Mel and I would like to thank Jim Reddinger and UBS for the opportunity to take a group of our students to see the Bulls play the Memphis Grizzlies on March 4. Though I was hobbled by a dodgeball injury; it was an [...]]]>

Kids enjoyed hot dogs and cookies along with the executive suite seats.

Mel and I would like to thank Jim Reddinger and UBS for the opportunity to take a group of our students to see the Bulls play the Memphis Grizzlies on March 4. Though I was hobbled by a dodgeball injury; it was an absolute pleasure to see the looks on the children’s faces as they entered the United Center. The food was great, the seats were even better, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the good behavior and academic success of nine of our top students.

–Tyler Warner

Here’s what the kids had to say:

“This past Thursday was one of the funnest days at the Sue Duncan Children’s Center. The reason I say this is because we went to a Chicago Bulls game. It was the first time I have ever gone to a Bulls game. We went with two tutors who were being cool like they really didn’t care and was just having fun. And we ate a lot of food. We had hotdogs, pop, chicken tenders, and fruit. And I can’t forget the cookies and the brownies. Mostly everyone in the stadium was rooting for the Bulls, but me and my friend Keith were going for the Memphis Grizzlies–even though they were losing at first.

I think that our faith and the way we were cheering gave the Grizzlies some motivation so they came back and won the game by 9 points. If you ask me, I would say that we did a good job as cheerleaders. I really would like to thank Owen, Mel, and Tyler for allowing me to go.”

[Devon, age 13]

Davon, Keith and Jeremy cheer on a group of dancers in the audience.

“The game was really fun. It was my second time going to a Bulls game and I was lucky for going. I was cheering for the Bulls and I had a lot of fun, even though they didn’t win. Jasmine, Devon, Keith, Jeremy, and I danced to The Black Eyed Peas “Tonight’s Gonna Be a Good Night.” I really liked when Benny the Bull danced and when a whole section of the crowd performed a choreographed dance. It was funny when Keith Yelled “Go Grizzlies.” I wasn’t disappointed when the Bulls lost and I was happy that I went to the Bulls game. I had a lot of fun.

Let’s Go Bulls!”

[Michaela, age 11]

“The Bulls game was awesome. I send my thanks to the DJ. I loved the part where I got to dance. The seats where amazing. That was the closest I’ve ever been to the court. The food was I’d say ok. The most fun I had was having fun with my friends and that the Grizzlies won. GO GRIZZLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

[Keith, age 13]

The Children’s Center was featured in the latest edition of The New Yorker in an article profiling current Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Carlo Rotella’s story recounts Arne’s history at the Center and how it shaped his pursuits in education.

Rotella describes Arne’s time growing up in Hyde Park, playing [...]]]>

Image from The New Yorker website

The Children’s Center was featured in the latest edition of The New Yorker in an article profiling current Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Carlo Rotella’s story recounts Arne’s history at the Center and how it shaped his pursuits in education.

Rotella describes Arne’s time growing up in Hyde Park, playing basketball with neighborhood boys and attending the Center after his days at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. At the Center, Arne was able to experience a different side of growing up on the South Side. “It’s been a huge part of my motivation, the difference between the day”–at the Lab School–”and then the evening with kids who had something that wasn’t even close,” he said in the story.

Other memories Arne describes in the article are when he tried tutoring a B student for the A.C.T. who turned out to be illiterate, and when he found out some of his friends from growing up at the Center had died.

“There’s a photo of our group, the inner circle from my mom’s program,” taken back in the late nineteen-seventies, he said, “and some of those guys are dead. Growing up down there, and having friends from the program and from the streets die when I was twelve, thirteen–that scarred me. It was hard to comprehend. As much as the success stories have shaped me and given me hope, those deaths might be an even bigger motivator. The guys who got killed were the guys who didn’t finish high school. It was literally the dividing line between you live or you die. Nobody who went to college died young.”

