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You
are here: Effective Hours After School
by Julie Cain
When I was growing up, after school time was full of fun constructive activities – piano lessons, athletic practice, art classes, youth group, etc. My mom was incredible. Between me and my sisters, she often juggled delivering kids to three or four events a night. I estimate that on average, when we were between the ages of five and eighteen, she spent 20 – 30 hours a week carting us around to our activities and still found time to feed us three square meals! On top of the carpools were time commitments for car washes, bake sales and weekend games and recitals. My after school hours weren't spent solely in front of the television. They were spent in activities, learning and building relationships. Each team or lesson also carried a price tag that my mom and dad chose to pay, sacrificing financially to provide for extracurricular opportunities.
Was the time, energy and financial cost worthwhile? How did I benefit? The benefits of this labor are incalculable. Analyzing the skills needed for life as an adult, the skills I developed for working in groups and teams, leadership roles, discipline and creativity are largely attributable to my experience in out-of-school time activities. The relationships built during these after school hours also played a significant role in shaping my goals and ambitions. Participating on teams expanded my circle of friends, opening my eyes to qualities in people I may not have otherwise clung to. My coaches and youth leaders were adults that I had special relationships with, looked up to and listened to. The confidence these adults instilled in me is profound and I am still in contact with many of them today.
Many families are making the same sacrifices and commitments for their children today and I applaud them. Sacrifices should be made for our children, and when possible, families should carry that responsibility. However, there are millions of children in our country that don't have the opportunities that I had growing up. Over 11 million children are living in poverty in America – more than 650,000 of them in extreme poverty of less than $6,930 a year for a family of three. While these parents struggle to provide shelter and food for their families, thousands of school children are left without a safe, enriching place to spend time after school lets out. The few hours between the end of the school day and when parents get home from work are some of the most dangerous and under-utilized in children's lives. The impact on both students and the broader community can be severe:
- children have a four times greater chance of being the victim of violent crime during after-school hours;
- juvenile crime triples when the school bell rings at the end of the day;
- children left unsupervised for 11 or more hours per week have twice the risk of substance abuse than those under some adult supervision; and
- unsupervised children are three times more likely to become teen parents.
Coupled with the need for supervision is a critical need for increased academic achievement. After school programs provide an extension of the school day for these children in need of academic assistance. It is not a coincidence that schools with the lowest test scores are concentrated in low socioeconomic neighborhoods where parents don't have the time or resources to provide for extracurricular activities. Studies show that children who do not participate in extracurricular activities score significantly lower on both aptitude tests and classroom assignments. This is critical given recent research that has identified early literacy proficiency to be the single strongest predictor of both high school dropout rates and future prison occupancy.
Finally, in addition to academic challenges and the need for a safe structured environment, children as young as elementary school age are now struggling with significant health issues. Obesity, asthma and diabetes, once associated with adults, are new major health threats among these students. In many cases, the solution to these health problems is as simple as participating in activities that provide moderate exercise for at least 60 minutes, most days of the week. The statistics are alarming – the average 3rd grader in our urban communities receives less than 25 minutes of rigorous exercise a week outside of the school day. Over 65% of urban school children do not participate in extracurricular activities that involve any form of physical exercise. The result is 32% of students are overweight or obese.
After school programs should provide creative activities, conducted by caring and trained adults, that engage the interest of children on a daily basis. The curriculum should be rigorous and fun, should compliment the school day and challenge the students both mentally and physically.
As the No Child Left Behind legislation has dictated, schools must focus their time and resources on teaching the core curricula of English, history, math and science. More and more, schools are not allowed the time or resources to provide for adequate exercise, arts and interest based activities. After school hours can and should fill this gap. Through an extension of learning hours, after school programs should assist with academic achievement through interest based activities and physical activity. They should strengthen public school communities by playing a critical role in improving academic achievement, providing physical activity and engaging the interests of children, as well as keeping children off the streets and in safe, enriching environments where they are challenged to grow, learn and build meaningful relationships with caring adults.
Robert C. Granger, President of the William T. Grant Foundation, one our our nation's most prestigious evaluators of after school programs, asserts that after school programs should be daily, they should engage the interests of young people and should provide supportive relationships.
