Students study consequences

May 11, 2008 03:28 pm

— Ricky took a Spanish class, made good grades and got to go on a study tour of Spain. When he moved to a new school, he made a point to make friends and, through his connections, went on to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Stephen took easy electives and didn’t accomplish much. When he moved to a new town, he dropped out of school and ended up working in food service somewhere.
Eighth-graders Ricky Arnel and Stephen Allen made these hypothetical choices — and suffered the consequences — all in one class period Wednesday when they participated in the Choices program at the 7th and 8th Grade Center. Choices is designed to help eighth-graders make sound decisions as they prepare for high school and consider careers.
Members of the Muskogee Rotary Club presented CHOICES programs during eighth-grade history classes last week.
Ricky said the session he took in Joel Fischer’s history class taught him to “make good choices.”
“It’s way important to make good grades in high school because you do not know how hard life is going to get,” he said.
Muskogee Rotary President Kevin Stewart led the CHOICES session in Fischer’s class. He showed students a list of 30 factors that influence what kind of person they will be. They included birth order, appearance, attitude, year of birth and income.
“Some you can’t control,” he said. “The order of your birth — How many of you have older brothers or sisters?”
However, Stewart and the eighth-graders concluded that they can control most factors.
“The key is self-discipline,” Stewart said. “You have to do what you need to do, not just what you want.”
Eighth-grader Neil Naik got the message.
“It’s how you control yourself,” he said.
Stephen and Ricky illustrated how choices affect outcomes by taking part in a Challenge exercise. They were given alternatives of going to a basketball game and staying home to study, of taking a challenging Spanish class or an easy elective, of staying in a new school or dropping out. Points were awarded and deducted based on the choices they made and the consequences of their choices.
Stephen ended up with minus 12 points because of his “poor” choices. Ricky ended up with 10 points.
Classmate Kellsey Grobes found herself in an even greater challenge. She role-played a high school drop-out, working at an $8 an hour job. She watched her finances getting eaten up by rent, gas, utilities, food and taxes before concluding that she didn’t have money left over for health insurance.
“And we didn’t even talk about money for clothes, haircuts, make-up,” Stewart said. “What happens is that kids sort of drop-out and disappear.”
He told the students that a high school drop-out makes about $17,000 a year while a high school graduate makes $27,000 a year.
Stewart, minister at Muskogee Church of Christ, said he heard about the CHOICES program at a Rotary gathering and challenged the Muskogee Rotary to get involved. He said Rotary worked with Muskogee Public Schools, which obtained a grant to help pay for the CHOICES curriculum. He said he hopes to expand it to other grades.
“The program gets businessmen and women to talk about the choices they have made, some of them good, some of them bad,” he said.
The CHOICES course was developed by Gary Frizzell, a Seattle businessman who was having problems with his son, Stewart said. “He was having these clashes with his son, so he wrote his son letters.”
Rotary presenters reflect a diverse background. They included filmmaker Shironbutterfly Ray, real estate agent Holly Rosser-Miller, insurance agent Stephen Smalley, even Muskogee School Superintendent Mike Garde.
Melinda Murphy, retired nursing director at Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center, said the program stresses that “the more education you obtain the more choices you have.”
She said she is involved with CHOICES as an investment for Muskogee’s youth.
“If you do not invest in young people, you haven’t done the nation a service,” she said.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com.

Photos

Stephen Allen reads from a card of choices while participating in his social studies class on Wednesday morning at the Muskogee 7th and 8th grade center.