HHS student hopes to set example through teaching
Monday, May 12, 2008
HAMILTON — Hamilton High School senior Patrick Bourne said he plans to teach in an urban school after graduating from college.
He believes he can make a difference.
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"People will look at me and see a strong, black person and their kids will know they can be a teacher or anything they want to be," Bourne said.
According to statistics from the National Education Association, Bourne may make a bigger impression than he realizes.
Students of minority races make up 40 percent of kindergarten through 12th-grade students nationwide.
The study shows that if Hispanic and black students have a teacher of the same race or ethnicity, they score higher in reading and mathematics. However, minorities make up only about 16 percent of teachers — a number area educators are working to increase through the Urban Cohort Program.
Created two years ago, it links teachers and juniors and seniors from local high schools with Miami University's School of Education and Allied Professions.
Helping schools fill an urgent need to attract more people into the teaching profession and building a more diverse and culturally sensitive teaching force are goals of the program.
"Urban settings are broadening," said Ray Terrell, professor of educational leadership at Miami. "What we are finding is that school districts such as Hamilton and Lakota are changing demographics with a greater influence of students of color and second language students ... populations other than typical white students."
The program encourages urban students to become teachers and prepares teachers to work in an urban school setting, said Molly Merz, instructor of the Hamilton High School Teacher Academy, and includes programs that introduce students to residence hall living and college-level courses.
Students who have attended the summer bridge program say it "was a very interesting and eye-opening experience."
The Urban Cohort Program also offers the opportunity for area Teacher Academy instructors "to network, share ideas and discuss some of the pressing issues in education today," Merz said.
Teachers meet with Miami faculty to discuss the reality of "what goes in their world and what we need to do to prepare our future teachers to be effective in that world," Terrell said.
When recruiting students, he said, "we make it clear they will never be rich, but they will make a better-than-average wage and be able to live very comfortably ... and they will make an impact on changing lives."
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2158 or lebbing@coxohio.com.
