Program Reaches Out To Average Student
Harvey, Lake Erie College, Lubrizol join hands
By JESSIE HAYDUK
Education Editor
The Telegraph, Wed., May 23, 1973
"I feel like I really belong here, like I always want to be part of the
academic life."
"When, as you seek to develop a young mind to full potential, you begin
to see some results, you also find you have something in common, a deep something
that has to do with intelligence and interests."
"Adolescents look for and need people to model themselves after...qualities
to respect in people older than they are, people to imitate."
"How did you do such a fine job of matching people? I feel like I had
known my tutor all my life."
"We are comfortable together."
"I never liked to read. Now I'm enjoying classical novels."
"I liked working with my tutor. She kind of stretched my mind..."
"I liked working with my tutor. She kind of stretched my mind..."
The remarks are typical, the sentiments mutual between the tutors and the
tutored in an unusual program conceived by Lake Erie College, Harvey High School,
and the Lubrizol Corp., and underwritten by Lubrizol for a two-year period.
How many programs are designed to inspire and give opportunity to the academically
talented? How many are designed to help the academically disadvantaged? How
many schools and classes are created for the mentally retarded?
The Lake Erie College-Harvey-Lubrizol program is totally different. It reaches
out to the average student who is not doing his best, seeks to develop him to
full potential. The theory is that some day this student may be in college and,
because someone cared enough to open new doors of learning and understanding
to him, he will succeed.
By no accident, students who once hated school or who just got by with passing
marks, are finding education quite exciting as a result of this program.
Considerable screening was done in advance, both at Harvey High and Lake Erie
College. The purpose was to improve reading and study skills and in so doing
to increase the motivations of the average students to read and learn.
The college sophomores and seniors selected to teach the high school students
were people who had demonstrated competence in reading and who, themselves,
were good students and enjoyed reading for pleasure.
The groundwork for the tutoring was laid carefully at Lake Erie College, under
the leadership of Dr. Peter E. Haiman, assistant professor of education, and
Harvey High, under the direction of Mrs. Carol Fleck, English teacher.
The desire was to seek average students in their early years of high school
so the new study habits they hopefully would acquire would help them the rest
of the way.
Julie Cope and Tato Oliveras were the only sophomores. The rest were freshmen:
Carmen Oliveras, Terry Jarrell, Tim Keough, Ken Fox, Tim Morgan, Nancy Raines,
Carol Behrens and Valerie Hall, all of whom have stayed in the program all year.
They will be given a chance to continue next year. Some say they will. A few
say they will not, mainly because they feel they need their time and have gained
enough in one year to help them in the future.
Some day this student may be in college...because some cared enough to open
new doors of learning and understanding to him, he will succeed.
Miss Patty Krammer, Lake Erie Junior, was the student coordinator.
The tutors, all volunteers, were Barb Copley, Betsy Anderson, Heidi Arn, Maureen
Kelly, Tim Hadden, Louise Golder, Diane Keys, Lucy Debardelaben, Bill Brigham,
Pam Janaskas, Nancy Mickey, and Jane Glidden.
The first big hurdle, and considered one of the most important, was getting
acquainted.
"So many times we're so age oriented," Dr. Haiman remarked.
"Adolescents look for and need people to model themselves after. They
need to find qualities to respect in people older than they are, people to imitate.
They seem to have found such qualities in their tutors. The tutors have gained
something too."
Thus learning to know each other was part of the total experience. Early in
the year a weekend was arranged at Punderson State Park for the tutors and the
high schoolers.
"We cooked together. We ate together. We hiked together and we got to
know each other," a boy remarked. "I'll never forget it. After
that it was easy to sit down and study together."
TALKING THINGS over as a group and in the tutoring on a one-to-one basis is
an important part of the Lake Erie-Lubrizol-Harvey High School program
to develop the avenge student to full potential. Sessions like this one in social
hall of Lake Erie College are typical.
Other social events and field trips followed, one to Lubrizol with Dr. W.M.
LeSuer as host. Dr. LeSuer has had charge of the tutoring program for Lubrizol.
"A program like this takes involvement and commitment," said Mrs.
Fleck, who refers to the past year and the tutoring experiment as "a real
happening-a happening in education."
Has the program resulted in any significant changes, academically?
There have been some better grades, but the greatest change observed by tutors
and teachers involved is in attitudes.
Professional evaluation of the program will be made by Operation Yardstick,
according to Russell F. Hobart, superintendent of Painesville City Schools.
Yardstick is an organization for measuring and reporting school performance.
Mr. Hobart viewed the program of the past school year with considerable enthusiasm.
The tutors and the tutored agree that friendships have been made and cemented
and that life has been made better for all of them because of the adventure
to awaken and inspire the average student.
