Tuesday night three weeks ago was the annual Brown Parent Teacher Student Association open house, an open house in many ways like schools across the country (including Stephanie's school). Pictured above is a mural in the entrance to Vincent's school. The Brown Bears are his school's mascot. The evening started with a PTSA meeting, which I had helped just a tiny bit to organize. The cavernous auditorium dwarfed the several dozen people there (a typical crowd for this event). Second-year Principal Tim Healy spoke first, using the sound system the PTSA had purchased, while PTSA President Clare looked on.
Clare, an artist and a parent (like most involved in the PTSA) of two Brown children, spoke at the meeting. Brown is a downtown, K-12, public magnet school. It is selective, but not based on purely academic criteria. It is kind of alternative school - at the high school level, partly to the more highly selective college prep magnet schools, Manual and Male (misnomers). Brown has its name (the J. Graham Brown School), because it first met in the Brown Hotel, one of the main businesses of Brown, a Louisville tycoon of the 1930s and 1940s, whose hotel (now several blocks away), still graces Louisville's south downtown. Brown now shares half of the old building of Ahrens trade school (now adult education), about five blocks from my office closer to the waterfront.
As the short PTSA meeting finished up, we reversed our usual sequence and went up to talk informally with Vincent's teachers. More formal parent-teacher-student confernces are to follow in a week. I didn't get a picture of a teacher we saw early on, Vincent's journalism teacher, Neysa. Vincent wound up in this class somewhat by accident, but the writing practice should be good for him (since he wants to be a writer). He's writing reviews of newspaper pieces and is supposed to be doing two things I did during two years of high school journalism class: writing articles and selling ads. Brown, which only has 200 high school students, has not had a regular student newspaper for several years, and I'll wait and see if they raise enough interest and motivate students enough to produce one next month, as Neysa hopes.
Vincent spent a few weeks working with the debate club last year, and the debate coach is Juanita, also a math teacher. Vincent has a study hall with Juanita and pre-calculus. Vincent has struggled with math in recent years. In pre-calculus, they are first doing standardized test review of pre-algebra and algebra, which Vincent needs. At home he is taking first-semester geometry on-line, for ACT review (he already took and did OK grade wise in the class). Vincent did not do great on the arithmetic and geometry sections of the SAT, you might recall.
Vincent has never had Neysa or Juanita as teachers (somewhat unusual in this small school). Juanita was the first of Vincent's teachers to e-mail me to tell me that he was failing her class this first six weeks, and she's e-mailed me several times since. She is very easy to talk with (at least for parents) (though we miss Vincent's teacher last year Pam, who also did ACT preparation with me the week between school and the Denmark trip).
Stephanie, Vincent, and I talked with Juanita for a while.
Next was Alice, a social studies teacher. Vincent took World Civilization with her last year. He failed the second semester - something we just learned last week, since, among other things, we haven't received any report cards from Brown since this past January. Vincent now has two classes with Alice - Advanced Placement Psychology and Sociology (?!), which he could get college credit for if he had a better grade point average (and did more work). Like me, Alice's daughter is an applied sociologist (and has come in to talk with the class). A couple of weeks of ago I discovered that Vincent is officially enrolled in Senior Seminar (which involves less work), which may be required, and not in Sociology - something he needs to figure out. Over the summer Brown HS programs went to block scheduling, where the kids take four classes one day and four different classes the next day. One of the reasons was to mimick Manual and have kids take more classes (which then also requires them to do more work outside of class, since they spend less time in class assuming the amount of work in each class stays the same). So Vincent is taking three college-level (AP) classes and four other classes, plus a study hall, plus has a senior project (which takes place partly in AP Senior English). Vincent has done the block scheduling before (at Manatee School for the Arts), but these classes are harder and Vincent seems particularly disorganized this year and particularly enthusiastic about charting his own way and visiting with friends (remember - he changed schools five times in five years before arriving at Brown for four whole years (we hope).
Alice and I have clashed subsequently since she seems disinclined to offer the parents regular updates, as I have requested. It turns out she posts her grades weekly in the classroom, but Vincent ostensibly loses his student number, which is apparently why he was not aware that he was failing World History last year (unless he was aware and hid this from us because he knew it would jeopardize his Denmark trip).
