Teaching the fundamentals of discipline, in addition to French, Spanish and other academic subjects is the main focus of Watch Care Academy (WCA). The private, nonprofit school aims to shape children of color into successful men and women of tomorrow.
Watch Care Academy Executive Director and educator Janie Perry says, “There’s a really big misunderstanding about the ability of our Black children. There are people who would even quote statistics, stating our children are more difficult to teach than others, which I know is just untrue.”
Perry says teachers and parents have to get to the level of the children because most of the children, despite their race, are lost at some point.
“Instead of saying the child does not understand or telling them they are behind and not where they are supposed to be – you are supposed to be at fifth-grade level and yet at third-grade – do this,” says Perry. “These are your books, you are not behind anybody. This is where you are academically. Let’s get started.”
WCA Principal Edith Stevens believes discipline is a crucial part of learning. Therefore, a certain level of strictness is required to control the classroom.
“When parents come into a meeting with me, I tell them, if you don’t believe in anyone disciplining your children, this is not a place for you,” says Stevens. “It is a teacher’s job. We believe it is both a home and school for the child.”
“Some of them say, well this is what I am looking for. My child is out of control and I need somewhere she can be controlled and learn. This is a very good place,” she says.
Stevens, a Liberian born teacher, says a problem she faces is when parents let their offspring turn up for school registration with earrings and braided hair.
“I tell the parent, the earrings have to go. He or she has to get a haircut. Some say it has nothing to do with his education,” says Stevens. “Yes, it does, and if you want him here, you have to get rid of the hair and the earrings.”
The K-8 school also instructs in penmanship, geography, computers, literacy, public speaking, math and other classes. What makes this school unique is the teachers’ ability to concentrate on every student at any given time.
While each class has a total of 15 students, with approximately three grades in it, the instructor teaches each grade from the board, and then tells them which assignments they are to complete from the workbooks. She then walks around, working with each student individually to make sure each one understands.
Stevens and Perry believe that students can be in the same grade but at different grade levels. Therefore, when a child is enrolled, they are given homework from which the school determines which grade to place them in.
It is important not to just enroll a student without knowledge of educational level. No students can move forward without mastering the content of work from the grade level they are currently learning.
Weekly tests are given to students to determine what plans a teacher should make for a certain student, so that he is taught at his level then tested again at the same level before allowing him go on to his actual level of learning.
“They go to the next grade level but not until the current level’s lessons are mastered,” says Perry. “A third grade student can have first or second-grade books.”
“Students don’t have to struggle to keep up with their grade. However, at the end of the school year they are tested according to everything an individual has been taught for the entire year at their grade level. Everything they’ve done will show up during the exam,” she says.
Stevens revealed that 90 percent of the students who have graduated from the academy have made it to and through college.
In Dec. 2008, Jerrica Johnson, 22, a former student graduated in mass communications from Southern University in Barton-Rouge, La.
The 22-year old enjoyed French lessons from Stevens and says Perry was very keen on wanting students to speak clearly.
Johnson said, “Ms. Perry was a disciplinarian, but very firm, and now looking back, it’s helped me in my life. Ms. Perry would say ‘Good Morning’ to people. If she would not hear you, she would say, speak clearly!”
From Stevens, she learned never to quit because the French teacher was pushy, and “with Stevens’ once one started something, they had to finish it,” the graduate says.
She advises WCA students to be ready to learn and retain everything they are taught.
“You might think it is not important, but you’ll definitely need it in the future. I learned how to communicate with others,” says Johnson who also attended Martin Luther King Middle School.
Madlynn Robinson, 20, credits her high school public speaking skills success to WCA.
Robinson left Watch Care for Utah after completing sixth grade. Public speaking at the academy helped her use the same skills during school debates in Utah.
She is now studying for a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. In April 2009, she completed an associate’s degree in the same field, and admits to transferring most of the knowledge from her elementary school to Utah.
