Principal fires security guards to hire art teachers — and transforms elementary school

[OneGrassRoot]

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ROXBURY, Mass. — The community of Roxbury had high hopes for its newest public school back in 2003. There were art studios, a dance room, even a theater equipped with cushy seating.

A pilot school for grades K-8, Orchard Gardens was built on grand expectations. But the dream of a school founded in the arts, a school that would give back to the community as it bettered its children, never materialized.

Instead, the dance studio was used for storage and the orchestra's instruments were locked up and barely touched.

The school was plagued by violence and disorder from the start, and by 2010 it was rank in the bottom five of all public schools in the state of Massachusetts.

FULL STORY AND VIDEO HERE: http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/01/18005192-principal-fires-security-guards-to-hire-art-teachers-and-transforms-elementary-school?lite

[ReRe]

1. Now this is the kind of news...

K&R

...I like to start my day with! Go Orchard Gardens in Roxbury, MA!

[mercuryblues]

2. best reply

in the comment section:

Funny how when you stop treating children like criminals, they stop acting like criminals.

Children will only give you the behavior you expect out of them.

[BlueToTheBone]

3. Thanks OGR!

What a beautiful uplifting stories I've read lately. It gives me hope.

[SoCalDem]

4. Give kids a reason to go to school and they will...and enjoy it too

Send them to junior-prison, where cops follow them around, and is it a surprise that they would hate it..and rebel?

[BlueToTheBone]

6. Qutie the concept, eh?

Most kids want to learn, they are hungry little sponges. Feed them they grow. Imprison them and they shrivel as humans and thrive as "criminals".

[mountain grammy]

10. I've always thought children were like sponges.

[xtraxritical]

20. Drippy and stickey?

[mountain grammy]

22. hahaha, yeah, that too.

[RedstDem]

5. love it

Best thing I've read in a while
Thanks for posting it

[marble falls]

7. Great news. Maybe there's hope.

[kelliekat44]

8. Saw the report on TV. Very impressive!! nt

[abelenkpe]

9. K&R

[Javaman]

11. Funny how that works, huh? nt

[magical thyme]

12. thank you OGR. so much better than criticizing is to publicize what's going right

Make it known, give it legitimacy, make it more relevant than the other stuff.

Feed it and grow it.

[Hotler]

13. That shit has to stop now! That school needs privatized right away. Cut the teachers pay now and...

throw out the unions. Bring in the bibles.
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[nadine_mn]

14. There is a universal truth about all children: they are untapped creative souls

They come alive when you give them the encouragement and support to let loose their creativity and energy. Stifling it just feels wrong, and they will rebel against it.

Love this story.

[NewJeffCT]

15. Great story - thanks for posting it

I hope other school districts around the country will follow this principal's lead.

[BlueStreak]

16. Very courageous move in this militaristic, authoritarian climate. But I am not surprised

at the results. I have seen this so many times close up.

Arts affect kids deeply. One little example among thousands I have seen. I know a kid that floated from foster home to foster home. Never had any money and not that much love sent his way. He got connected to a very passionate band director. One Saturday morning in the middle of winter, I went there to mentor some of those students. And here's this kid riding up to the school on streets full of snow and ice with a TUBA STRAPPED TO HIS BACK. No case or anything.

I wanted to cry to see such a tragedy that he couldn't have the basics of transportation. But in reality this was a special moment for me. This kid became a diligent student, got a music scholarship to an excellent university. He just graduated and is getting married.

Did art do all of that? No, of course not. But it was an important part. It is amazing what happens when you treat children as students instead of prison inmates. Most of them respond in kind.

[redqueen]

17. K&R

[Warpy]

18. Well, duh, think of the different messages to students

The former principals invested in guards and prohibited kids from carrying their books in backpacks. This told the kids they were a threat, unworthy of trust, and just there doing time.

Principal Bott came in, realized what a message a prison like school was sending to the kids, got rid of the guards, and told them they were worth spending money on art and music, things that made them happier while helping them learn.

And I'll bet people still don't get the point. The point is that when you treat children like prisoners, that's how they'll react. When you treat them like children, they'll learn.

[Kablooie]

19. Treat a school like a prison and students become criminals.

Treat a school like a school and students become students.

[1StrongBlackMan]

29. And equally true ...

Treat a school like a school and teachers are free to be teachers.

[snagglepuss]

21. WOW WOW AND MORE WOW! I wish this would go viral. A must see.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

23. rec number 100! Yeah!

I liie this news!!

[datasuspect]

24. my heart breaks for these kids nowadays

art class, play, recess, creativity, expression are fundamental to any education.

but the corporate state needs slaves, not thinkers or creators.

[SunSeeker]

25. K & R

[SirRevolutionary]

26. Well I hope those art teachers can repel an attack

with their paint brushes and canvases in the event of another lone wolf on the rampage.

[librechik]

27. more like this...

[erronis]

28. But we've lost sight that this is what THEY want

THEY don't want intelligent little minds questioning the status quo - they want placid, plastic little zombies that can be molded into THEIR vision of the future.

Think:
- $6.25/hour mega-store employees w/o bennies
- $18.00/hour police to control the populace
- $30.00/hour (includes bennies) soldiers to protect the 0.1% interests overseas (and perhaps here)
- $xx.00/hour service workers who think they are high on the hog but the trench is being built for them too.

So, if you have the normally smart little inquisitive child wondering why they can't make it to the top without being born into money, the answer is "We don't want you."

[Starry Messenger]

30. k&r!!!