"In the typical [after-school] program, the average participant in elementary and middle school programs attended between one and two days per week. No program can make a difference if it does not change the daily experiences of young people… Activities must engage the interests of children. Demonstrable winners in the A-School field are out there--they provide INTERESTING ACTIVITIES, supportive relationships, and a capacity to deliver these both."
There are numerous after school programs that focus on one outcome, providing needed service one or two days per week. Offering program daily, as Mr. Grander suggests as necessary, greatly increases the volunteer time, financial cost and administration required to successfully implement each session. As such, few organizations offer dynamic programs that engage and hold the interests of at-risk children five days per week. I am fortunate to be a part of a national organization that does engage children five days a week using a creative blend of three compelling curricula that captivate the minds of children grades 3 – 6. America SCORES uses the unique combination of soccer, poetry and community service to teach teamwork, leadership, literacy skills, creativity and social change, while providing 5 – 6 hours of exercise and an opportunity for each child to build valuable relationships with two teachers from their school. Although to the adult mind, the three elements of the program may seem like three distinct parts, to children they flow seamlessly through the week and throughout the school year.
Five days a week, after school, separate teams of 16 girls and 16 boys come together on their school campus to attend alternating soccer practices and writing workshops. The fall writing curriculum emphasizes basic communication through free verse and structured poetic form. Studying poetry has pragmatic applications for the students - alliteration helps them with pronunciation and rhyme helps them remember words. Poetry is also an art form that transcends language barriers, allowing for free and open expression by students from every background. The ease with which students can express themselves through poetry builds self-esteem, leading to greater motivation to read and write. Studies have proven that children who read and write for fun do so at a much higher level. Poetry is fun for children of all ages. We find that our teachers use portions of our poetry curriculum in their classrooms and our students create poetic verse after program hours.
Interspersed between writing workshops, students learn teamwork and sportsmanship through soccer. Practice sessions begin with challenge games that emphasize team building, cooperation, communication and sportsmanship. They end with discussions that focus on healthy behaviors, self-esteem, goal setting and school stewardship. Soccer is used as a positive tool to engage the interests of the students, teach them life skills and provide a venue for them to exercise, build relationships and have fun! Each week the school communities - families, teachers, principals, and friends – gather for soccer games. For many of our children this is the first time they have ever been cheered on by a supportive crowd. Soccer is an effective means to join very diverse communities together around the successes of their children.
During the spring season, the writing workshops build on the imaginative poetry expressed in the fall. Writing coaches lead students through a decision making process in which they research their community, determine aspects of their neighborhoods that they would like to improve, and learn to use language to cause change. Writing for the Community ties the essential need for literacy to concrete projects that affect social change, thereby not only stimulating the students' appreciation of language, but also helping them to value their own potential as positive change agents. Teachers at the National Council of Teachers of English conference recently assessed the SCORES Writing for the Community program as "one of the country's most innovative approaches to literacy and service learning training for at-risk elementary school students."
The combination of these unique curricula and a passionate staff of public school teachers truly changes the paths of thousands of at-risk children each year. The result is children who enter middle school with adequate literacy skills, bonded to their peers, teachers and their education, with a much higher likelihood of staying in school and contributing positively to our communities. After school programs like America SCORES are essential to the future success of our country. They are not altruistic ideas. They are an economic necessity that allow us to develop the great resource of our children.
Julie Cain is the Executive Director of Seattle SCORES. She currently sits on the State Board of Education Equity Committee, is a member of the Washington Women's Foundation, a Managing Member of the Teel Charitable Foundation and the Assistant Coach at Seattle Pacific University. Email: JCain@americascores.org Visit http://www.seattlescores.org to learn more about Seattle SCORES. (This link will open a new browser window.)
After six years working as a financial manager to wealthy families, Julie joined America SCORES as the founding Executive Director of Seattle SCORES. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Westmont College and a Master of Tax Law from Golden Gate University. Julie has taught elementary school and coached soccer at the youth and collegiate levels. She has volunteered helping Seattle's youth, including co-founding an urban soccer program and participating in the Washington Women's Foundation and the Teel Charitable Foundation Board. Julie currently sits on the Equity Committee for the Washington State Board of Education.
©June 2004 New Horizons for Learning
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