Two of Vincent's teachers have - one way or another - reminded me that Vincent must pass that second-semester World History class (he'll take it again on-line) and pass AP Senior English (with the senior project part of it also) - and get his senior project approved - and that's it. In fact, he doesn't need any of the other credits to graduate. However, his GPA so far - I suspect - will put him back on academic probation - which he was on fall semester sophomore year. Already, this year (plus spring semester grades - when he spent lots of time on the 10-Minute Plays, which he won't be allowed to do again if his grades don't improve) he's probably doomed any chance he had of getting into any private colleges we might persaude him to apply to, into the Honors College of the school he says he wants to go to (Western Kentucky), or academic scholarships anywhere. Also, if his GPA sinks low enough, I think this could imperil his general Western admission. The least selective KY public university he's looked at - Morehead State - lets students substitute GPA and ACT scores, and he already has a good enough ACT score to get in. However, given his current study habits and given that he's nixed any possibility for financial aid (we won't get any need-based aid - except perhaps for loans, which none of us want more of) - I fear Vincent may come back after one semester at Western or Morehead - either us having run out of money and/or him having flunked out. Then it will be Jefferson Community and Technical College (which he attended as a 15-year-old post-8th grader) (or possibly Indiana University Southeast - if he can still get in) and/or work for him.
Vincent's French teacher had e-mailed me soon before the Open House to tell me that Vincent was also failing her class, having not turned in much of any work from the first three weeks of class. Early on Vincent had tried to persuade us that there was little schoolwork during the first few weeks of class, which apparently was not the case. It is true that Vincent had usually had no problems with French (and his French teacher below - Margaret - a U.S. native and parent of a recent Brown grad looking for full-time work teaching at Brown - we were afraid there was going to be no French 3 class - who nevertheless has lived in France - raved about Vincent) and he had said in the past there was no homework. But reading French books (she showed us used books she had gotten - she has no budget for buying books - just textbooks) and learning future tense and conditional mood is apparently more challenging - plus there being some work that Vincent apparently wasn't doing.
One of Vincent's favorite teachers going back to 9th grade was Becky, who has taught him French and English. Like Carrie (the English teacher who sponsored all three of Vincent's at-school extracurricular activities last year - KY United National Assembly, Danish exchange, and 10-Minute plays - who Vincent misses but doesn't have - his schedule didn't work out to take Theater with her), Becky seems to have a special bond with Vincent, even though he can get on her nerves. It helps that English is his favorite subject. Nevertheless, Becky had a baby a year or so ago (George is pictured further below) and she's more circumspect and I believe watches her time more closely. Especially since Vincent isn't in Senior Seminar, Becky is also the main teacher keeping an eye on his senior project - a somewhat amorphous and changing complex of community service, research project, and extravaganza - along with Carrie and Karen, one of the local librarians. Vincent's project has evolved somewhat, but he seems to want to explore what reading means to kids, continue volunteering at the St. Matthews library, work with others to produce a multi-high school literary magazine, and collect books to give to the library.
Becky's father is a Presbyterian minister who I'm acquainted with, and at a play two summers ago with our friend Sarah, also a Presbyterian minister, we uncovered all of these connections when Becky's father, who knows Sarah, saw Sarah, and Vincent saw Becky (one of his favorite teachers), and we noticed the two (unbeknownst to us, father and daughter) sitting with each other. It's a small world.
Another teacher who's been a big fan of Vincent is Mary, who taught him Biology in 9th grade. She wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for Vincent when he was one of Brown's applicants for the KY Governor's Scholar program, a summer program for finished 11th graders. She sang his praises for his work in science, but also in writing and learning foreign languages, and his personality, particularly his sense of humor. Since then, however, Vincent nearly failed a science class she co-taught. And Mary was the third teacher who e-mailed me recently that Vincent is failing her class (and she is less inclined than Juanita or Margaret to consider taking late work - Vincent had a 40% in her work at one point this month): not turning in homework and flunking tests/quizzes. The class is Advanced Placement Environmental Science. Vincent backed into the class, but Mary lent us the book ("Fast Food Nation") that students in the class were supposed to read over the summer for Vincent to read the first two days of class (he still flunked the quiz). Mary also knows that Vincent is smart but sometimes unfocused and particularly challenged by the combination of senioritis and block scheduling/taking too many classes (he's now not sure he made the right move to try to take a real class instead of Senior Seminar - which would also be with Neysa - that's what he's officially in instead of Sociology).
