by Frederick Fuller

Created on: March 20, 2008

Emphasis is on boys not doing as well in elementary school as girls. The reasons are legion, as any educator will tell you. But having observed one school's attempt to solve the problem, I need to describe it and comment. It does not involve an elementary school, but a secondary school. However, the program, called STEP, is quiet malleable and can be easily adjusted to elementary. In fact, it is my opinion that if incorporated into the elementary experience, it may not be necessary at the secondary level. Here it is from a first-person perspective.

It's noon on a Thursday at Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke. Classes are changing with a lot of noise.

"Whazup?"

"I'm not gonna do that. I gotta go to my class."

"How cool is that?"

"Okay, move on to class now."

Teens and faculty mingle their voices as they pass along, going either to lunch or class, or home, if their schedules permit them to leave.
Drifting in by one's, two's, three's to a small conference room in McQuilkin Hall office, African American teenage males gather around a table. Chairs are shuffled around, some more chairs are brought from another room; the boys laugh and talk as they settle; the bell rings, and they get quiet. The Students Transitional Educational Program (STEP) comes to order.
STEP is the culmination of a program for African American males started almost 20 years ago by Fletcher Nichols, chairman of the Fine Arts Department at PHHS. Using his Isuzu Trooper he rounded up as many boys in Roanoke who wanted to come, and took them to his house for an evening of singing, pizza and talk. They were called The Men of Distinction.

According to Nichols it got to be that talk was the most important aspect of the meeting. Unrestricted talk about anything on the boys' minds, from problems at home to problems with girls, problems on the street to problems concerning them deeply as young men, problems they refused to talk about with parents or anyone else. There was no restriction on language used or subject matter pursued.

The result was that the boys opened up and discussed subjects with one another and helped each other through some very perilous times in their lives. Today, several of The Men of Distinction are professionals, ministers and politicians, to name a few accomplishments.

Three years ago Roanoke City Schools took a look at what Nichols had been doing and sanctioned STEP, which is today's Men of Distinction, only now held once a week at PHHS instead of his home. ("I'll bring them to my house

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