“I learned self confidence and being true to myself. I excelled in the French class which Mrs. Stevens taught and it helped me during my job at a call center in Utah where I received a lot of e-mails in French,” Robinson says.
Brandon Frazier, 19, left the school after sixth-grade. He graduated from Hinckley High and will soon be attending Lincoln College of Technology to concentrate on a field in the automotive industry.
Frazier said, “I love it. I have been learning what I have from my friends about modifying cars.”
Perry described a time in Frazier’s life when due to the command of the French language, he was sent by KDKO Radio to represent the company in Switzerland and France.
“While Brandon was here, KDKO was still a live radio station in Colorado. Our children had radio engineering classes every Thursday,” Perry says. “From that, he passed the Federal Communications Commission, FCC exam, was able to get licensed and was later hired to represent the company at such a young age.”
Eight-year-old Tobi Walker is excited about starting the third grade in late August. She says Watch Care is a fun school; she loves French and has learned a lot about Black history.
“We go on the board and do the math problems to make sure they are all correct,” Tobi says.
When Stevens first stepped onto American soil, she longed to teach Black children in America because of her experience as a teacher in Liberia.
She says, “I just wanted to contribute to the Black community. I went to the Urban League which knows everything about this community. I was told there isn’t a Black school but a daycare that has a preschool. I went to check it out.”
Stevens says Ms. Perry said, “We will see if we can expand to elementary.”
“So in 1991, I started working at Watch Care. We enrolled kids from first to sixth grade in one room. I was just a teacher then,” Stevens says.
Tobi’s mother, Jasmine Walker, 28, compared WCA to other schools, saying they do not teach Black history in detail as it does.
“I admired the school,” says Walker who is a daughter of Dr. Daddio Walker, Denver’s first Black radio station owner. “I even decided that my daughter should finish at this school.”
She prefers that Tobi’s siblings, Tori, 5, and James, 4, attend the same school because she loves the discipline and determination that the students display.
She tells of a time when Tobi could not settle for a mere B grade, saying an A is the best. She says the kids will not give up. When they do not understand, they will ask questions.
“One day Tobi got a B and wasn’t happy. I told her it’s okay. She said she wanted an A. The next time she got an A,” Walker says.
Perry says, in a good year, the school will enroll 75 to 100 students, but on a cool one, 25 to 50. In 2008, she witnessed enrollment dropping due to the poor economy.
The school is funded through donations and fundraising. Perry insists the academy is affordable and says it provides scholarships for students.
When parents fail to pay for the books the school has provided for the children, they are at least asked to participate in the child’s education both at home and school.
“Last year, someone donated backpacks to the school and inside them were school supplies. I really want my daughter to stay in this school until she is completely done,” says Walker.
Perry says the academy was named Watch Care because her mother believed that when the children leave their permanent homes and come to this learning venue temporarily, they are under supervised care.
The school started as a day care in 1985, added kindergarten in 1987 and expanded the elementary school from first to eighth grade in 1999.
Perry says education let’s children “know who they are. Let’s them know they are African American children. There were those before them who profoundly advocated respect, dignity, intelligence, engineering, literature.”
“You have a profound impact on society and humanity. Their responsibility is to take that, lean on it, utilize it and move forward in their lives doing the same thing,” she says. “Watch Care graduates usually come back to the school and encourage students. They let the children know they went through the same thing, which appears to be endless but is not.”
Stevens will to go back to Liberia, but vows to continue volunteering her services as long as she lives in the U.S.
“I love teaching; it’s my profession. I love teaching children who have been classified as learning disabled,” she says. “All kids are teachable, I believe. It’s just a matter of taking your time to teach them and I enjoy it. When you see you have actually taught them, you feel good.”
Editor’s note: For more information on Watch Care Academy, contact Janie Perry at 303-320-4346, e-mail jperry@watchcareacademy.com or visit www.watchcare.com.
