CITY LIMITS: From classroom to community

School is open. Always. On Saturday morning at 8:45, about 200 West Philadelphia youngsters converge on the lobby of J. P. Turner Middle School. Many of the children reluctantly attend the bastion of learning located at 59th and Baltimore streets during the week as well, but on Saturday mornings they need very little prodding and are happy to be sitting in classrooms. Marie Bogle, a compassionate drill seargeant, greets the children and ushers them to their appropriate classrooms. "Do you know where you're supposed to be?" Bogle barks, expecting an affirmative response. "Take off your hat . . . get to class." Without a second thought, the children scuffle off to class, hats in hand. "I don't even know these kids," Bogle grins. "During the week they will dawdle between classes. But [Saturday] they are obedient." School is open because the West Philadelphia Improvement Corps, a partnership between the University and the West Philadelphia community, is committed to making the school the center of the community. According to Bogle, who is a teacher and WEPIC coordinator at Turner, the community has to start viewing school as more than a place children go during the week. WEPIC developed out of a public service and community development seminar taught by School of Arts and Sciences Vice Dean Ira Harkavy and President Sheldon Hackney. It provides a variety of programs designed to increase involvement centering around the school. "School belongs to the community," Bogle said while catching a moment's breath Saturday morning. "We have to change the community's attitude about school. It can be a haven and bring about positive change." To that end Turner, the flagship of the WEPIC program, which operates out of nine West Philadelphia public schools, has incorporated several of the ideas which were conceptualized in University student's papers and turned them into reality. Saturday Community Schools, which exist at both Turner and West Philadelphia High School, offer free academic, cultural and recreational classes to all members of the community. Classes at Turner are taught by school teachers with assistance from approximately 25 University undergraduates. Those students, organized by Undergraduate Student Coordinator and Wharton junior Dorothea Schlosser, donate their Saturday mornings to the program, and are placed in classes of their choice. The program curently provides classes in sports history, creative writing, vegetarian cooking, swimming, dance and model building -- to name a few. In art class, College senior Christina Cantrill, a helps the teacher, Leslye Clemons, supervise and work with the students. "I help get them supplies and answer questions, but I mainly provide encouragement and support," Cantrill said. College sophomore Sarah Mess lends her time in the kitchen where teacher Eloise Prescott provides children with healthy recipes that they can make instead of turning to junk food. On Saturday the vegetarian cooking class made home made granola and the class learned the proper way to measure using a tablespoon. "They are even worse than we are at college," Schlosser said. "They will have a hoagie for breakfast, candy for lunch and a cheese steak for dinner." · The progressive curriculum has also been carried into the regular school week by WEPIC as part of its Neighborhood Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program. Through the program, a "pod" of 100 students is selected randomly from around 800 Turner students. These students are introduced to a curriculum which centers around health issues and creatively incorporates them into the standard fare of classes. The students will have the same teachers each year to encourage strong student-teacher relationships. According to Program Coordinator Cory Bowman, who graduated from the College in 1991, the curriculum is broken down into three main parts: academics, job training and community outreach. According to Bowman, the program focuses on grades six through eight. Sixth graders learn about nutrition, seventh graders help teach health to first graders, and eighth graders are exposed to four specific Health Watch topics. In all cases the goal is to integrate the subject matter into the general course work. For example, when the eighth graders learned about cancer, not only did they learn the science behind different types of cancer, but they constructed math problems which were associated to the issue. "We would tell them how much a pack of cigarettes cost and then have them calculate how much money someone would spend to smoke a pack of cigarettes each day for a year or five years," Bowman said. "Then we gave them prices of other merchandise like a car or a leather jacket so they could see what they could buy if they didn't smoke." For the job training component in the curriculum, the young students visit local job sites once a week. Sites include hospitals and child development centers where students see the different types of jobs which are available. The goal of the third component, community outreach, aims to have the students educate the rest of the community about the subjects they have learned. According to Bowman, these health fairs occur in conjunction with other WEPIC events, such as Wednesday Evening Adult Classes, to ensure optimum attendance. The University gets involved with the fairs, providing some sort of referral at the same time. For example, last April, the University offered free glaucoma tests. On April 1, there will be an AIDS/Injury Prevention program, according to Bowman. As part of the School-Within-a-School program University Medical Center professors have given guest lectures and University undergraduates become mentors for the eighth grade students. The disease prevention component of the program is still in the planning stages. Bowman said that WEPIC is currently discussing possibilities with community leaders determine the best way of meeting the community's needs. · A house at 51st and Walnut streets which caught fire and was abandoned since the early 1980s is the site for yet another WEPIC project. In the early days of WEPIC, a Construction/Housing Rehabilitation Program was organized to help train young adults in the skills needed to enter one of the trade unions. Currently, around ten high school dropouts and 40 West Philadelphia High School students are working under the direction of Walt McAuley, a retired carpenter, to learn their trade. The house on 51st Street was purchased by the City and turned over to WEPIC last October. Over the next two years, it will be rehabilitated by participants in the program so that it can be given to a low-income family upon completion. The high school dropouts in the program are paid once a week, and attend classes at Drexel University three mornings a week to work toward a General Equivalency Degree. The rest of the time they are learning hands-on from McAuley and his assistant Frank Hughes. "We teach them carpentry, plumbing, sheet metal work and electrical work," Hughes said. "Then they go to classes to get their degrees. The goal is to get them into a trade union." McAuley got involved for personal reasons. Like the program participants, he dropped out of West Philadelphia High School in 10th grade, so he can relate to what his students are going through. But his involvement also gives him an opportunity to atone for his behavior when he was younger. "I discriminated against their fathers and grandfathers when I was younger," McAuley, who is white, said. "And I know that was wrong. Now I can help try to right those wrongs. And these kids treat me like I'm one of their own. It's a great feeling." The dropouts are also quite thankful for their second chances. "I was considered in school a juvenile delinquent," said 18-year-old Kenganyika West, who joined the program last October. "I like what I am doing know. I want to join a union and become a carpentress." Maurice Cannon, a 21-year-old drop-out agreed. "Me and my family are on welfare and I heard about this opportunity," Cannon said. "It is really hard to get a job out there. With a diploma I will have a better chance."

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