One of Vincent's favorite teachers going back to 9th grade was Becky, who has taught him French and English. Like Carrie (the English teacher who sponsored all three of Vincent's at-school extracurricular activities last year - KY United National Assembly, Danish exchange, and 10-Minute plays - who Vincent misses but doesn't have - his schedule didn't work out to take Theater with her), Becky seems to have a special bond with Vincent, even though he can get on her nerves. It helps that English is his favorite subject. Nevertheless, Becky had a baby a year or so ago (George is pictured further below) and she's more circumspect and I believe watches her time more closely. Especially since Vincent isn't in Senior Seminar, Becky is also the main teacher keeping an eye on his senior project - a somewhat amorphous and changing complex of community service, research project, and extravaganza - along with Carrie and Karen, one of the local librarians. Vincent's project has evolved somewhat, but he seems to want to explore what reading means to kids, continue volunteering at the St. Matthews library, work with others to produce a multi-high school literary magazine, and collect books to give to the library.
Becky's father is a Presbyterian minister who I'm acquainted with, and at a play two summers ago with our friend Sarah, also a Presbyterian minister, we uncovered all of these connections when Becky's father, who knows Sarah, saw Sarah, and Vincent saw Becky (one of his favorite teachers), and we noticed the two (unbeknownst to us, father and daughter) sitting with each other. It's a small world.
Another teacher who's been a big fan of Vincent is Mary, who taught him Biology in 9th grade. She wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for Vincent when he was one of Brown's applicants for the KY Governor's Scholar program, a summer program for finished 11th graders. She sang his praises for his work in science, but also in writing and learning foreign languages, and his personality, particularly his sense of humor. Since then, however, Vincent nearly failed a science class she co-taught. And Mary was the third teacher who e-mailed me recently that Vincent is failing her class (and she is less inclined than Juanita or Margaret to consider taking late work - Vincent had a 40% in her work at one point this month): not turning in homework and flunking tests/quizzes. The class is Advanced Placement Environmental Science. Vincent backed into the class, but Mary lent us the book ("Fast Food Nation") that students in the class were supposed to read over the summer for Vincent to read the first two days of class (he still flunked the quiz). Mary also knows that Vincent is smart but sometimes unfocused and particularly challenged by the combination of senioritis and block scheduling/taking too many classes (he's now not sure he made the right move to try to take a real class instead of Senior Seminar - which would also be with Neysa - that's what he's officially in instead of Sociology).
The buzzer went on half an hour earlier than I had expected, back when we were still with Becky. So we rushed through that and our discussion with Mary (augmented as it was with e-mail messages). Then we went down for what is usually our second stop of the night: the silent auction library fund-raiser in the gym. In past years I was once slated to help with the cake walk - a little fund-raiser with the little kids. Two years ago Stephanie also bid on some photographs taken by a teacher - and ended up asking the teacher to take another picture - so we had a set of three downtown/Waterfront Louisville pictures (including one of Peace Seeker - the commissioned picture - the winged horse in front of the Presbyterian Center - that were up on our dining room wall for a year and a half - for birthday presents for me. We did run into Tina (pictured below), the special education teacher/photographer - but we didn't bid on any of her photographs. I remember Tina from the freshman retreat, which I tried to help chaperone. Two - now one - special ed students are in Vincent's class (of approximately 50). Tina also advised Vincent on the construction of the wood car that Vincent built last year (with only limited success) for the physics part of his Integrated Science class (but he did well enough to just pass the class).
