The Thomas Family Values

By Phil Anderson

The Thomas Family Values is a collection of short stories that follows siblings Andre and Tameka Thomas through a typical school year.
Through the characters the readers are given insight into school and social issues facing our urban children today.
School issues include bullying, teacher/ student dynamics (teacher praise and snubbing).
Social issues include: affect of parent incarceration, having compassion for others and affect previous events has on todays kids.
Stories in the book are adaptations of real life situations and give honest depictions of school life for inner city students.
The book tries to balance between the images the media and others have placed on African Americans students. And the realities of the challenges social and school issues place on our kids.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477212257

Phil Anderson

Phillip (Phil) Anderson was born and raised in Indianapolis, IN. He attended Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) in the 1970’s and would later work in IPS. The idea for the Thomas Family Values came out his working for the school system. As a teacher’s assistant in a special education class Mr. Anderson challenged students to write stories and then read them aloud in a small group setting. This helped increase the student’s confidence in reading and writing. Conversely the students encouraged Mr. Anderson to write stories so they could have something interesting to read. The stories became a big hit with the students. The students felt like he was telling their story. With the help of Mr. Anderson the class went from being a Special Education class to just being a special class. He started a program where he ate lunch with a student or group of students just to talk about their issues. He had lunch dates set out for 2 months. Professionally, Mr. Anderson graduated from National Louis University, in Tampa, FL. He was a past President of The Manual Black Alumni Association (MBAA) a group that raised money for scholarships for Manual High school seniors. He was also a past president of The Civil Cervice Conservation Club in Indianapolis, a historically black camping and conservation club with a 75 acre campground in Brown County Indiana.

Book preview

The Thomas  

 Family Values

Phil Anderson

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AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2012 by Phil Anderson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/21/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-2529-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-1225-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012910936

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One :   Brand New

Chapter Two :   Lost

Chapter Three :   Bullied

Chapter Four :   I Don’t Know the Answer

Chapter Five :   You Ain’t My Daddy, I Ain’t Got No Daddy

Chapter Six :   Why Do They Do That: Part I

Chapter Seven :   Why Do They Do That? Part II

Chapter Eight :   Alicia

Chapter Nine :   N-Word (Nigger) Bill

Chapter Ten :   Let’s Talk

Chapter Eleven :   College

Chapter Twelve :   Me You and Mrs. Bloom: Part I

Chapter Thirteen :   What Cha Doin in There?

Chapter Fourteen :   A.J. Roberts

Chapter Fifteen :   Visit

Chapter Sixteen :   Is God Talking to Me?

This book is dedicated to Ms. Shirley and her 2005-2006 fifth grade class at School #14, in Indianapolis, IN. They began the school year as a special education class but ended it as just a special class.  

 Thanks for the inspiration.

Preface

The Thomas Family Values is a collection of short stories about a year in the lives of pre-teen siblings, Andre and Tameka (Meka)Thomas. Through the characters the author speaks to some of the many issues facing our children at home and in school.

In today society, social and school issues are intermingled. And because of teaching constraints the students aren’t taught how to deal with the social issues.

For instance more then half of black men ages 18 to 25 are either in prison or have a police record. And it is a fact that the high crime and incarceration rates are directly tied to high drop out rates and a high rate of absent fathers who are incarcerated.

The author believes students should be taught from a young age about the criminal justice system and what the lifelong consequences could be if you enter into it.

The Thomas Family Values addresses that issue and others through a way children understand the family. The author attempts to show through the children’s thoughts, words and actions what it feels and sounds like not to have a father around or to encounter racism.

In the book the author emphasizes relationships between teachers and students and how intentionally or unintentionally a teacher can break a students confidence. All of these issues are important to children but they don’t tell their parents because they are too immature to understand there is an issue or have a fear they may be punished or ridiculed.

In school there is no class about feelings/emotions or the importance of humanity and helping others. The