WTTW Journal; A Man and a School: The Providence St. Mel Story
Description:
"This is a heartening story about opportunity and moral obligation, about personal responsibility and academic success. It is a story about leadership, reinvention, courage and commitment. Hosted by Oprah Winfrey and showcasing principal Paul Adams and the school he rescued from closure, this is the story of what can happen when teachers, parents, students, communities and businesses pull together for an uncommon goal: ''the creation of inspired lives produced by the miracle of hard work.' In a time of permissiveness, civil liberties and academic bankruptcy, and in a place characterized by violence and failure, Providence St. Mel is doing a lot more than providing a quality education, it is providing order and opportunity to children living amid chaos. Although they accept students in as low as the 33 percentile on Standard Achievement tests, for the last 16 years, they have been sending 99% of its graduates to college. In the gap between failure and success is a lot of hard work. There is not tolerance for the disruptive forces that seek to deter students from their education. From every corner students are told, 'We expect you to be the best. We expect you to be competitive. We expect you to make this a better world.' By employing leadership, guidance and back-to-basics authoritarianism, Paul Adams and Providence St. Mel are a model for success in inner city education."--1994 Peabody Awards entry form.
