(Vol. 1, No. 2 - Spring/Summer 1997)

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Adults "make the connection"
with Louisville's young teens



By John Norton

On her first visit to Thomas Jefferson Middle School, businesswoman Dee Maynard met an astronomer, an actress, a pediatrician, a lawyer, a veterinarian, and a professional football player. Future tense, of course.

The astronomer thinks he might have a career in baseball. And the football player, she learned, "plans to use business as a back-up. He has it figured out that he'll either go into auto sales or real estate, because he's a wheeler-dealer."

Maynard was one of more than 1,000 adult volunteers who learned something about the dreams and fears of Louisville's 7th graders one day last March by participating in the Jefferson County Middle School Coalition's "Middle School Connection" project.

Each volunteer spent an hour talking to kids about staying in school, pursuing a career, and planning for the future. The 20-minute sessions with three or four students may not seem like much, says Coalition organizer Cindy Read, "but even a little bit of adult attention is worthwhile." Read cites adolescence researcher Peter Scales' finding that the number one problem facing young teens in the 1990s is "the lack of connection to caring adults."

In libraries and lunchrooms across the district, business leaders and "just plain working folks" -- from doctors and lawyers to secretaries, firemen, and a Kroger pharmacist in a white coat -- tried to make that connection, with varying degrees of success.

David Cosby Jr., a budget analyst for Louisville Gas and Electric, relished the opportunity. "These kids need to see that somebody's interested in what they have to say. A lot of kids who choose the wrong path are looking for acceptance by somebody, just trying to belong to a group or find something they're not getting at home."

Like Maynard and some of the other volunteers, Cosby has spent time in the schools as a Junior Achievement instructor. "These 7th and 8th graders are kind of a challenge," he says. "They're at that crossroad age where they're beginning to decide what they want to do with their lives. Puberty and all is kicking in. It's the last hope to getting to them before high school, so you need to make a positive impression on them in some way."

The adult volunteers, who talked to nearly 6,500 students at 23 middle schools, brought a range of expectations to the table. Some said they came out of concern about the academic quality of the city's middle schools, citing recent reports of poor test performance and their own contacts with local teenagers. "I just don't think these kids are learning what they ought to be learning," said one volunteer in a parking-lot conversation after her visit. "I came to see for myself. And honestly, I'm still concerned."

A number of volunteers reported frank talk with students about school and community violence and their fear of gangs. "Gangs were apparent in this school, as well as drugs," one volunteer wrote on a feedback form to the district. "Three boys were pessimistic as to whether or not they would live to be adults." Others said students were able to identify gang members in their classes and did not feel safe.

But adult visitors to other schools were more upbeat. "Students in this school are directed," wrote one Barret volunteer. "Parental influence is very dominant. No mention of gangs or violence. All students comfortable. Good feeling here!"

Roger Richardson, a food service manager for Pepsi Cola Bottlers, came away from his sessions at Johnson Traditional Middle School concerned that 7th graders don't take their studies seriously enough. As he sat with three boys in the school library, he urged them to "set some short-term goals and some long-term goals. Put them on a piece of paper where you can see them all the time."

Afterwards, he worried that "the first young man I talked to just seemed like he's not grasping what this is all about. The second group of boys had it together a little better; they love math and science. But I don't think they understand how important it is to set goals in life."

When he attended Johnson in the 1950s, Richardson said, "I knew when I got out that I would go to high school and then find a job at Ford or GE or one of those places. I didn't have to learn too much. But you can't do it that way today. You've got to have some higher level skills. It's a tough life out there now."

Richardson recommended that the Coalition and the district take a more aggressive approach. "They need somebody to come in here and talk to all these kids about how difficult it is out in the business world. They're too dreamy."

While virtually every adult volunteer praised the Connection program and promised to participate again, they also had suggestions about ways to fine-tune the effort. Many complained that some schools had not prepared the students in advance for the discussions. Some felt the 20-minute contact was not enough time to have an impact. Richardson and others suggested that students would get "a better feel for the real world" and the value of an education if they were allowed to do internships with local businesses.

Students who were asked for feedback also had ideas about improving the experience. "Have a field trip to the job site of the interviewer." "Make a list of questions for kids to ask the adults." "Allow students to choose someone of their own interest." "Invite an unemployed person to tell what it's like not to have a job."

Read and other organizers agree that modifications are needed, but they're generally pleased with Making the Connection's trial run and plan to hold the event annually. Raschelle Gaines, an executive secretary for a Louisville marketing firm, says she'll be back next year.

Gaines says her now-grown children had similar experiences when they were in school. "As
a single parent, it was important to me for my kids to hear from people outside their own community that school matters and that there is room for them out there in the workforce. It
just opened up a world of things for them."

Gaines says her message to the middle schoolers will remain the same. "All the children I talked to had problems with math and science, and they don't realize how important it is. I told them I didn't realize it either when I was their age, but I'm here to tell you how much school has meant to me."
"I told them to have courage," she says. "I told them 'don't be afraid to learn.' "

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