Sometimes, all it takes is one dedicated soul – a neighbor, a relative, a teacher – to make a big difference for many students.
In the biography “The Kids From Nowhere: The Story behind the Arctic Educational Miracle” educator George Guthridge made that difference to a group of rural Eskimo teens living on a blizzard-swept island in the Bering Sea.
Guthridge went to Alaska determined to stay long enough to stock pile a bit of extra cash. He gained much more. He discovered intellectually gifted teenagers who had been labeled as future drop-outs in a school so small and inadequate that some considered closing it.
The teens defiantly assured Guthridge he would be like all their other teachers. He would not last his first year – let alone the five he planned to stay.
In an early conversation with journalism student Boone, Guthridge suggested developing the best school newspaper in Alaska.
“Why bother?” Boone says, his earlier enthusiasm gone. “We’re Eskimos. Nobody cares about us.”
“I care,” I tell him.
“Because we’re special, right?” – his tone now one of angry sarcasm.
“Because I’m special,” I tell him.
He gives me a look as though I have abruptly gone through a re-appraisal. . . .
“Maybe you can last the whole year,” he tells me. “Maybe.”
Guthridge lasted the year – and more – on the island of whale and walrus hunters who spoke a English as a second language. He met the challenge of the job, then turned around and spurred his students to previously, unimaginable academic heights.
He began by recognizing that they had to be adults on the whale hunt and told them he expected them to be the same in the classroom and to perform accordingly. Then, as their assigned coach for the most challenging academic game of the time, he lead them to uncover and use their hidden talents. They became two time national champions in the game.
Guthridge spent a lot of time researching educational techniques to reach his students in the classroom and to improve their chances in the game.
Thanks to his dedication, students he originally – secretly – hoped would drop his class eventually studied at Harvard, Yale, MIT and Standford and other top universities in the country.
All it took to make the difference was one person, like Guthridge, refusing to bow to the odds.
For El Dorado last week, it was that one person at Murphy Oil Corp who pushed the idea of re-creating Michigan’s Kalamazoo Promise into the El Dorado Promise that each EHS graduate would have college tuition money. Suddenly, on Monday, parents, students, grandparents, teachers and business men saw a brighter future.
The funds opened the door to that future, but it will take many teachers, tutors, school volunteers and parents to help out to create a learning environment that brings out the best in all the students to whom the Promise has been given.
“But what about us?” parents and students in others schools ask.
Say “congratulations and best wishes to EHS folks” and get busy researching and developing local resources. Work with your students to improve their study habits, their interest in academics, their grades and ACT scores so that they qualify for tuition scholarships. Encourage local businesses to fund scholarships. Check your own pockets.
The kids from nowhere went on to Ivy League schools because of one teacher. Surely we have more than one dedicated person in this county.
Murphy Oil Corp and the Kalamazoo, Mich. business men provided the cash, but the ‘can-do’ for any student comes from the time and efforts of the students, their families, the retired folks, the businessmen and many others in the community who dedicate themselves to attaining the impossible dream for the kids they know and love best.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times. E-mail her at jhershberger@eldoradonews.com.)
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