[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 101 (Thursday, July 28, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
 INNER-CITY POUGHKEEPSIE HIGH SCHOOL SENDS ENTIRE GRADUATING CLASS TO 
                                COLLEGE

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 28, 1994

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I've heard one of the most amazing and 
encouraging stories recently, and I'd like to share it with you.
  The 22d Congressional District borders on the city of Poughkeepsie. 
Poughkeepsie High School is a typical inner-city school, with all the 
disadvantages that entails, including poverty and a poor environment 
for learning. Yet, all 160 graduates this year are headed for college.
  But the story was told best by Dan Davidson, an editorial writer for 
the Albany Times-Union, to whom I yield by placing the column in 
today's Record. I hope all Members will enjoy this inspiring story.

            Why Some Public Schools May Succeed in Educating

       It is pretty much established doctrine that it is not the 
     public schools that are responsible for their failures. 
     Rather, the blame for high dropout rates, growing illiteracy 
     and falling academic achievement is ``society's'' fault. It 
     results from the breakup of the family, if not the weakening 
     of neighborhood and community ties, with perhaps an admixture 
     of national malaise.
       Such is the consensus. All of which, it seems to me, has 
     pretty much been given the lie by this year's graduating 
     class of Poughkeepsie High School. The senior class there, 
     all 160 of them, are headed to college.
       These are not the children of privilege. The majority at 
     inner-city Poughkeepsie High are minority--and poor. Few come 
     from families that can boast a college graduate. Many of 
     these kids have suffered from racism, or its vestiges. The 
     home life of others is absent a trace of encouragement, when 
     it is not worse.
       Yet, all have applied for admission to a college--and all 
     have been accepted.
       This is in large part the work of one man. He is Paul 
     Jankiewicz, a most special kind of guidance counselor who has 
     made it his mission to give these students ``a sense of 
     hope'' and let them know of ``the opportunities that are 
     there for them.''
       Given many of these students' backgrounds, the limited 
     education of their parents, and the narrow circle of their 
     acquaintances, if these students don't learn about themselves 
     and the wider world in school, they will likely not learn 
     much about it at all. How could it be otherwise?
       All kids, says Dr. Jankiewicz, can learn. But for many 
     learning must be preceded by their hearing a ``can-do'' 
     message instead of that ``can't-do'' message most of them 
     have been getting from every quarter.
       ``I won't accept anything less,'' is the message Dr. 
     Jankiewicz drums into his charges beginning in the ninth 
     grade. They are told they are going to college and that they 
     have no choice in the matter. By the time they have reached 
     their senior year, almost all of them believe it.
       Mr. Jankiewicz repeatedly asks the students what college 
     they're going to. He chases them around the building, corrals 
     them, and inquires about their college application, whether 
     it has been sent in. If a student proves elusive, this 
     guidance counselor will look for him (or her) on the street 
     or visit him at his home.
       When students are finally accepted by a college, Mr. 
     Jankiewicz sees to it that the news gets the attention it 
     deserves. Announcements are made on the public address 
     system; notices are posted on the bulletin board. In that 
     way, he explained last week, the students on their way to 
     college are encouraged while the younger students have 
     examples to follow--and know what will be expected of them.
       Mr. Jankiewicz has a ``secret,'' but it is neither faddish 
     nor the product of any teacher's college. It is his own 
     version of ``tough love.''
       He is, evidently, tough enough. Those who offer excuses for 
     their derelictions are subject to ridicule. (``That's not a 
     good enough excuse. Take a better one out of my excuse 
     jar.'') He will tell those who make too little effort that 
     they are SAPs (spoiled American princes--or princesses) and 
     bums (or bummettes).
       One student complained to his parents about being called a 
     bum. Dr. Jankiewicz gave no ground. That student, he 
     believed, had to be challenged to do better.
       And all of them need someone to believe in them. All of 
     them need love. They most especially need that. He has told 
     other teachers that if they do not love themselves and do not 
     love their students, they should not be teaching.
       What is remarkable about Mr. Jankiewicz's approach is that 
     there is so little new--or faddish--in it. Indeed, there is 
     much that is old-fashioned, especially his insistance that 
     educators go back ``to teaching the old virtues and vices.''
       Whatever the merit of that proposal (I suspect it is 
     considerable) the example of Poughkeepsie High, by itself, 
     demonstrates that virtually no kid who comes from a troubled 
     or broken family is beyond hope, beyond learning. All these 
     lives may lack are teachers like Mr. Jankiewicz who can point 
     (and push) them in the right direction.
       Most of the efforts to reform public schooling over the 
     past two decades were very likely misdirected. The students 
     may not need new teaching methods, stylish curricula or 
     state-certificate-bearing teachers. They may simply need 
     dedicated teachers--teachers who care enough about their 
     students to look them up at their homes.

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