children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

Philippe, 12
When Philippe, his three brothers and sisters and
parents arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts from
Haiti, they spoke no English. Philippe was 10 years
old when he started the local school. His English
vocabulary had grown to the point where he could
go to a store and purchase simple items, but he could
not understand people when they spoke quickly.
"Slow for me, Haiti. I Haiti."
Whenever teachers called on him he said nothing.
Finally, one of his teachers sent him to an assistant
principal, believing him to have a learning problem
or even a neurological impairment. The principal
took out his record and thought of calling his home,
but no telephone number was listed. A policeman
was ordered to take him to a Cambridge hospital for
tests.
By chance, the nurse assigned to interview him at
the hospital was Haitian. When she pronounced his
name in French, Ilis eyes grew large, and he began
to speak without stopping. Philippe explained his
problem at school. The nurse canceled the medical
appointment and telephoned the principal, who reported
that nothing in the records indicated Philippe
was French-speaking. His aunt had avoided listing
it because she was afraid the language problem would
keep the boy from being admitted to school. The
principal was pleased to learn that the problem was
so simple, and he told the nurse to advise Philippe
that a special program would be arranged for him.
The young nurse called on Philippe's family to assure
them that the school would put Philippe and their
other children in a class with French-speaking children
from several Cambridge schools. "Pretty
soon," she told them, "Philippe will be teaching the
rest of you English."
But a special language program was not established
for Philippe. In February, six months into the
school year, he had not been placed in any special
class. He stilI could not read, and at home only
French was spoken. When a teacher recommended
that Philippe watch television and listen to the radio
to learn more English, he did not admit that his family
had neither. Instead, he began to sneak into the
movies in downtown Boston, telling himself that they
would help his English. The downtown adventure
grew more interesting than school, and he began to
28
cut classes.
He was sometimes absent for days at a time, but
no one at the school bothered to question his absences.
It was inconvenient to keep going to visit;
he still had no telephone.
At the end of the school year Philippe still had not
been enrolled in any special class. He felt the year
was wasted. Although his spoken English was adequate,
his reading and writing skills were nonexistent.
Philippe began to hang around with a group of older
boys who, like him, spent a great deal of time out of
school. He got into trouble.
When school reopened in September, Philippe was
administered a series of tests along with an examination
to check his perceptual abilities. His reading
scores were so low that the school decided to put him
back a grade. Now 11 years old, he was assigned to
the fourth grade. He refused to accept the assignment.
He was too big, he said, and too old. He wanted to
go back to Haiti. Since nobody cared about him anyway,
he told his parents, why not let him quit school
and get a job. His parents would have none of it.
Tile most important thing, they replied, was to go to
school.
But Philippe continued to run with the older boys,
some of whom were now engaging in shoplifting and
handbag snatching. He helped them and was soon
caught. He was warned by the police and beaten by
his father. He went back to school.
A month later he was back with his friends, working
the old purse-lifting routines and listening to their
plans to rob restaurants and bars. In March, a yearand-a-half
from the time he arrived in the United
States, with his school reports telling of definite progress,
he and three other boys were caught stealing
money from a bakery store. The money was found
in a paper bag held by Philippe.
The following morning the boys were released in
the custody of their parents and several days later
they went to court. Philippe, after the intervention
of a lawyer and a psychologist, was placed on probation.
The judge demanded that a special class be
found for him. He was advised that the court was
giving him a second chance because of the difficulties
of coming to a new country. "I'm being sympathetic
in this case," the judge said, "because of the boy's
age, but don't let me see him in this court again.