Jack earns his diploma!
A year ago (April of 2008), those who knew Jack were sure he would not finish high school. His parents, teachers, vice principal, school social worker, special education consultant and one of the school interventionists had all tried to come up with something, anything that would work for him at his high school. Jack told the Project Coordinator that he just didn’t want to be in school anymore and that having to come every day when he knew he wasn’t going to walk across the stage in May was making it too hard for him. He quit going to class. Eventually, he registered for Future Pathways, a project-based alternative program through the Des Moines Public Schools. Future Pathways is dependent on individual motivation – you either go or you don’t. There are no set times or days that you must attend. This was a sharp contrast from the traditional school day he was accustomed to and had trouble attending. IHAD staff were not that confident that it was the best situation for Jack, but he had exhausted most other options.
This is where Jacks’s story could have ended. Many kids who begin at Future Pathways do not follow through to finish their credits or even make it through the door to begin. Jack’s history of attendance problems, difficulty with authority and even some drug use made him the perfect candidate to be a drop-out.
Jack had a good support system at home, his parents always encouraged him to finish his education. His mom talked to him about his Native American heritage and her belief that alcohol and drugs had ruined some family members’ lives. IHAD staff talked to him about anything they could think of to motivate him. Jack is not a big talker himself, so no one was sure if he was really listening.
Jack’s attendance at Future Pathways was getting more and more sporadic last fall when the IHAD staff realized the reason for his absences; he didn’t like to be in the Future Pathways classroom. The Staff spoke with his teachers and worked out a deal between Jack and Future Pathways: he could do his work in the IHAD office, focusing on smaller pieces of the larger projects, and check in at the school as he finished things. (Jack came to the IHAD office nearly 50 times during this past school year. After realizing that he could do his work anywhere, something seemed to click for Jack and he started finishing projects.
In January Jack’s mother asked IHAD to assist Jack in getting his driver’s license. No one in the family has an insured car that he could use to pass the driving portion, so he used an IHAD staffs’ vehicle. (He had been driving for several years without a license and had luckily never been caught.) More than a month later, we found a time and he finally met the staff to retake the written test and try the driving test. When he finally made the leap, he passed the written and failed the driving test. It took three or four more scheduled meetings before he actually showed up as planned and again attempted the testing to get license. Jack is not a very expressive guy, but he was very, very happy when he got that license!
Something changed for Jack in the fall; he realized finishing high school was a very real possibility. When he began the Future Pathways journey,Jack had only 13 of the 21 credits necessary to graduate. (Of those 13 credits, at least half of them were completed because he worked individually with the IHAD tutor, Mr. Nizzi, or the IHAD Staff). Jack realized that persistence does pay off — he no longer will give up if the answer is not readily available, rather he knows that he has the ability to reach for and achieve a goal.
Jack is now exploring the possibility of attending the truck driving program at DMACC at the next offering.
Jack is exactly the kind of kid who benefits from the support of “I Have a Dream”. There are other Dreamers who have had better grades, graduated on time or early and will go to college or are already there. The long term support of “I Have A Dream” is what helped Jack be successful; the staff were always there for him and did not give up on him. His achievement came by doing the work assigned to him, but the certainty that there was someone walking beside him was the determining factor. He specifically said “I don’t think I’d have done this without you!”