Good News From The Big City

It probably doesn't matter much which big city you live near.  The bulk of the news coming from "the city" sometimes seems to be mostly some sort of body count.   At the beginning of each week, the newspapers often (usually) have articles counting how many gunshot incidents occurred over the week-end, how many people were injured, and how many were killed.   In Chicago, all too often, the victims of all this violence are young people.  It gets very depressing, and I don't even actually live in the city.   I can hardly imagine how this kind of carnage affects residents of the areas with all the violence.

That said, sometimes there is a glimmer of hope, a spot of sunshine in an otherwise dismal day of news.   There was such a glimmer in the news here the other day about a graduating class at Urban Prep High School (a link to the article is below.)  This school was created as a charter school in Chicago with lofty goals:

Urban Prep would be a charter high school. It would bring together some 150 boys from some of the poorest, gang-ravaged neighborhoods and try to set them on a new track.   They'd have strict rules: A longer school day -- by two hours. Two classes of English daily.  A uniform with jackets and ties.  And Urban Prep had a goal -- one that seemed audacious, given that just 4 percent of the Class of 2010 was reading at or above grade level when they arrived at the school in 2006.

In four years, they were told, they'd be heading to college.

So, here we are four years later.   Of the 150 teens who started at Urban Prep in 2006, 95 completed the entire four years and another 12 students transferred in to graduate with the class of 2010.   All 107 students have received at least one, and generally several, acceptance letters from colleges across the country.   I was struck by the fact that the article doesn't paint a "Pollyanna" picture, it discusses the trials and difficulties that these students encountered over the four years, including actually quitting, returning to a "public" high school, and discovering that they wanted, indeed needed, to return to Urban Prep.  The dedication and support provided by the staff at the high school is nothing short of amazing (60% of the faculty are black men).  The mentoring and modeling by the adults was clearly critical to the success of these students.   Both the students and faculty at Urban Prep deserve a long, hearty round of applause.

You should read the AP article in the Daily Herald.   The story is amazing and uplifting.  It's very good news from the city.

More Alike Than You Think

Marketplace on National Public Radio had an intriguing and even uplifting story recently about an unusual partnership.   Two companies, one marketing kosher meats, and the other selling halal meats, work fairly closely together with common goals.   The Jewish and Muslim dietary laws governing how meat is slaughtered and processed are very similar, and these two companies both decided to take it another step.   They both have rules to ensure the animals they slaughter are not raised in "factory farms" and are treated humanely while they're alive.  The fact that they both came up with this business plan independently and found out about each other via a mutual friend makes the story even more pleasant.   

This story is another example of "we are more alike than different."   And it's nice to hear about a Jew and  Muslim cooperating and working together on similar goals rather than shooting each other.

Sportsmanship

This post is about a series of Daily Herald stories about the sportsmanship lesson that a couple of local high school football coaches delivered this week. The Elgin (IL) High School junior varsity team includes an autistic senior who doesn't get much time on the field.

Lake Park coach Nana Agyeman .... talked to Elgin's head coach, Dave Bierman, about it. He learned the player, Winfred Cooper, has severe autism.

"Well," Agyeman told Bierman, "if you want to throw him the ball, just let us know."

The result was truly amazing. With the game tied, Elgin called a specially concocted play (The Driver Driver, named for Green Bay Packer's wide receiver Donald Driver) and threw the ball to "Coop." He caught the ball and ran 67 yards for a touchdown and the memory of a lifetime. Both teams joined in cheering him on.

Coop caught the ball, and even though the plan had been to push Coop gently out of bounds, the Lake Park players called an audible: Instead, they flailed away in trying to tackle him, while Coop scampered 67 yards for the score. Both sides erupted in cheers.

Both coaches and teams should be very proud of themselves for the display of sportsmanship that, sadly, too often is absent from athletics. The lesson delivered by the coaches was not lost on the members of the two football teams. Kudos to all of them.

This is a link to the initial article in the Daily Herald. This link is a follow-up article involving contacts with the Packers. Finally, here's a link to the editor's explanation of how the story made it to the front page.

It's enough to bring a tear to your eye.