Guest Blogger: Zacchaeus

Hello and thanks for checking in with The Ginn Academy this week! As we explained in the last post, we have some guest bloggers filling in for me until my broken ankle is healed. And we love what they're doing so much that we're going to continue this on a regular basis.

Today we're going to hear from 9th grader, Zacchaeus, whose essay about behavior provides some keen insight into his mind and what he's being taught at home. Zacchaeus's English teacher, Ms. Bollar, shared this with us.

The Importance of Appropriate Behavior

by Zacchaeus K.

When in a classroom, everyone knows, somewhere in their mind, the appropriate way to behave. And each student also can give you reasons why they should behave properly. Since preschool, good behavior rules have been enforced. And for those students who didn't attend preschool, Kindergarten taught you the same rules.

Every day when parents send their children to school, they expect for their child to behave in a manner in which the parent would proudly say, "That's my son or daughter." Every day when parents send us to school we are representing our parents; we are demonstrating the behavior they expect from us. If I came to school in wrinkled clothes, hair uncombed, and an easily recognizable odor coming from my body, wouldn't you as a teacher expect that I am not the wealthiest person, but my parents dress in a similar manner. The way we as students act gives every teacher another detail and thought on how our home life is. One of the last things I want to do is embarrass my family. Make it look as if my family isn't strong, caring, and loving.

In life, there are rewards and consequences for almost everything. Your behavior in school goes a long way. Last year, I received a letter for me to go to Washington, D.C. I was nominated for this opportunity by my English teacher, In the letter it gave me short requirements for a student to be nominated: good attendance, exceptional scholar, well behaved, and respectful. I, who had those qualities, received a blessing. Another example could be when you are applying for a summer job in high school. Sometimes you are required to get a recommendation letter from a teacher. If you act out in class what makes you think that a teacher will lie for you.

Your behavior in one class can completely determine whether or not you go to college. Maybe in order for you to go to college you must get at least a 3.0 GPA. Then in math you have a C. All you need is one more percent and you will have a full ride to college because you already have a B in your other classes. Now if you don't show this teacher any respect, more than likely he won't give you a B so you can go to college, for free.

I have identified plenty of circumstances in which you would think it is your best bet to be on your best behavior. But all these reasons were surface, easily identifiable reasons. I want to open your eyes to the deep outside-the-box reasons; reasons that affect more than just yourself and peers. It affects your family, community, and most important the country.

Every day that a student comes to school to learn, a teacher comes to school to teach. One student will be a classroom disruption and that teacher will lose time that could be used to teach a student who wants to learn. For every second that these kind of things happen, we are just letting a foreign country like China or Japan to educate their youth a little bit more. Then their youth become even smarter than the U.S.'s youth.

My personal opinion is that we as a country allow immigrants into our country for one major reason. Our government presents us with many opportunities to become educated and successful. We, as a country, disregard them, students act in an unfavorable way and teachers reach their limit and give up on that student, which opens up one more job for an immigrant to come and take from us. They learn the same material in three quarters of the time we take to learn it. Then they ask for half of the money we ask for to do the same job. These people have children and their children have children. They dedicate themselves and the country wonders why there aren't any jobs available.

Now when you're in class and you think about being a disruption in another student's learning, I hope you know if you do you will just hurt yourself, your family, and your country. It seems amazing how one mistake can have a domino effect on thousands or millions of people.

Guest Bloggers, Zaid and Kevin

In what is turning out to be one of the better things to come out of an unfortunate situation, we have a departure from our usual format today: two guest bloggers. We're still getting the hang of this blog thing, having started just before summer break. As we explained in the beginning, I am a photographer and my name is Karin McKenna. I write and shoot the photos for the blog every other week. We've discussed ways that we might involve the students in the content, but, until just recently, hadn't yet come up with anything concrete.

Enter a broken ankle (mine) and a sharp decrease in mobility, and suddenly we have necessity breeding invention. Who will write the blog for the next month while I am out of commission? How about a few of the 250 young men that attend our fine school? Of course! Stars will be born!

First up, we'd like to introduce you to Zaid and Kevin, who put a bit of extra heart and soul into their recent assignments for music class. Mr. Mika, our wonderful new music teacher, asked his 10th graders to write about the role of music in various cultures. We'll share with you some excerpts from their papers:

Zaid
Music plays a significant role in our lives as well as in other cultures. Music can be educational, inspirational, religious, and many other things as well. Music is a complex art that can bring forth new ideas, express beliefs, and send across a message.

