We’re hearing a lot about violence and young people in Hartford lately, so I’d like to tell you about what a summer job has meant for one city teenager.
Nathan Orr was at home helping one of his six siblings with homework when a bullet crashed into his house one day after Christmas a few years ago, striking him in the eye. He was only 13 and had no connection to the gunplay, but the event could have knocked him off track, leaving him angry and bitter – or worse.
Since then, what’s helped to change his life has been what he does in the summer. It’s a government program that trains young people for work and matches them with employers. In a few weeks, Nathan, 17, will be among nearly two dozen Hartford teenagers starting a summer job at Aetna.
“Having a job means having your time not taken by negative things, such as being at parties or being on the street. You have to dress appropriately and build a habit of going places on time. It’s responsibility. Things like that,” Orr, a humble kid with a big grin, told me Tuesday when I found him after he collected a scholarship award. “If kids were doing something constructive, they wouldn’t be on the street getting shot. ”
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2 Responses to What A Summer Job Means
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Work programs to prevent drop outs is not new.
Can’t convince the Democrats that work is better than entitlement and can’t convince the GOP that government can do anything worthwhile.
The Boston Herald makes a case for more Christo Rey High schools and closer integration with the workforce.
http://www.jesuit.org/2011/12/29/cristo-rey-model-of-education-featured-in-boston-herald/
Here in CT, the war over vouchers is just getting underway to create and finance these non-union schools.
Imagine what that $200 million in Federal “Race to The Top” money could do in CT if properly expended in non-union schools?
It’s a shame racists and racketeers like Sharon Palmer and Mary Loftus-Levine and Andrew Fleischmann don’t see it that way. Their hatred for inner city minorities and love of structural racism borders on religious fanaticism and Orwellian doublespeak.
A glowing review of the Minnesota Christo Rey.
http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/2011/05/cristo-reys-first-graduating-class-beating-odds
>> “I’m not willing to say to 10 percent of our freshmen, ‘You I’m not going to worry about,’” said Principal Jeb Myers. “We really focus on the students we can serve.”
When they apply, most students are scoring in the 25 percent to 75 percent range on standardized tests, with a significant majority on the lower end of the range. A few are as low as 5 percent and a very few have learning disabilities.
Many are new to the country and many come from families that haven’t been able to stay in one place for long.<<