Soda Poppin’

I am not exaggerating. At Alak school in Wainwright most every kid from 6th grade up would bring a six-pack of soda pop to school each and every day. It was not at all unusual for some to bring in and drink a half-rack of pop. It was one of the battles that the school chose not to fight. In Angoon, the kids weren’t as flagrant as that – but it was evident that soda or some energy drink was the preferred beverage to be consumed at any opportunity. The school, or at least individual teachers, would occasionally enforce the rule prohibiting those drinks on campus.

Yes, diabetes is rampant in villages and tooth decay is a huge problem. Many youngsters have already lost some of their permanent teeth to rot. Obesity is common and the empty calories in soda pop are a major factor.

Here in Akiuk, I will soon face an ethical dilemma. I will be expected to help run the school store and the store sells mostly candy, junk food, soda and energy drinks. The school does enforce a policy that prohibits the sale of any junk food or drink before 5 PM on school days – but the ‘healthy’ offerings before 5 are mostly sugarcoated granola bars, corn nuts and drinks with a few drops of actual juice. Come 5 and anything goes: mostly candy and pop. Once again I have to state that I am not exaggerating, but the school store will clear over $25K this school year with the proceeds going to offset the cost of taking the kids to Hawaii.

It will probably be a battle that I will choose not to fight – after all I am the new kid on the block and I’ll be gone for good in May. But I know I will feel like drug dealer each and every time a kid or parent gets their junk food fix.

Maybe it's time to think about a special tax on soda - and use the money to pay for prevention and to cover the additional health care costs of diabetes, dental decay, and obesity. Check out Nicholas Kristof's NY Times article: Miracle Tax Diet.

Akiuk School

Vickie is neither a certified nor trained music teacher and the skills that her students are learning are not on any standardized test that we pretend measures success in school. Yet I’ve just witnessed an excellent lesson taught by someone who is just a second year teacher.

I’ve arrived in Kasigluk-Akiuk in the LKSD a few days ago and will be here all next semester as a long-term special ed substitute teacher. I’ve been given a few days to get acquainted with the school and have used some of my time to observe how education is done out here on the tundra. Most all that I’ve seen here is good.

Vickie’s class was of her own creation. Rather than do a typical PE class, she convinced the principal to let her offer a music and movement class. Check out the link to the group Stomp to see this combination of percussion, rhythmic movement and fun. What middle school kid wouldn’t love to have that taught in school?

Akiuk School does more than a few things right. Pre K-3 is all Yup'ik immersion and the older kids get an hour of Yup'ik language and cultural classes each day. The little kids are exposed to some English each day and by the time the kids are in middle school, they seem comfortable in both languages.

The school also hires men to lead the cultural/language classes for the older kids. These guys are at school all day and just their presence creates a relaxed, but respectful behavioral climate at school. All of the older students are fairly well behaved. And even the little kids sit and eat their lunches quietly.

Alak El

The elementary school wing of Alak School is separated from the high school by the main office and the access hall is kept off limits to older kids by the almost always-closed doors. The one classroom of junior high kids is also down this hall and both programs operate as de facto entities – the principal is not welcome here and his suggestions during faculty meetings are often met with rolled eyes, sighs, and a thinly veiled contempt. The one thing these teachers want from this principal is swift and effective discipline for those few students whose behavior transgresses what can be tolerated in a classroom. These teachers have learned not to expect that level of support.

Yet both programs seem to be as successful as one can expect in a village school.

As with each grade level in this wing, the combined 7th and 8th grade students have just one teacher all day long. This consistency provides two immediate positive results: kids are expected to follow the same rules for their entire school day; and there aren’t an additional 6 times of chaos and mayhem that occur when the students switch classes. Teachers have each organized a fairly effective discipline program in their rooms and it helps that the students, however less so for the junior high and the occasional younger hooligan, are still young enough to respect authority. It’s an authority that has stringent behavioral expectations combined with genuine care and understanding. Lessons tend to be traditional, not in a native sense, but in the workbook drill and kill sense. Yes, teaching to the test has now defined what we do in American classrooms everywhere. But lessons here are generally well organized, and extensive individual help is given to students in need. Computers are often used, resources seem adequate and engaging activities do get interspersed throughout the week. A lot of the kids are learning to read, write and compute within an acceptable range for their age.