For instance, during the 1960s, America was going through some tough times. We were having political disputes, fighting a war in Vietnam, and we couldn't agree with each other. We were experiencing a revolution. In that time period, musicians such as Bob Marley brought forth a change with their music. The music brought across ideas, made major statements, and offered good songs to listen to. His music had a major impact on people's lifestyles. People began to change; they expressed themselves more freely and became aware of the troubles we had. A culture known as hippies came forth. They wanted change and began to revolt. They played a major role in the revolution. This was mainly because of music. Music was such a large portion of their lifestyle they dedicated a holiday for it known as the Woodstock Festival. During that time, the role music played was to inspire. 

[...]


The role music plays in culture may differ in some areas, but overall music is broadly used as a tool or to represent some state of mind that puts the listener at ease or in the right place. Music is usually the listener's way of escaping the world and sometimes creating a better one for themselves. The role of music is important in may ways, but the main reason I enjoy it is because it is inspirational.

Kevin
Music plays some type of a role in life. It can be used for plenty of different things. Music has different roles it plays in cultures, as well as musicians. Every culture has its own sound of music in how it's played, the type of beat, and the type of instruments. There are some types of music that people think have healing powers or help them relax. 


The military/armed forces have played an important role in music. In the military, music has been used for various reasons. It has been used for time, assemblies, battle calls, when to stop fighting during a war, and when to surrender. When the music was played the soldiers had to stop what they were doing and listen, so they could know what the call was. Especially when the drummers played the call for an assembly, all the soldiers had to report to the grounds in formation and were to be polished.

[...]

In the Caribbean island of Cuba, there are many styles of music. African slaves and European immigrants brought their own forms of music. Cuban music has influenced many countries over time. Their music has contributed to other varieties of music like jazz, salsa, the Argentinian tango, Spanish Nuevo flamenco, and other sorts of music. Instruments like the bongos, the congos, and the bata drums are important to their culture. One of Cuba's greatest folklorists, Fernando Ortiz, described their music as rising from the interplay between the African slaves and the European immigrants and what was going on during that time.


Thanks to both Zaid and Kevin for their contributions and thanks to all of you for your interest in The Ginn Academy. We'll be back in two weeks with D'Angelo, a poet, and Zacchaeus, who has written an enlightening essay for his English class.

Kind regards from all of us...

An Inspiring Visit from Hall of Famer, Franco Harris

There aren't many Pittsburgh Steelers who would expect a warm welcome in Cleveland, Ohio, but Franco Harris seems to transcend the long-time rivalry between the two cities. The former Nittany Lion, NFL star, and Superbowl MVP visited The Ginn Academy recently for a tour and a heart-to-heart chat with our young men. Introduced to us by GA friend and supporter, Albert Ratner, Mr. Harris shared a few life lessons with a rapt audience; students and adults alike were truly thrilled to meet him.

One of nine children, Mr. Harris grew up in Ft. Dix, New Jersey. "I had good parents, but no books," he explained. "My father was from Mississippi and couldn't read or write very well, and my mother was from Italy. Luckily we went to a good school." Though he and his brothers spent much of their time playing sports in the neighborhood and at school, the entire family was shocked when his older brother, Mario, was offered a scholarship to play football in college. "We never heard the word 'college.' I had no clue you could do that," he recalled. Mr. Harris quickly got over his surprise, though, when he was recruited soon after his brother.

"Football was my least-loved sport," he explained. "I wanted to play basketball. Sometimes we look at things quickly because we think we know them, but you've gotta experience as much as possible and experiment with different things to find your true talents. You might find you're a literary genius even if you think you don't like to read. Don't limit yourself; take it all in. You might really be surprised by what you find."

Recalling his plans to graduate from Penn State and see the world with his hotel administration degree, he encouraged the boys to travel, try new foods, and to get out of their comfort zones. "Experience things outside of what you know. There's so much world out there, outside of your neighborhood!" he said.

Once in the NFL, Mr. Harris realized that preparation and perseverance would be some of his biggest assets. Even as he sat on the bench during his first games, he worked harder than ever off the field and kept at it. He was ready to prove himself when opportunities arose. He stressed to the boys to never give up on themselves. "Everyone faces challenges, but what's important is how you handle them and get through them," he said.

