A Year in the Cave

By Rob Guyette

Getting high school boys to read is a difficult task for many teachers and parents. Four years ago, De Pere (Wis.) High School teacher Rob Guyette tried a new approach, and it has worked with tremendous success. Using his personal background as a graduate of all-boys Abbot Pennings High School in 1988, Guyette developed an all-boys English program at De Pere. In the first year, he had 14 freshmen boys register. This fall, more than 175 boys will be enrolled in the English 9 and English 10 classes, which focus not only on reading, but on community service and turning the boys into successful men who are leaders and achievers. Guyette shares the story of a year in his classroom, highlighting the ups and downs of a year as a teacher while also showing how he makes the single-gender setting work. The book is a must-read for anyone looking for ways to get high school boys they know and love to read more, or for anyone interested in today's public school classroom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rob Guyette
• Release date: Aug 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301502806

Rob Guyette

Rob Guyette teaches English at De Pere (Wis.) High School. He graduated from Abbot Pennings High School and Syracuse University before working for 6 years in the sports department at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. He is entering his 13th year at De Pere.

Book preview

A Year in the Cave

By Rob Guyette

SMASHWORDS edition

****

Published by:

Rob Guyette on Smashwords

A Year in the Cave

Copyright 2013 by Rob Guyette

Thank you for downloading this free SMASHWORDS book. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced for any use without permission from the author. If you enjoy this book, please share it with friends.

If this book inspires you, and you would like to make a financial contribution to the book fund for the all-boys reading classes at De Pere High School, checks can be made out to:

De Pere HS All-Boys books

Attn: Rob Guyette

De Pere High School

1700 Chicago Street

De Pere, WI 54115

100 percent of all donations will go toward purchasing books for the boys in my classes to read. Thank you.

The author can be reached by email at [e-mail]

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all of my teachers at Abbot Pennings High School. Thank you for taking less money so that you could work at a place that made such a tremendous impact on boys like me.

Introduction

"You liked being in an all-boys school? Why?Really?"

This is usually the first reaction I get today when I mention to my De Pere (Wis.) High School students that I attended Abbot Pennings High, located about two miles away across the Fox River, back in the mid-1980s.

When I tell them that single-gender education is a superior setting for learning, they immediately question whether my hormones were functioning in my teenage years.

No girls? All day? My god!

During the week, our focus was on school, I always say. And by the weekend, the girls couldn’t wait to see us. And vice versa.

I wink. Then they get it.

At the very least, the kids are intrigued.

I cannot say that every trait I possess as a 42-year-old with a wife and two kids can be traced to my experience in a single-sex high school. Those four years at Pennings did shape me, though, especially in the areas of competitiveness, leadership, responsibility, and loyalty. I was surrounded by people much like me – athletically determined and academically focused. Making the golf and basketball teams my freshman year was instrumental in the development of my self-confidence. Running the student council as president my senior year tested my character in ways I never could have imagined. The lessons I learned at Pennings were difficult sometimes, but anyone who can make it through an all-boys school is a survivor. No one went four years without his share of feeling as though he was on the wrong side of a Lord of the Flies situation at least once or twice.

Today, I am sure that my experience was unique to kids growing up in this area. The triumvirate of Pennings, its all-boys rival Green Bay Premontre, and all-girls Green Bay St. Joseph’s Academy closed in 1990, ending an era in northeastern Wisconsin.

When the closing announcement was made, I was 1,000 miles away, living as a sophomore and bleeding orange as the assistant sports editor of the school paper at Syracuse University in New York, and way too into my own life to realize the impact the shutdown had on the community. Selfishly focused on my future – one that didn’t include my hometown – I was not too concerned, for my brother and I made it through Pennings (I was the class of ’88; he was the class of ’89) and for everyone younger ... well ... too bad. Mostly, I wondered what would happen to my favorite teachers and my principal, Fr. Meehan, whom I had grown close to and who poured his life into making the school a desirable, sought-after place for boys to attend.

When Green Bay Notre Dame Academy became co-ed in 1990, absorbing the three single-sex schools, and the Pennings building became part of St. Norbert College, I mostly disassociated from my past. I had no alma mater to root for during basketball tournament time and no journalism class to share my college experiences with. I believe I speak for many Pennings grads when I profess that Notre Dame just is not my school. I am not anti-Notre Dame, but I am not a Triton and never will be. My sister and youngest brother went there, but the fact it is located in the old Premontre building still makes me a bit ill.

As I grew older and took a job after college as a sportswriter at the Green Bay Press-Gazette, avoiding my past was easy: Pennings was never in the news and, despite living in the area, I rarely ran into former classmates. When I did go back into the school and saw how it was changed into an office building, a miserable feeling swept over me.

I knew Pennings was officially dead and not coming back.

