The SSC: Damaging or Helpful?

[Anastasia Romanova]

As far as I have been noticing, most kids who come to SSC are either students of color, LGBTQ youth, or youth with unstable home environments. Ms. Battaglia even said once, I believe it was on my first day there, that these kids are not incapable of success, there are just some circumstances (i.e. family, background, social) that prevent them from focusing on academics as much as some of the other students. I really resonated with that point because having spent two summers at the Key (Northfield Youth Center), I have come to notice how much the circumstances and the environment really affects motivation and self-efficacy. Unfortunately, most of the Northfield community looks down upon the Key, calling it the drug den and whatnot, but what they refuse to see, for whatever reason, is that a lot of the problems in the life of Key youth are caused by either society or their families (or both) giving up on them. It is further exacerbated by the protests that take place during Jesse James days, when a bunch of Northfield community members congregate across the street from the Key and advocate for the closing of the center, calling the youth who go there “demon spawns” and other awful names. How can these kids believe in themselves and focus on education, when their own community shows to much ungrounded hate towards them?

Going back to SSC, I do not know what the public perception of the center is, either among the adults or among the students. However, I do fear that, just as Delpit forewarned, putting these students in a place that might help them but might also implicitly question their agency and abilities due to its very nature may be detrimental to the students’ sense of self-efficacy. In other words, they might be disappointed in themselves for being sent to SSC and lose motivation. Or they might be worried about losing their social capital if they go to SSC and therefore choose to not show up when they are supposed to. Personally, I do think that the benefits of SSC outweigh the potential damage because staying the existing system is important for increasing the likelihood of the future success, even if the students do not enjoy being sent there.

As I have mentioned earlier, a significant proportion of the students at SSC are students of color. I believe that this observation speaks to Delpit’s point that there are systemic factors in place that prevent them from succeeding in an academic environment, and therefore they are forced to seek support outside of the regular classroom. I do not know whether Northfield High School explicitly addresses the issues of inequality and racism in school-wide discussions, but I think that those could be beneficial to safeguard against the stereotype threat that Delpit refers to in her article Multiplication is for White People. I do know, however, that there is a club or organization that is geared specifically towards BIPOC students, where they can get together and discuss some of the issues with the system that they might be experiencing. I am not sure of this organization has any administrative power to change those issues if they get brought to the school’s attention, but either way, I think that it might be a valuable place to foster the sense of community and belonging.

While there are a lot of students of color at the SSC, all the staff members at are white, which might make it hard for all the students to connect with them and seek help. Typically, however, most students, regardless of race and gender, prefer to work on their own, so the fact that the staff members are all white may not pose an issue for completing their academic work. However, it may be a problem in terms of Bandura’s social learning theory, especially for the students of color, since all the adult figures they see who are capable of helping them are of a different race. I wonder if they may internalize the belief that the members of their own community are not expected to be in a position of power and/or assistance. If that is so, it might important for the SSC to consider bringing in more diversity among its staff members.

As to some additional observations, I am happy to report that some students keep coming back to me to ask for help. The first couple of weeks Ms. Battaglia had to specifically send the students my way, but now that so many more students know who I am, they are feel a lot more comfortable asking me for help directly. It’s quite a rewarding feeling to be helpful to someone, and I appreciate that the students are including me in the life of the center. It is a little frustrating that my time at the Northfield High School is coming to an end (my last shift is the Friday), and I am going to have to let the students know that I won’t be coming there anymore.

[Trina Eichel]

Anastasia,

I think that a lot of the points you bring up in this post are incredibly important and interesting, especially the part about the staff being all-white. I wonder if part of the reason that students enjoy working independently is because they do not feel comfortable working with the white teachers or if it is more that they just prefer this way of working. I think that the point you brought about them internalizing the fact that they have no models who are BIPOC and this contributing to the perceptions of their own success is incredibly important and sadly a reality for many students of color. I wonder what the solutions to this would be. Could the SSC hire more people of color or encourage more of the volunteers to be people of color? Even bringing in community members of color who can talk about their success in their line of work I can imagine would be beneficial. Thank you for your perspectives on this issue!

[Author]

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