Mr. Harris had already exceeded the time allowed by his schedule, but once he got started he just kept going, and we were so thankful for the time he gave to us. He left the boys with some words of advice about their health and encouraged them to pay attention to what they eat and to exercise every day. His last bit of wisdom came from his former coach, Joe Paterno: "Always go to the ball. Go to where the action is and figure out if there's something you can do. What can you do to prepare for your future? It doesn't just happen; you have to work at it."

A huge thank you to Mr. Harris and Mr. Ratner for this memorable afternoon. What a great experience for everyone involved. Thank you to all of you, too, for your support of The Ginn Academy.

Medicine Men

Before we begin with this week's story, we'd like to share with you a promotional piece made for Lourdes University, in Sylvania, Ohio. The young man featured in the video is one of our first graduates, Jonathan Brown, Ginn Academy class of 2010. It's quite good and less than one minute long. We're so proud of JB!

And now, this week's post...

We have mentioned our many volunteers in past stories and we'd like to highlight the contributions of one of them today. Dr. Ernest Smoot, Jr., came to The Ginn Academy through a joint effort by the 100 Black Men of Cleveland organization, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), and the Boys and Girls Clubs. When the program came to an end, Dr. Smoot remained. "The need was still here so I stayed," he explains. He spends a few hours every week at the school with our students and the younger boys from the elementary school currently housed in the building. He's available to talk one-on-one and often tutors them in their math and science courses.

A native of St. Louis and one of ten children raised in an inner-city neighborhood, Dr. Smoot was heavily influenced by his parents' insistence on working hard and learning. "They placed a lot of value on reading and just always doing our best," he remembers. With no prior interest in his science classes, Dr. Smoot encountered a chemistry teacher in 11th grade who changed his perspective. "It was interesting and he really seemed to like it, so I did, too," he says. This spark of interest quickly opened up a whole new world. Two years later, Dr. Smoot started at the University of Missouri-Rolla, and was on the path to becoming a chemical engineer.

After four years of working for Chevron in Texas, having had a lifelong interest in how the human body works and in helping people, he took the biology classes needed to get into medical school. Dr. Smoot eventually came to Cleveland to work as a pediatrician for NEON (Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services, Inc.). "As kids in St. Louis, my brothers and sisters and I had the benefit of the Homer G. Phillips Hospital in our neighborhood, and this was a vital part of our community," he says. "I really wanted to work in that same environment helping people in their own neighborhoods."

Although he has been mentoring and tutoring at The Ginn Academy for more than two years, it was just recently that Dr. Smoot crossed paths with one of our seniors, Levert. Levert is a quiet do-er. He's faced some very challenging times and is naturally motivated to go about his business of achieving the goals that he sets for himself.

In his Freshman year, Levert's mother had a stroke, which forced them both into years of trying times. He hasn't let these challenges lead him astray. Instead he is following the lead of a good friend, Herbert, a GA graduate, and is taking classes at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) along with his high school courses. Unlike our many students who attend Tri-C classes as part of a partnership with the CMSD, Levert navigated the offerings at Tri-C on his own and is now looking into nursing programs, which he'll enter once he completes the core classes he's taking now.

Levert and Dr. Smoot hit if off immediately as they compared their shared experiences in the health care field and their common interest in helping people. "He reminds me so much of myself when I was his age!" Dr. Smoot says. "We come from similar backgrounds and have faced similar challenges." The doctor is full of advice and experiences to share with Levert, including taking good care of himself by getting enough rest and eating well. Just what you'd expect from a pediatrician looking after a teenager!

Not one to rest on his laurels, Levert adds to his already busy schedule with additional courses in first aid and CPR and also spends time at the Indian Hills Nursing Center in Euclid. There he serves meals and helps with patient care. As of now, he's planning to focus his nursing career on working with the elderly. Sometimes after he finishes his classes at Tri-C, he stays to spend time in the pool in an effort to overcome his fear of the water after a near-drowning experience as a young boy. Levert remains true to the Ginn Academy creed and is "guided by scholarship, leadership, and service."

Thank you for your interest in The Ginn Academy, our students, and the good things that happen here every day. Please feel free to pass along our blog to others. We'll be back again in two weeks.