Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Teen: We need role models

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Friday, July 16, 1999

Teen: We need role models
LULAC panel takes up educational problems
By Jonathan Osborne
Caller-Times

Many teen-agers drop out of school, use drugs and become violent because they have no role models, 14-year old Francisco Nava told a panel of local and national education experts Thursday.
   "Teen-agers today are troubled," Francisco said. "For many people, teen-agers don't have people to look up to."
   Francisco, a student at Colleyville High School near Dallas, spoke during a workshop Thursday at the 70th a nnual League of United Latin American Citizens Convention. The 14-year-old told the panel - which included educators, government officials and researchers - that role models are the answer to many of the problems faced by students.
   "We need someone to look up to and express our feelings," Francisco said.
   Panelist Alfred Ramirez, president of the National Community for Latino Leadership, said the dropout rate is at the forefront of what has become - because of high teen pregnancy rates, school violence and drug use - an educational crisis within the Hispanic community.
   "For every 100 (Hispanic students), 40 nationwide would drop out," Ramirez said.
   "Most dropouts in the Hispanic population are in the eighth, ninth-grade," Ramirez said. "There not even high school dropouts at that point, they're junior high dropouts."
   Panelists from the U.S. Department of Education and the White House said if the educational crisis is to be solved, it must be solved in the family and community.
   "The problems are going to be solved not in Washington," said Mario Moreno, assistant secretary for Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs of the U.S. Department of Education. "They're going to be solved in Corpus Christi, Texas. You have to look into your neighborhoods. You have to look into your families. The real game is played right in your community."
   Moreno said that the best place to start is with role models, the most important being parents.
   "The most powerful ally that we have are our parents," Moreno said. "Often times parents don't know how to get involved. They need help to get engaged in the system."
   National Executive Director Brent Wilkes said that LULAC is already taking steps to solve the problem.
   "We're focusing on the motivation of the students," Wilkes said. "We are designing a series of programs that seek to put students in contact with community leaders mentors and parents."
   Wilkes said LULAC's programs involve real world experience in an attempt to make learning more enjoyable and get students excited about school.
   "LULAC has a reading program called Young Readers," Wilkes said. "Instead of reading about a newspaper business they actually visit a newspaper. They would be basically in contact with role models and parents that encourages them to enjoy an academic exercise."
   LULAC President Rick Dovalina said that Hispanics can not afford to ignore the problem any longer.
   "The education of our children is an American crisis," Dovalina said. "We have to keep these children in school."

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