.
I applaud the effort. At the least these men serve as a role model, something these kids badly need. Maybe they will see that tree is a way to earn respect other than being multiple young unwed mothers' baby daddy.52
Where is the photo op and program of MOrrison going door to door to get the kids to return to school?
It was a gimmick and publicity stunt just like the celebration event at Time Warner Arena.
There is no consistency other than hundreds of administrators moving around programs with name changes to justify their salary!
Why have more special programs (or even Project LIFT) when the solution to the academic problem among blacks was found nearly 50 years ago?
Technology was the answer then (especially corporate sponsored, "real-world" technology) just as it often is today.
This could have all been nipped in the bud if only they had used the
Dictaphone Electronic Classroom
(using Dictaphones with Dictabelt technology!)
as recommended by Beulah Brown in the Journal of Negro Education back in the summer of 1966.
Among its reputed benefits were (p. 248):
(3) Teachers can work more closely with the children and help build a more solid foundation for today's complex living.
(4) Teachers and pupils will find the "teaching-learning" experience loads of fun.
(5) Classroom discipline (surface behavior problems) will be almost nonexistent.
(6) Slower and less alert pupils will receive more from this personal belted teaching-learning experience.
(7) Potential dropouts will have a greater incentive to stay in school a while longer.
At least according to this "study":
"Learning is Fun" with the Dictaphone Electronic Classroom -- A Discussion.
By Beulah E. Brown, The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 35, No. 3, Summer 1966.
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