From Catherine Gewertz
Pupils eager to excel at single-sex charter
Cogito ergo sum at Boys’ Latin
BYLINE: By Martha Woodall; Inquirer Staff Writer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
August 6, 2007 Monday
CITY-D Edition
Instructor Joe Dunn discusses John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" with a group of incoming freshmen at Boys' Latin. Officials of the charter school were pleased with how many students chose to attend summer study sessions.The hot, hazy sun was baking the sidewalks along Market Street in West Philadelphia.
And the 25 teens who gathered late last week in an office building meeting room could have been whiling away their time with myriad summer activities.
Instead, the incoming ninth graders at Boys' Latin of Philadelphia Charter School were so determined to get a head start at their new college-prep school that they had volunteered to spend the morning poring over John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and the thick novel Troy, about the Trojan War.
Many had been showing up twice a week for the sessions since the start of July to read, discuss and write about the books they were assigned to read this summer.
"You could read at home, or you could come here and read it as a group," said Jesse Oyola, 13, whose parents had driven him to and from their home in North Philadelphia for every session.
"This will give you a boost," added Khalif Khan, 15, another session regular.
Although charter officials encouraged students to attend, they didn't entice them with candy, snacks or prizes and were amazed by the turnout. They had to scramble to rent the room at First District Plaza because the charter's temporary offices eight blocks away had space for only half the crowd.
"I didn't think everybody was going to show up," said David Hardy, the charter's founder and chief executive officer.
In all, he said, 80 percent of the 150 members of the inaugural ninth grade have participated in some or all of the voluntary sessions. Students work in groups with teachers and are assisted by a few student tutors from top local public and private schools.
"These guys," Hardy said as he looked around the room at the students bent over their paperbacks, "are going to have a leg up."
Boys' Latin is a first on many fronts: It's the first single-sex charter approved in Pennsylvania. It's the first publicly funded school in Philadelphia that requires students to take Latin. And it's the first charter in the region modeled after the rigorous Boston Latin School.
The Philadelphia School Reform Commission initially rejected the charter application in January 2006 after the Education Law Center, the Women's Law Project, and the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia complained that a single-sex charter school would violate state and federal laws. The commission reversed itself six months later.
In the fall, the U.S. Department of Education approved changes to federal Title IX regulations to give school districts greater flexibility to offer single-sex schooling, including publicly funded charter schools.
Boys' Latin was originally known as Southwest Philadelphia Academy for Boys, but the name was changed to avoid confusion with Southwest Leadership Academy, another charter opening in September, Hardy said.
Although Hardy, who is African American, had hoped to launch Boys' Latin with a racial mix of students, all 150 ninth graders are African American. (The school has a waiting list.)
"I will do a better job of recruiting next year, because I do want the school to be a little more diverse," he said. "But these guys all wanted to come."
Students came from a variety of public and private schools and other charters, Hardy said. He said they and their families were attracted by the promise of academic rigor, the sports and after-school programs, and the boys-only setting.
Janice Oyola said she and her husband, both school district educators, were impressed by Hardy, the academic program, and the charter's strong network of parents. But she said it was her son, Jesse, who wanted to try a boys' school.
"He said he wanted the focus," she said. "He said he didn't need any of the distractions of girls."
The school requires Latin because it boosts vocabulary and English skills, makes learning other languages easier, and can help open doors.
Latin teacher Sara Flounders, who completed her student teaching at Boston Latin while in graduate school at Harvard's Divinity School, contacted Hardy as soon as she heard about the proposed charter. She said Boys' Latin offered a rare chance to combine her love of Latin with her dream of teaching in an inner-city school.
"I am a certified Latin teacher, and there aren't that many places," she said. "It's not fair [inner-city students] don't have the same educational opportunities. I want to try to level the playing field. Latin is one way to do it because it gives them access to the language of academia, and it lets them say, 'I know Latin,' which isn't something that the average person on the street can say."
In addition to the head start on summer reading, Boys' Latin students will get an early start to the school year. They must attend an eight-day orientation that will cover rules and regulations, the dress code, and study and organization skills, and will introduce them to their classes.
And in groups of 30, the ninth graders will spend a day tackling the ropes course at the Philadelphia Outward Bound Center in Fairmount Park.
"The whole faculty did it last week, and it was great," said Hardy, who has been involved for years with Outward Bound programs, which are designed to build skills and boost confidence.
The charter will be in the former Transfiguration of Our Lord parish school at 5501 Cedar Ave. Hardy said the school would start out in trailers until renovations are completed.
"It's going to be really different," said Richard Cherry, 14. "They are going to teach us, but it's going to be weird. There's only going to be boys."
Oyola said he knew about boys' schools from seeing reruns of the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which Will Smith's character attended a boys' school.
He added: "But I never would have believed that I would go to a high school with all boys."
Contact staff writer Martha Woodall at 215-854-2789 or martha.woodall@phillynews.com.
