Slaying their personal dragons

A two-fold pilot program, one for high school boys and the other for middle school girls, based on the Council for Unity and a related literature and leadership class, is underway in the Lawrence School District to help students overcome the obstacles they face in achieving success.

“A fair number of young men need to do better in school and we wanted to catch them before the fall socially,” said Bill Moss, the match and science chairman at the high school that is overseeing the pilot program.

Moss said that since girls mature at a more accelerated than boys, the program was begun with eighth-grade girls this school year. A class for high school girls could be established next September, he said. The English class uses mythology to teach about role models and how students could slay their own personal dragons.

Robert J. DeSena, an English teacher was seeking to combat the ongoing racial violence in Brooklyn, founded the Council for Unity in 1975. DeSena recruited six gang leaders from John Dewey High School to help end what he saw as a cycle of violence.

The council is based on four pillars: Family, where members treat each other with respect to create an atmosphere of warmth and trust to grow and thrive; Unity, as members partner to establish an environment of safety and tolerance; Self-Esteem, giving members the opportunity to develop their skills, talents and resources. Confidence building, not destructive competition, is key to motivating participants and Empowerment, the members run the programs to learn responsibility.

“We are empowering the kids with the skills they did not receive to succeed,” said Cleveland Woods, a high school assistant dean who serves as the boys’ class facilitator. “The boys want to open up.”

Woods, an educator for 22 years, 15 in Lawrence, and a former professional basketball who last played in Peru, is, according to Moss, “the right man for the job,” as he brings substance to the class based on his academic and athletic success.

Woods believes his class of 15 has already made a lot of progress. “We had a major break through, when one of the boys learned how he was perceived by his classmates,” Woods said. The boy thought one or more of his classmates wanted to fight him. But they were watching him to see how he carried himself. Woods said the student was only seeing it from his viewpoint. “They are learning the skills to communicate,” said Woods, who constantly congratulates students on their school attendance to reinforce the four pillars.

Representatives from the council and external activities are also part of the program. Sean “Dino” Johnson, a former gang member who served time in prison, but since has earned a bachelor’s degree and is six credits shy of his master’s, serves as the council’s director of program marketing visits Woods’ class. The girls had an outing to the Lawrence Yacht & Country Club on Oct. 9, where they were introduced to golf. “We are about teamwork and helping each other,” said middle school physical education teacher Rhonda Barsel.

For students who remain in involved in the program, 90 percent have graduated high school. In a 2008 interview DeSena said: ‘What I have learned is that most conflicted kids never have been given an option to change. They are not happy in their circumstances and given the option to change, they will take it.”