Change in direction

Professionally, I made a career change in my late 20s, leaving the newspaper business after six years. I re-entered the world of education by pursuing a teaching certificate at St. Norbert. I saw the old building, now renamed Pennings Activity Center (ugh!), every day. One of my classes was actually in the former library on the second floor – right across from my old locker. I spent many a study hall in that library. It was strange being surrounded by classmates who were just out of high school – at least eight years younger than I – and not married like I was. Some of them, I guessed, had no idea that the building used to be a high school.

I was fortunate to land a great job immediately after my two years of schooling, teaching seventh-grade math and language arts at Bay View Middle School in Howard. Three years later, a job came open at De Pere High School, which is one mile from my home. Luckily, I got it.

Seven years into teaching high school English, I had seen enough: too many low-achieving boys who did not think reading was important; too many high-achieving boys who were not excited by the curriculum materials and simply went through the motions; too many class discussions that went nowhere; and too many guys who acted like knuckleheads instead of scholars and leaders.

My frustration level was high.

About this time, as I was pursuing my master’s degree, I took a course about trends of boys in our educational system. Most of them were not positive, ranging from lower reading scores to higher special education rates to fewer college attendees to more high school dropouts to greater behavior problems to higher teen suicide rates. Researching the problem closer to home, I found that many of the same issues existed in Wisconsin, my own district, and my own school.

Boys were falling behind.

As an educator, I figured I had two choices: Continue teaching the same way and producing the same results, or try to make changes.

My first thought? My dad. He’s not a teacher, but a businessman. One of the greatest gifts he has ever given me is a cassette tape (yes, this was back in the 1980s) from a corporate outing he attended in which the keynote speech was given by the late Jim Valvano, coach of 1983 NCAA men’s basketball champion North Carolina State. In the speech, Valvano spoke at length about struggles and all the losing he endured in his first few jobs at small colleges. While at a low point, he was given a piece of advice that changed him forever. A friend said to him: You know, Jim, things can either get better, or they can get worse. That was it. The audience laughed, because the message sounded so simple and obvious. I have always loved that advice, and in this case, for me, it meant I could either continue as part of the problem or look to find the solution.

Thus, I dipped into my single-gender past, learned about laws passed in 2006 that allowed single-gender classes in public schools, and dove into a radical project that has greatly added to both the gray hairs on my head and the satisfaction with my job.

My initial brainchild wondered what a single-gender setting would do for boys at the freshman level. A successful freshman year is vital to four years of high school success, and I speculated whether a different type of learning environment would help put some of those borderline kids on the positive path.

Start it up

Getting the project off the ground had its ups and downs. The easiest part was convincing my principal, Annette Deuman, that the idea was worthy. In short, she loved it. I am extremely lucky to have a progressive principal who rewards teachers trying to make changes. She even helped me find additional statistics of the growing divide in boys’ and girls’ reading scores at De Pere that supported the case for the class.

Step two was finding a female partner to teach the all-girls class. Again, no problem. Our literacy coordinator, Angela Wachtel, knew the gender trends and statistics as well as I did, and she also taught a women's literature class at the high school. She was on board. Angela and I did the initial recruiting in the middle school and made our pitch to all 13 of the Grade 8 language arts classes before registration.

Despite all of the statistics of the decline of boys' reading scores – the data is easy to find – my peers were mixed on the idea. I would be lying if I said that every conversation I had about establishing the program was a pleasant one. Anyone who has ever worked in an office can probably imagine some of the behind-the-scenes politicking, but I felt strongly that I needed to fight for this idea. My background in all-boys education is something that few other teachers have, and I believe many of the objections were likely based on their own positive experiences with co-ed education.

Eventually the venture passed, and the project unveiled on September 1, 2009. Angela did not end up with the all-girls class due to a scheduling conflict, so Kirsten Missall decided to take a flyer and try it.

We haven’t looked back.

Create it, and they will come

Four years after starting with 39 kids (25 girls, 14 boys) in an English 9 class, we have more than 275 students enrolled in the program for 2012-2013, an increase of more than 600 percent. We expanded the single-sex option to English 10 for Year 2 after the first group signed and presented a petition to the administration, asking to remain together for another year.

Kirsten and I were flattered.

A total of 130 students were registered in single-sex English 9 and English 10 for the 2010-2011 school year, and we adjusted as much curriculum as we could to fit the needs of our troops.

By Year 3, the word was out that the single-gender classes were working. Not only did we have data to back it up – better grades and increased reading lexile levels – but students enjoyed being part of the group so much that it felt as though a fraternity and sorority had developed.

We brought the boys and girls together every once in a while for book talks or projects, created class t-shirts with everyone’s name on the back, and added a community service element. About 250 boys and girls came on board for 2011-2012. Kirsten was suddenly teaching all-girls classes all day, and I had two all-boys classes of each grade.

Combined, we had nine sections.

In all, Kirsten and I experienced many joys and frustrations throughout the year. The bottom line, though, is that we are determined to continue to make this program better, more attractive, and more productive.

