What do our kids do after school? For all the complaining we as educators participate in about the lack of character, discipline, decision making… And the fact that we are constrained to a certain extent from teaching these things throughout the course of a standards-based curricular day, it would seem that afterschool programming would be ideal to address the multiplicity of issues some of our students are facing… Yet everyday for the past year or more, my campus, so filled with loud and vibrant life during the day, instantly transforms into a barren sea of unused space where kids should be playing, hanging out, learning (it takes place after school whether we support it or not)… The few programs that are on campus, one of which I am very much a part of… are exceptions, trying to survive amidst the complete absence of funding or support of any type for that matter. The garden club, the drum club, the Boys to Men rites of passage program (forgive the outdated link, one of my charges as a board member of this organization) I am involved with working for at risk youth without male role models in their lives to help steer them thru adolescence… These outliers exist on the fringe of the school culture that sends the strong message: leave, your time for being tolerated is over. Go find something to do, but don’t get in trouble…