Towards the end of the evening/auction, I went over to look at Tina's pictures and she told me a wild story about how she's started to volunteer at a Southern IN exotic animal refuge - Wildlife in Need - and has helped take care of a bear cub who they found when he was young enough that he'll probably never be able to go back in the wild (because he won't know what to do as a bear and won't fear people). Tina goes over to the refuge on weekends and she's even brought Yogi Mato the bear home for the weekend. Below is Tina with a picture of the bear on her I Phone. Also, click here to see a video of the bear at the refuge ("One Bear's Truth"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iL29Kyrq0w
At the Silent Auction we ran into our friends who hosted a Dane who was one of "our" Dane last fall's best friends (Nathan and Vincent both went to Denmark this summer; Natalie goes to middle school at Brown; Libby is a teacher at a local elementary school; John is cousin's with one of our neighbors). Pictured below are Libby and Natalie with Lauri, a former Brown teacher/administrator. She's still a Brown parent and she functioned kind of like a guidance counselor. But when she got certified as a counselor this past spring, she said she wanted to work with middle school kids, not high school kids (which includes lots of college prep paperwork) - and so she didn't seek Brown's open HS guidance counselor position. She's still a Brown parent. She taught Vincent's super duper study hall sophomore year - which helped him get off of academic probation - and also sat on the admissions committee that phone-interviewed Vincent when he applied to Brown from the Manatee School for the Arts in Palmetto, outside of Bradenton. She was also the person who gave the Brown School tour when I was a parent of a prospective student, long before the interview. 
Below is Libby in the foregound and John talking with Stephanie in the background.
Towards the end of the evening/auction, I went over to look at Tina's pictures and she told me a wild story about how she's started to volunteer at a Southern IN exotic animal refuge - Wildlife in Need - and has helped take care of a bear cub who they found when he was young enough that he'll probably never be able to go back in the wild (because he won't know what to do as a bear and won't fear people). Tina goes over to the refuge on weekends and she's even brought Yogi Mato the bear home for the weekend. Below is Tina with a picture of the bear on her I Phone. Also, click here to see a video of the bear at the refuge ("One Bear's Truth"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iL29Kyrq0w
Click here to see a video of the bear's weekend at home with Tina ("Lazy Saturday"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKKYt7FLrgk
We've just seen these now but we're going to subscribe to Tina's YogiMato videos. Hope things work out OK for him/them/the refuge. (This all seemed especially apropos given the whole Brown Bear and "Brown is green" motifs.)
At the Silent Auction we ran into our friends who hosted a Dane who was one of "our" Dane last fall's best friends (Nathan and Vincent both went to Denmark this summer; Natalie goes to middle school at Brown; Libby is a teacher at a local elementary school; John is cousin's with one of our neighbors). Pictured below are Libby and Natalie with Lauri, a former Brown teacher/administrator. She's still a Brown parent and she functioned kind of like a guidance counselor. But when she got certified as a counselor this past spring, she said she wanted to work with middle school kids, not high school kids (which includes lots of college prep paperwork) - and so she didn't seek Brown's open HS guidance counselor position. She's still a Brown parent. She taught Vincent's super duper study hall sophomore year - which helped him get off of academic probation - and also sat on the admissions committee that phone-interviewed Vincent when he applied to Brown from the Manatee School for the Arts in Palmetto, outside of Bradenton. She was also the person who gave the Brown School tour when I was a parent of a prospective student, long before the interview.
Below is Libby in the foregound and John talking with Stephanie in the background.
Stephanie only successfully bid on a bowl. She bid pretty high on a science set - with an eye towards materials for projects for her students. At $75, another parent out-bid her. But she talked with him afterwards and exchanged phone numbers and he may give her any projects his family doesn't use.
As we left, the mother of one of Vincent's friends, Aaron, (Susan - a lawyer - on the left) volunteered to serve as PTSA secretary, as Claire and another officer looked on.
As we left, the mother of one of Vincent's friends, Aaron, (Susan - a lawyer - on the left) volunteered to serve as PTSA secretary, as Claire and another officer looked on.
It was a fun night, but the beginning of a difficult couple of weeks (if not difficult 8 1/2 months), as the academic problems that were coming to light did not improve and yielded some unpleasant conflicts with Vincent.
-- Perry
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