For Year 4, more than 75 freshman boys registered, requiring us to add a third single-sex teacher to take one of the English 9 all-boys classes. (Sara Herr, whose room is next to mine, enthusiastically accepted the challenge.)

So, why write this book?

During the summer, I enjoy reading books about high schools and education in general. The boys are failing books are out there in force in your local bookstore. Ever since the turn of the century, prominent education writers have been pointing out what many in the education world are hesitant to admit: Boys are not only falling behind girls, but they are doing worse compared to boys of previous generations. Most education data that gets media attention – and rightfully so – revolve around the learning gaps involving race and income. The gender gaps are usually brushed off as being secondary or insignificant.

All gaps, to me, are worthy of examination.

So what can I offer?

First, I offer my humility. Writing a book has a certain egotistical component to it, but I am just one of many educators in Wisconsin and beyond who run classrooms that work. Anything I do can be duplicated and likely improved upon. My greatest traits are enthusiasm and passion, and I am willing to put myself out there, susceptible to either criticism or praise.

Because I am by nature a contrarian, the idea for this book was born by the teacher bashing that has persisted in Wisconsin for the better part of the last 18 months. All of a sudden, the public was at war with teachers, and every statistic out there was trying to be spun to prove how under-skilled, overpaid, and under-worked we are. Yes, teachers as a whole made their fair share of mistakes during the political rumble in Madison. Yes, there are bad teachers who do not work very hard, and yes, there are some teachers who cannot wait for weekends and summers off. But they are not the majority; they might be the most vocal or visible, but most teachers I know put in multitudes of extra hours to improve their skills, curriculum and classroom.

The other side of the schools are sinkholes rhetoric needs to be told.

My purpose in this book is to give you, the reader, a first-hand look at how we can craft and build programs that will turn boys on to language arts. This is a not a book of research; instead, it’s a book of how we do it at De Pere. I would love for every school district in Wisconsin and beyond to replicate the success we have had here.

Of course, not everything I do works, and not every boy who comes into the class finds the fire to read and succeed. Many, however, do, and every positive story is worth the effort. Few parts of this job are better than the words of a joyous mother who is grateful that her son is suddenly reading again. I have shared some of these letters in this book.

I am proud of what we have done at De Pere, and I want to share it. I invite you into Room H108 – the Man Cave of reading and writing – for a year, and I hope you find the journey worth your time.

- Rob Guyette

De Pere, Wisconsin

July 23, 2012

Chapter 1: In the cave, first quarter

Obviously, the crux of our job is communication with the students – teaching them the curriculum, interacting with them on a daily basis, and attempting to teach them lessons that go beyond essays and grammar.

My schedule is unique because it consists of two classes of all-boys English 9 and two classes of all-boys English 10; for my fifth class, the school has combined the journalism and yearbook rosters into one hour. Neither has enough interest to warrant a class by itself, but joining the two makes the effort viable. Our administration has always believed in the value of having student publications, even if the overall interest is not at the level of other courses. The quantity and quality of the products are not what they could be because of such low enrollment, but the publications are always available for the student voice.

My goal in these first four chapters is twofold: First, I would like to share what makes the all-boys program at De Pere successful. Second, I hope to provide an impression of what the classroom is like today. Many adults, when they think about education, relate mostly to their own encounters as a student. But, as any teacher will concur, the view is a whole different ballgame from the front of the room.

Because I know all of the sophomores, little time is wasted in the first few weeks. We get into the reading and writing immediately. The freshman transition will not be too difficult, either; I coached 11 of them in basketball last year and know several more from summer-school chess.

(All references to Kirsten are Kirsten Missall, who teaches the all-girls classes for both English 9 and English 10. References to Sara are Sara Herr, who teaches one section of all-boys English 9. Sara’s all-boys class runs during the same hour as one of my English 9 classes. All of the boys’ names have been changed, though I know they will have fun trying to figure out who is who. Have fun, fellas.)

9-5-12: Tear ’em down, then build ’em up

Those of us old enough to remember Nancy Reagan’s Just Say No to drugs campaign from the 1980s are also smart enough to realize that the best way to get a young person to do something is to perform reverse psychology.

On this first day of school, I showed the boys statistics of male failure that keep growing. Girls are kicking your butts, I told them, so if you want to continue that trend, keep slacking. Most of the girls will be more than happy to get better grades, gain acceptance into better colleges, rake in more scholarship money, and achieve greater honors. After all, boys everywhere else are letting it happen.

Challenge delivered.

Will the boys respond or cower? The next 179 days will tell.

Content-wise, Day 1 had three steps:

First, visual. A CBS news piece from this summer featured the decline of boys in academics that went as far as debating whether colleges should have affirmative action admissions for boys. Ouch.

Second, auditory. I need to show them right from the start that I love to read. Lisa Bloom’s book Swagger is a perfect starting point, for it