Rotella writes that President Obama has allotted Arne more than seventy billion dollars in economic stimulus funds to give to states, more than any other Secretary of Education has ever had, giving him “the potential to be a uniquely influential Secretary of Education.” From Arne’s experience at the Center, he takes away these lessons from the South Side:

“It shows that the states are so high [...] Education predicts disparities in life chances, outcomes, life income, and the disparity has never been starker. I do absolutely see–the dividing line in our society is around educational opportunity, more than around race, even though the two are obviously related. Educational opportunity increasingly divides the haves and have-nots, who’s contributing to society and who’s a weight on society.”

Rotella also interviewed Sue Duncan and Kerrie Holley, a former Center alum and current I.B.M. Fellow. Kerrie, who grew up at the Center, describes the problems they had with gangs.

Speaking of Kenwood, Holley said, “It’s better now, but I remember physically having to watch my back. It was risky, dirty, unsafe. And you had to know what time of day it was. You had the Disciples, the Blackstone Rangers.” The Blackstone Rangers once firebombed a church whose basement Sue Duncan’s program occupied. “It was face to face,” Holley said. “She’d say, ‘You can’t come in here. You gotta leave.’ But the gangs respected it. She’s here. She’s doing what she’s doing. She won’t back down.”

Sue started the Center after teaching a Bible-study class at a black church in Kenwood and discovering none of the children could read. She raised her three children at the Center (Owen is currently Assistant Director) and became a familiar figure in the neighborhood driving her big blue van. Rotella writes, “Sue’s moved from one church basement to another growing larger and becoming more deeply involved in the lives of the children who attended.”

Written by James E. Warren, SDCC Alum 1981

Friends of the SDCC:

Many thanks to all of those who attended Fall Fête and donated their time and money to make this year’s event so successful. As Owen Duncan said of the evening: “not only is the annual event crucial financially, it is emotionally and spiritually revitalizing for Sue and the rest of the [...]]]>

Friends of the SDCC:

Many thanks to all of those who attended Fall Fête and donated their time and money to make this year’s event so successful. As Owen Duncan said of the evening: “not only is the annual event crucial financially, it is emotionally and spiritually revitalizing for Sue and the rest of the staff at the Center.”

With your support, we raised nearly $90,000 to support the Center, a great start as we continue working to meet our needs for the coming years. You heard from Arne Duncan about the way the Center has shaped his view of education, and from Center alum Ron Raglin about how deeply Sue touched the lives of several generations.

The beginning of the 2009 school year has been our busiest ever and the Foundation Board will continue to work hard with your support to fund our critical needs. We encourage you to sign up for our online mailing list or Facebook group and visit our website. We look forward to providing you updates on this school year as we make progress.

-The SDCC Foundation Board

From the article:

“Sue Duncan has taught poor kids at her after-school center on Chicago’s South Side for 48 years. She says her son Arne spent seven days a week there as he was growing up.

‘It was absolutely formative,’ Arne Duncan, 44, said of working with his mother. He learned that ‘kids from totally [...]]]> Read the story

From the article:

“Sue Duncan has taught poor kids at her after-school center on Chicago’s South Side for 48 years. She says her son Arne spent seven days a week there as he was growing up.

‘It was absolutely formative,’ Arne Duncan, 44, said of working with his mother. He learned that ‘kids from totally dysfunctional home situations, total poverty, can do extraordinarily well if we give them a chance.’

What he absorbed matters because Duncan is now U.S. education secretary, in charge of improving a public school system that ranks below those of other developed nations in some studies. He’s armed with $100 billion in stimulus money from his friend, President Barack Obama, more than twice the budget of any of his predecessors.”

Assistant Director Owen Duncan writes in the introduction, “In this collection we find, as in any book of children’s writings, the beautiful next to the mundane, the fantastic mixed with the gritty–but there is a deeply troubling undercurrent here. These [...]]]> This year’s writing project, DANGER, explores the theme of violence in neighborhoods, schools and homes.

Assistant Director Owen Duncan writes in the introduction, “In this collection we find, as in any book of children’s writings, the beautiful next to the mundane, the fantastic mixed with the gritty–but there is a deeply troubling undercurrent here. These children offer us few illusions: they know the evils of human nature; they know their world is not safe.”

The annual writing project offered children the chance to tell stories from their own eyes and practice writing deeply and vividly. One student, Serenity, even produced a video based on her story, “Danger.” Click here to read the book online.