According to a special report commissioned by the Afterschool Alliance, a non profit public awareness and advocacy organization based in Washington, DC, 56 percent of families in 1950 represented the “traditional” American image—one parent worked full-time and the other stayed home to care for the children. Today, less than a quarter of the families in the nation fit this image, leaving 14.3 million children to care for themselves after school.
The rest of the world has changed a lot since the 1950s too. Jodi Grant, the executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, says that another study points out how much more likely kids were to partake in dangerous behaviors while unsupervised during these hours. “Teens who do not participate in afterschool programs are nearly three times more likely to skip classes than teens who do participate,” she says. “They are also three times more likely to use marijuana or other drugs, and they are more likely to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, and engage in sexual activity.”
But the image of the traditional American family and the dangers in the after-school hours are not the only thing that’s changed. On a more positive note, the demand for afterschool programming has increased and has been met with a number of evolving, engaging options for parents who wish to use the afterschool hours in a constructive way.
“There was a time when there were few afterschool programs, and what was available was more likely to be activities—a cheerleading group here, a chess club there,” says Grant. “We are making progress, the number of afterschool programs is growing, but we still have a long way to go. And the programs we have do more to provide the range of supports and activities that students need today than in the past. In many cases, afterschool programs engage students who may not be doing well in school by offering field trips, mentoring, opportunities to try art and music, physical fitness and sports, career exploration, and much more, as well as the homework help that students need.”
Rather than just providing baby-sitting, today there are a range of choices in the region that go beyond standard child care to promote creativity, teach new skills, and prepare children and youth for the responsibilities they will face in the workforce.
Center for Creative Education
“All you have to do is take a good walk around Midtown Kingston,” says Evry Mann, the founder and executive director of the Center for Creative Education in Kingston. “Kids today are confronting all types of serious risks and it’s dangerous out there—and not just in Midtown Kingston, it’s dangerous everywhere. You could sit in front of your big screen TV and it runs the gamut from drugs and alcohol abuse to the idiocy of too many hours playing video games.”
Mann’s antidote began in 1997, when his daughter was in third grade and he noticed a lack of arts programs in the schools. What started as one program in an elementary school quickly spread to three as Mann, a percussionist, utilized his friendships with working artists in the area who loved kids and could teach—a symbiosis that gave work to artists and enriched the education of children.
Today, the Center for Creative Education operates programs from its own performing arts center in Kingston. The center offers studios for multi disciplinary visual arts, percussion, dance, a computer music lab, and a homework tutoring center. Funding has helped provide Apple computers and GarageBand software for the computer music lab, where beginning to advanced students can create their own compositions under the direction of Peter Wetzler, who does professional film and music scoring.
The dance programs at the center are also widely acclaimed, and Bryant “Drew” Andrews’s Energy Dance Company has won awards from the Apollo Theater and BET. To participate in the dance groups that the center offers, Mann says that children must maintain a certain grade level at school—a further incentive to study and a way that the center ties together the arts and academics.
“We know classroom teachers who have says that the [dancer’s] discipline and focus pays off in math class because they’ll spend 30 minutes working on a step to get it right, and that can carry over to academics as well,” Mann says.
The center does charge for programs, but the fees are often covered by scholarships when students apply—Mann estimates that 86 percent of the 128 students currently enrolled at the center are on scholarship. The center also offers free programs at the George Washington and John F. Kennedy Elementary Schools, which provide theater, music, dance, visual art, and more to about 450 elementary school students.
“My experience is that kids are going to do something—they have bundles of energy, so if we can provide them with experiences and positive energy they’ll gladly take us up on it,” Mann says. “Otherwise, they’ll use that energy another way, it will be expended somehow. Our job is to provide kids with meaningful things to do.”
Children’s Media Project
Based in Poughkeepsie, the Children’s Media Project (CMP) was founded by filmmaker Maria Marewski as a media literacy program for children where they not only become critical viewers, but learn to create media as well. The organization provides afterschool programs for middle schoolers, like one planned for this fall that will incorporate script-writing and character development for production of radio plays that will be hosted by Vassar’s WVKR. CMP also runs DROP TV (Direct Revolution of Programming Television), a program in which high schoolers are involved in every step of each show’s production, from brainstorming material to editing, filming, and acting. Nicole Fenichel-Hewitt, CMP’s executive director, says that kids can come in as beginners during the afterschool apprenticeship and leave as advanced filmmakers.
“One of the things that I think is a great advantage for DROP TV afterschoolers is that when summer comes around, we have paid apprentices,” Fenichel-Hewitt says. “And they get the skill set for lots of different filmmaking jobs.”
DROP TV apprentices learn basic camera skills and editing, and become proficient in software like Final Cut and Adobe Creative Suite. They also learn how to work sound and lighting—everything needed to be in production on a crew. Fenichel-Hewitt says that in addition to technical skills, the programming at CMP offers vital life skills as well.
“[Kids] become more able to work in team settings, they build leadership skills and are increasing their critical thinking skills,” Fenichel-Hewitt says. “They also learn about how to troubleshoot and navigate change and be adaptable to different situations and settings. It’s not just about teaching kids camera skills and professional development, it’s also life skills and decision making and being able to navigate life.”
