Published: November 12, 2008 09:32 pm            

Educators learn importance of building community

EDMOND — Every 26 seconds a student drops out of school. Seventy-five percent of prison inmates are high school dropouts.

About 150 educators met at the University of Central Oklahoma Tuesday morning to listen as Clifton Taulbert, an international lecturer and author, spoke about creating leadership and community in the classroom to avoid statistics like these.

“The idea of building community is doing something you have never done and doing it because it’s right,” Taulbert said. “You never sign off of building community. It’s like a marriage.”

Cheryl Price, executive director for the Great Expectations program in Oklahoma, said Taulbert’s lecture was part of the regional fall meeting for the program. Great Expectations is a professional development program that provides teachers and administrators with the skills needed to create harmony and excitement within the school atmosphere. Deer Creek Elementary, Washington Irving Elementary and West Field Elementary are among the Great Expectations model schools.

Taulbert talked about his experiences as a child growing up during a time of legal segregation. His mother could not take afford to take care of him alone, so he lived with extended family and attended school. In order to catch the bus each day, he had to get up before dawn. His great-aunt would get up every school day and flick the porch light on and off, even through the winter, to make sure the bus found its way to the house.

When Taulbert took his first job raking leaves for a white woman, he was surprised when he was called to follow her through her front door, which was prohibited, and sit down to eat lunch with her. She asked him what books he was reading, unaware that he was not allowed access to the public library. The next time he came over to rake leaves, his employer had checked out a pile of books for him to read. She continued to do this until he graduated.

“Those adults had a vision for me and that vision changed everything,” Taulbert said.

He went on to attend college and is now the president and founder of the Building Community Institute in Tulsa. Taulbert said his success and other students’ successes is what happens when teachers give a child 26 letters and show that they care about them.

Children don’t understand mandates, including No Child Left Behind and Curricular Mapping, he said.

“They will know if you care about them. They will know if their future is important to you,” Taulbert said. “Children aren’t bought at Wal-Mart and put together. They (parents) trust you with their most valuable possession.”

He outlined the Eight Habits of the Heart — which included a nurturing attitude, dependability and friendship — for educators to utilize in their schools and classrooms.

“Nurturing attitude is all about slowing down to care,” Taulbert said.

Carol Berger, a third-grade teacher at Washington Irving Elementary, a Great Expectations school, said she will be using Taulbert’s habits of the heart in her classroom.

“His eight habits for educators are very important,” she said. “I think his life experiences relate to society today and help us to understand where our students are coming from so we can give the models they need to succeed.”



cbryce@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 112

        

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