"SUCCESS COMES FROM WITHIN"
SURVIVING OUR FIRST YEAR 2002-03
Destiny was founded in 2002, and began operating September 2002. The school served seven students this school year. The school’s hours are 8:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., with an occasional one-hour after school program. Destiny’s staff comes from traditional educational settings, as well as non-traditional settings, so they understand our student’s life experiences. They provide students with role models of positive efforts and accomplishments in school, the workplace and the community.
Destiny is a community Christian based private school. The school’s mission is to serve the population of students in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that have dropped out or been expelled from the public school system, and help them toward self-sufficiency through Christian education. Destiny hopes to help Oklahoma City youth function in society at their highest potential. Destiny, believes “the irresponsibility and apathy which exists among many inner-city youth is a direct result of the lack of clear goals and a clear and correct philosophy of life, the lack of knowledge of their unlimited potential and the absence of strong meaningful traditions. Through Destiny Urban Academy a tightly structured, intensive program, Destiny staff, parents, and community members worked with this small group of students in our first year. We focused on general education courses, as well as Bible, Cultural Heritage Enrichment, and Strategies for Social Development. It is our hope to fill some of the gaps for the students we serve and support development of their life skills.
Destiny is located in the Northeast area of Oklahoma City. It is an inner-city neighborhood whose population is 85% African American, 10% European American, 3% Hispanic, 1% American Indian and 1% other. The area suffers the social and economic deprivation of an urban ghetto.
The area has been plagued with low-income residents and the majority of households headed by women. Low self-esteem, damages self-concept, deprecated character, cultural incompetence, psychological scars and reactionary behavior are some of the high-risk characteristics that contribute to the self-destructive behavior of the youth/students we serve and which live in this area.
“The Spirit of Man” written by Iyanla Vanzant states, Students rush off to school to study assignments for which they will be graded according to standards set by others. The standards may have nothing to do with your true ability. Rather, they reflect your ability to function within certain specified guidelines. None of this is intrinsically bad. The effects, however, are that you live an externally stimulated lifestyle in which very little of the twenty-four-hour day is focused on Self. You know what is expected of you, and you do what is expected to the best of your ability. This may or may not satisfy others. It may or may not have any relationship to your expectations or goals for your selves. As a result of socialization, most human beings are motivated by rewards, doing and getting. Few of us are motivated by Spirit. In fact, we spend a relatively small fraction of our lives in positive contact or interaction with the very source of our ability to live.
“The Spirit of Man” written by Iyanla Vanzant states,
Students rush off to school to study assignments for which they will be graded according to standards set by others. The standards may have nothing to do with your true ability. Rather, they reflect your ability to function within certain specified guidelines. None of this is intrinsically bad. The effects, however, are that you live an externally stimulated lifestyle in which very little of the twenty-four-hour day is focused on Self. You know what is expected of you, and you do what is expected to the best of your ability. This may or may not satisfy others. It may or may not have any relationship to your expectations or goals for your selves. As a result of socialization, most human beings are motivated by rewards, doing and getting. Few of us are motivated by Spirit. In fact, we spend a relatively small fraction of our lives in positive contact or interaction with the very source of our ability to live.
With this being stated so eloquently by Ms. Vanzant, I want to go on to say that our challenges on the surface seem simple. Our children come out of public school systems where they understand the day-to-day of doing and trying to get through the hoops. Some of our children are asked out of this system due to their seeming inability to do and/or the struggles of their parents.
In an attempt to identify and record our challenges as a first year private Christian School, we come to the conclusion that the following have been our greatest challenges, (1) parent participation, (2) lack of adequate funds, (3) traditional teachers in a non-traditional setting, (4) children living in drug rehab communities, (5) children who are very angry, and (6) lack of mentors. This is not an exhausted list, these are the ones that seem to stand out in our daily interactions with the students.
Information on Social Development and Cultural Heritage Enrichment was integrated into group discussions.