It’s curious that there is no playground – in or out door here. Kids are taken to the school’s only gym for recess and for the few months the pool wasn’t closed for repairs or for the lack of lifeguards (some 6 teachers and one community member are now qualified), could splash around if their teacher took them. The junior high teacher often has beach walks and other hikes. Sometimes these outings are planned and can include lessons on the natural world. Sometimes they are offered as rewards for completing other class work, and sometimes they are given when there is a spontaneous recognition that everyone just needs a break. As any walk begins, the teacher has long-ago given up trying to prevent his students from running home or to one of the stores to stock up on junk food and soda pop to fuel the 30 minutes or so they will be outside. You have you choose your battles.

Early Spring ‘08 - Wainright

There are no roads to Wainwright, an Inupiat village of around 500 people located on the Arctic coast some 80 miles southwest of Barrow, but good intentions still manage to pave the way to hell here.

The doors to Alak School mark the unofficial line of demarcation and the porch has become the no-man’s land where the battles that you do want to win just aren’t fought. From 7th grade on up, the kids who smoke cigarettes - and that would be most - will hang out and light up when the urge hits. Most don’t flaunt it – or are at least discrete until after regular school hours, but when the bell rings, everyone smokes on the steps with impunity.

There are real North Slope Borough Police in Wainwright - not the typical and often anemic Village Public Safety Officers. The borough provides two officers who alternate 2-week on and off schedules. But they each focus on keeping the peace and dealing with more critical concerns. Underage smoking doesn’t make the top-10 list of major problems. Kids can’t and don’t buy cigarettes in either of the two stores in town, but that doesn’t matter as older relatives and friends openly provide them. How can you fight that?

Inside the school, there is an attempt to enforce some rules.

“The circus came back to Wainwright,” said Rusty J, the school’s only middle school teacher after chaperoning a school dance last month.

“I caught RJ with a cigarette tucked behind his ear and I told him he had to leave.”

The kid refused to go. Rusty went and found Al S., the principal, who then politely asked the kid to leave. Thinking that the situation was resolved, Rusty went back to the gym to maintain a presence at the dance. A few minutes later he spotted the same kid with the cigarette still defiantly displayed

“If I suspended or expelled every kid who broke the rules, there wouldn’t be anyone left in school. As it is, I have the highest rate of disciplinary actions of any principal in the North Slope Borough”, explained Principal S. “Besides, the kid didn’t actually smoke in school”

S tries to avoid confrontations with students and chooses to fight his version of a hearts and minds battle instead. It’s difficult to see the evidence of that effort working – it seems the principal’s actions and inactions are based on his own personal fears and his unwillingness to confront any problem.

All four teachers and the principal are new at the high school this year and Rusty is back for his second tour of duty after replacing a teacher who was fired in mid-term last year. This is the principal’s first administrative role.

All have been recently notified that their contracts will not be renewed next year.

Alak High is a Class 5 failing school as defined by No Child Left Behind standards. There hasn’t been progress in any of the critical standards for more than several years running. No one knows if there ever has been success at the high school – but who defines success?

Ten minutes after the interaction with the principal, the situation escalates. The student was never escorted out of the building and now confronts Rusty and tells the teacher that he is going to get his ass kicked.

Rusty was in the gym with John L, a visiting principal from Kaktovik, who is in Wainwright with his school’s basketball team. John asked the young man if his words were a threat.

RJ responded by pointing his finger inches away from Rusty’s nose and shouting that he would personally kick the teacher’s ass.

Rusty, a former collegiate wrestler is still fit and is not at all intimidated by the verbal assault, but chooses to retreat to the office to call for the cop. When the officer arrives and confronts the kid, the student escalates the situation by shoving the policeman.

“Al told me to stay back,” Rusty shook his head in disbelief. “So I thought, what-ever, handle it yourself. The cop didn't arrest RJ and didn't even make him leave. Al gave RJ the standard five-day suspension to begin on Monday. The cop and Al said RJ needed help.”

But beyond the rhetoric of frustrated words, what help is that?

No one offers an answer.

Al does write up some intervention plan that won't be followed and probably not shared with the parent or anyone in the school. The plan is filed with the district central office and as far as the top-level administrators are concerned, something has been done.