A Cry in the Streets of Brooklyn Is Answered by a Prep School

What an inspirational, heart-warming story -- but also one that underscores the colossal failure of far too many inner-city schools.  How is it possible that a child could go to school up to age 17, yet NOT BE ABLE TO READ OR WRITE?!?!?!  What better example could there be of the need to end social promotion and preserve (albeit with reforms) No Child Left Behind, both of which provide mechanisms to force reform to the system that lets so many children fall through the cracks.

 

Rob Thomas's description of his experience at public schools -- and with public school teachers -- is, sadly, far too common.

But even with a better home life, his struggles in school continued. His dyslexia was never diagnosed, and Thomas recalls that when he asked for extra help, teachers specifically told him that they were there only to earn a paycheck.

When asked how he passed his freshman year at Grover Cleveland in Queens and his sophomore year at Wadleigh in Upper Manhattan without being able to read, Thomas shrugged.

"Social promotion was big back then," he said. "At the end of the day, it didn't seem like there was anyone who wanted to help me."

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A Cry in the Streets of Brooklyn Is Answered by a Prep School

By PETE THAMEL

Published: April 23, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/sports/23thomas.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fT%2fThamel%2c%20Pete&oref=slogin

SOUTH KENT, Conn. — During Rob Thomas's first week of classes at South Kent School, an elite prep school in this Rockwellian New England town, he used his first writing assignment in his junior English class as a plea.

 

Rob Thomas learned to read with the help of Geri Haase of South Kent School.

In looping printed letters, which looked like the handwriting of a young girl, Thomas wrote a one-page cry for help: "I cannot read or write. I need all you people's help. Please do not turn your back on me."

Thomas's note was not that clear, however. Riddled with spelling mistakes, it had clear signs of what experts later diagnosed as dyslexia. He spelled please "peasl," turn was "tron" and write was "witer."

That admission by Thomas, one of the nation's top basketball prospects, stunned faculty members at South Kent. But they soon found out that it was just the beginning of his story. He lived on the subways as a preteenager, sold drugs for a year as a teenager and could not read at age 17.