Stable school life provides welcome refuge for homeless youngsters
Holding his close-shorn head in his hands, the
second-grader in the community room at Saginaw's City Rescue Mission
struggled to wrap his 7-year-old brain around a story-problem stumper.
It all added up, in the end, and he celebrated his victory with a
high-five and a grin that lit up his entire face. His homework isn't
exactly done at home, though, and he's not alone.
At any given time, educators work with 20 to 40 kids at Saginaw County's homeless shelters, such as the mission at Burt and East Genesee, Underground Railroad at South Washington and Atwater, and Innerlink Runaway and Homeless Youth Shelter at McCoskry and Howard. Social workers and educators, meanwhile, predict twice that number qualify as homeless under a broad state description that includes those living in campgrounds or on a friend's couch. It's a transient life.
And while a growing team sets its sights on keeping them in school, recognizing that every change in classrooms can cost six months of academic study, the young ones move forward with reluctant caution. They worry about classmates finding out where they live. They calculate long division problems and write book reports surrounded by the natural commotion of communal living.
They cling to the security of the classroom, balancing it with the stark quarters of the shelter and the uncertainty of what comes next, when the shelter's 30-day limit passes and they have to move again.
Many parents stand strong on education, but they're dealing with their own issues, the abuse, the poverty or the twist of circumstances that landed them in a room with two bunks and a dresser. Most don't even want to share their names, worried their children will suffer the consequences.
"Me, myself, I didn't get what I needed growing up," said the 7-year-old's mother, who is 24 and living in the shelter because her utilities were shut off at her home. She, too, declined to provide her name. "My mother didn't care if I finished my homework or if I even went to school. We moved to Kansas City and all over Iowa, and I was in a lot of different schools before we came here. By the time I went to Saginaw High, I didn't care."
She has aspirations, too, to study for her General Educational Development certificate (GED) and then head to Delta College for a job in the medical field as a registered nurse or maybe a member of a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team. "I don't have any high school diploma and that's why I'm in the predicament I am," she said. "I can't pick the jobs I want to do; I just do what I can, one day at a time. I want my son to have more."
Lights go out at 8 p.m. at the City Rescue Mission's family unit, "and my kids argued about that at first, but they're getting sleepy when the time comes around now," said another mom, living at the mission with her 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son until they can find housing. She also declined to reveal her name. By 6:30 a.m., they're up, showering, eating and catching the buses that will take them to schools throughout the Saginaw Public Schools district.
The youngsters' grades dropped drastically when they lost their home, she said, "but the Mission is better than staying with somebody. We have a bedroom to ourselves, and our own tub. It's really a helping hand, especially when it's so difficult to find a house. "They (children) learn to adapt; it gets pretty routine. To be honest, they put in the time (with schoolwork) when they can, and I'm making sure they stay caught up. Hopefully, we can keep the good things going when we get a house of our own."
Her 12-year-old is careful when it comes to giving clues on her whereabouts to kids at school, she says -- she's a master of disguise. Her eyes grew huge with fear and she froze in place when she thought a newspaper story would tell her secret. Reassured that it wasn't the case, she opened up about "this one boy who blabs about everything and makes fun of people" at her school.
A major role in teaching homeless youngsters is giving them hope -- a chance to dream. "Girl, you can be anything you want to be and go anywhere you want to go," tutor Cheldora L. Haynes told her. "These are tough times, in middle school, but it gets better. You're smart enough to make it through."
Haynes, 34, teaches seventh- and eighth-grade math at Ricker Middle School in Buena Vista Township, "but I'm an elementary school teacher at heart," she said. She also works as a tutor at the City Rescue Mission two nights a week. "Before I came here three years ago, I never knew kids existed in this situation," she said, looking around the table at her young charges, warning one to "be extremely meticulous" in her work and correcting another's speech.
"As a teacher, I'd say, 'Where's your homework?' I wasn't taking excuses. Now I understand the outside grief they're living through, and the uncertainty of something as basic as transportation. "Before, I thought the school was always right; now I know these kids are entitled to more, that we have to make sure their routine isn't disrupted any more than it has to be." Her view of these youngsters' lives doesn't always have a happy ending. It's hard to see the kids come back, she admitted, as she watches families jump from agency to agency and youngsters from school to school.
If Haynes could, if it were a full-time job, she said, "I'd go to school with them and interact. I'd give them one-on-one time and make sure they didn't fall behind. We do the best we can."
Danisha Sharper and her husband moved to Saginaw with their four sons, 7, 6, 3 and 1, and found that their apartment wasn't available yet. He stays with different family members while she finds security at the mission. "What can you do?" she asked. "This was easier for the family. We put the older two in the school they'll have when we're home, and I want to get my 3-year-old in its Head Start program."
They make their adjustments. In a previous home in Virginia, a folder of homework came home on Monday and was due back on Friday. Here, she schedules homework time in their room, "and they'd better be done by 8," she said. "They like school. They love to read, and they have library memberships, so that helps.
"Education is No. 1 to me. Without knowledge, you don't have anything. They have to do things for themselves; they have to dig deep in the reservoirs." Even as an adult, Sharper said, "I'm still working on my education. I'm going to study business management online at the University of Phoenix, beginning in November, and I'm heading for an Army Reserve unit, the 431st, in Lansing."
And her oldest son crafted pyramids, "like they have in Egypt," he said, proudly showing Haynes his fold-and-paste creation. "I love social studies and science."
Sue White
25 October 2008
http://www.mlive.com/saginawnews/living/index.ssf/2008/10/stable_school_life_provides_we.html