Ryan Sullivan, a media educator at CMP who began as a student there more than eight years ago, credits the program with teaching him a number of critical skills and allowing him to have an outlet to positively affect his community.
“Children’s Media Project is important to have because Poughkeepsie is a community that’s struggling,” Sullivan says. “It’s a place where a lot of drugs and violence are an everyday life for some of these teenagers. We give them a way to be a part of something that’s a healthy environment and hopefully we give them the knowledge to make it. It’s rough out there.”
Mill Street Loft
When Carole Wolf started Mill Street Loft in 1981, she had no idea it would turn into the successful arts organization it has. “There was a need in this community to offer meaningful art classes to children and adults of all ages that was not being offered anywhere else,” Wolf says. “I was interested in something else; intergenerational programs, the wisdom of age and vitality of youth. I saw more and more two-parent families working, and more and more kids after school with nothing to do and no place to go.”
Mill Street Loft offers programs to children from as young as four years old to high school age. This fall, elementary school children can choose from a variety of classes such as Clay Creations, in which kids produce functional and sculptural clay objects, and Art Camp, a series that explores the use of different materials and media. Older, middle school-aged children can sign up for the Junior Art Institute and learn animation and sequential drawing, drawing and painting, and more.
High school students have the most class choices, with arts education opportunities ranging from figure drawing to photography and portfolio development. Mill Street Loft has established itself as a highly regarded organization among colleges, and Wolf says that to date, her students have received more than $12 million in merit-based scholarships.
Mill Street Loft has also developed a number of outreach programs. Habilidad is an art-based program that reaches out to Spanish and Latino youth to help them develop career awareness through technology training, portfolio development, job exploration, and public art projects. The Poughkeepsie PASWORD program was designed to help at-risk girls ages 11 to 17 overcome gender-specific issues like domestic violence and teen pregnancy by using literary, media, performing, and fine arts as tools of empowerment. Beacon offers a similar program called Project AWARE. Local school districts cooperate with Mill Street Loft to nominate students to participate, and funding has allowed these outreach programs to be given tuition-free.
Berkshire Country Day School Enrichment Program
Claire Naylor-Pollart decided to start an afterschool program nearly three years ago to help parents who needed an option to bridge the gap between the end of the school day and the end of the workday. The Berkshire Country Day School Enrichment Program was born, and lined up a number of activities that allow children to be enrolled after school from 3 to 4:30pm in creative, athletic, and educational pursuits, often right on the school’s campus.
Naylor-Pollart is always adding to the range of classes offered. Those which have previously been offered include clay workshops, dance, painting, and a nature class where a naturalist educator takes the kids on hikes and explains the ecological systems they encounter. Music classes like African drumming are among the choices, and sports like baseball, horseback riding, and tennis are available as well.
It’s been a help to parents who have children that are released from school at different times, too. “Last year, my 10-year-old began taking afterschool sports, which required that he take the late bus home,” says Donna Kittredge, whose children attend the school. “My younger son attended some afterschool programs because he could then take the late bus home with his brother. It is convenient to be able to make one trip to pick up the kids, especially with the high cost of fuel.”
Other parents appreciate the range of material the enrichment courses expose their children to. Gundula Brattke enrolled her son in the program because she was impressed by the diversity of the classes. “Where else could a 6-year-old participate in moviemaking, where the kids develop their own story, build the props, care for the costumes, and eventually shoot their own movie?” asks Brattke. “My son also participated for several terms in chess class, tennis, baseball, nature walk, and drumming. He loved everything and definitely got a lot of knowledge and confidence out of it.”
The enrichment program courses correspond with the school’s calendar, so parents can rely on it throughout the school year. The program is currently available to kindergarten through fourth-grade students enrolled at the Berkshire Country Day School, but Naylor-Pollart hopes to one day open the classes to more grades and to children enrolled at other schools.
Finding and Supporting Afterschool Programs
There are a number of resources that will help parents locate quality afterschool programming. Start at the school district websites, where links to programs are often provided. Also consider getting involved with the organizations that help advocate these programs, like Afterschool Alliance, which operates at local, state, and national levels and which has a goal of making afterschool programs available to all children by 2010.
“Afterschool programs are a terrific investment, as they keep kids safe, help working families, and inspire students to learn,” says Grant. “We need more state, federal, foundation, and corporate support for these programs to keep kids on the right track and give them every chance to succeed, and give working parents the peace of mind they need and deserve.”
Resources
Afterschool Alliance
1616 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006, (866) KIDS-TODAY
www.afterschoolalliance.org
Berkshire Country Day School Enrichment Program
PO Box 867, Lenox, MA 01240 , (413) 637-0755
www.berkshirecountryday.org
Center for Creative Education
20 Thomas Street, Kingston, NY 12401, (845) 338-7664
www.cce-kingston.org
Children’s Media Project
Lady Washington Firehouse, 20 Academy Street , Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, (845) 485-4480
www.childrensmediaproject.org
Mill Street Loft
45 Pershing Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, (845) 471-7477
www.millstreetloft.org
This article appears in August 2008.
