Our reason for visiting Milwaukee was to spend some time with Priscilla’s nephew, Henry, who is the Superintendent of St. Marcus School, a Christian inner city Choice School specializing in college preparatory studies. We enjoyed some social time together on Sunday afternoon and on Monday spent a couple of hours at the school, visiting classrooms, interacting with some students and learning about the mission and results of this innovative project.
The school serves students from K4 through 8th Grade and focuses on a full range of educational courses as well as extracurricular acitivites. Currently, the school attendance is 425 students, however, a major fundraising campaign is in full swing to build additional classrooms to accommodate a long list of students on the waiting list.
More information can be found on the school website: www.stmarcus.org but this is our personal impression. When we arrived at the school at 9:30am, there was complete silence - something we did not expect! Students, dressed in uniform, were walking in single file to their classrooms. Others were at their seats with books open. Keep in mind that most of these students come from a challenging environment, often living with a single parent, and are targets of gang and drug leaders. Any student who is not sitting at his/her desk at 8:00am with books open is considered “tardy” and there are consequences for this. Today the attendance figure was 99% which is normal for most days. A staff member visits the home of any student not present and accompanies the child to the school unless there is a legitimate reason for the student to remain at home.
In middle school each class has an Ambassador who came up to us and explained what project the class was working on. The teachers spend a lot of time praising individual students for good behaviour and encouraging others to act in the same manner. Discipline is strict and students have their ties removed for various infringements. They know what they have to do to get their ties back and in the meantime it is a clear signal to everyone in the school that they need to improve in some aspect of school life. Honors students wear different colored ties and they wear these proudly! At every opportunity, the children are challenged, encouraged and praised - something few of them receive at home.
We learned that plans are place to purchase a nearby church and turn this in to a facility for children aged 6 weeks to 3 years. The concept, of course, is that the earlier the children can be exposed to a caring environment, the easier it will be for them to reach their full potential.
The success of students who have graduated to high schools is monitored by an Alumni staff and ex students are offered tutoring and counseling for as long as they need it.
As we learned from Henry, some students have such deep and lasting scars that they will never completely achieve their full potential, however, the staff of St. Marcus have made it their mission to do whatever it takes to give them the best possible opportunity to become a positive force in the world.
The school’s success has not escaped the notice of many generous benefactors in the city of Milwaukee - and nationwide - and this will allow the school to continue its great work.
We could have spent longer at the school but it was time to head south to our next destination ... Graceland!
More information can be found on the school website: www.stmarcus.org but this is our personal impression. When we arrived at the school at 9:30am, there was complete silence - something we did not expect! Students, dressed in uniform, were walking in single file to their classrooms. Others were at their seats with books open. Keep in mind that most of these students come from a challenging environment, often living with a single parent, and are targets of gang and drug leaders. Any student who is not sitting at his/her desk at 8:00am with books open is considered “tardy” and there are consequences for this. Today the attendance figure was 99% which is normal for most days. A staff member visits the home of any student not present and accompanies the child to the school unless there is a legitimate reason for the student to remain at home.
In middle school each class has an Ambassador who came up to us and explained what project the class was working on. The teachers spend a lot of time praising individual students for good behaviour and encouraging others to act in the same manner. Discipline is strict and students have their ties removed for various infringements. They know what they have to do to get their ties back and in the meantime it is a clear signal to everyone in the school that they need to improve in some aspect of school life. Honors students wear different colored ties and they wear these proudly! At every opportunity, the children are challenged, encouraged and praised - something few of them receive at home.
The success of students who have graduated to high schools is monitored by an Alumni staff and ex students are offered tutoring and counseling for as long as they need it.
The school’s success has not escaped the notice of many generous benefactors in the city of Milwaukee - and nationwide - and this will allow the school to continue its great work.
We could have spent longer at the school but it was time to head south to our next destination ... Graceland!
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