No room for failure at Achievement Place
Pre-delinquent boys get second chance
by CHERYL BOWMAN
Kansan Staff Writer
Each year about 250 youths are removed from their homes by Kansas juvenile courts. In most cases they are then sent to the Boy's Industrial School to live for periods of nine months to three years.
Working on the principle that these youths should be given second chances without going to jail, the University of Kansas' Bureau of Child Research has organized a program called Achievement Place to save these boys from jail and to rehabilitate them so they can become useful citizens.
Through a program of behavioral management pre-delinquent boys are given the opportunity to stay in the community while on the road to achievement.
Achievement Place Inc., located at 1340 Haskell, was established three years ago by Montrose Wolf, associate professor of human development and family life, and the University of Kansas Bureau of Child Research.
The home is supported by various local agencies and receives evaluation grants from the National Institute of Mental Health
The boys who come to live at Achievement Place are Lawrence residents who come from such places as broken homes, deprived homes or jail.
At Achievement Place these boys are given reprieves from jail. Lonny Phillips, Lawrence graduate student, and his wife, Elaine, are the house parents of Achievement Place. They receive custody of a boy after Juvenile Court has removed him from his home.
Achievement Place can house six boys at one time. Since its establishment, 15 boys between the ages of 12 and 16 have lived at Achievement Place. The length of their stays has ranged from five months to a year and a half.
"The primary purpose of the Achievement Place program is to help children who are having difficulty," said Phillips. "Its goal is to help the youth to become a secure, well adjusted and useful citizen.
"This is achieved by providing a home style, family environment in which sincere love and understanding is combined with fair and consistent discipline," Phillips said.
During their stay at Achievement Place, the boys live on a token economy or the "point system" as they know it. Each boy
14 KANSAN Apr.15 1970
is required to carry a score card in his pocket. He receives points for good behavior and loses points for undesirable behavior. The points the boys make are exchanged for privileges.
The points the boys make are exchanged for such things as allowance, bicycle, TVs, snacks, permission to go downtown and permission to spend time at their own homes.
Access to privileges are at first obtained on a weekly basis. At the end of the week they can trade the points they have earned that week for privileges during the next week.
Heavy emphasis is placed on grades and school. The boys attend the Lawrence public schools. The point system and the Achievement Place Education program seek to make success in school irresistible.
Phillips said the key problem appeared to be motivation. He said the boys just didn't care about school or getting an education and saw no connection between doing well in school and being a successful citizen later on in life. Achievement Place tries to bring the consequences for a good education closer in time to the actual learning.
"When most boys come to Achievement Place they are in academic trouble," said Phillips. "Unless some steps are taken these boys will be likely to become school 'drop outs.' We take the attitude that most who can't make it in school, can't make it in life."
To do this the boys take daily report cards to school. Their teachers are required to check whether or not the boys studied and obeyed the rules, whether
they completed home work assignments on time and the grades they earned on exams.
According to a study, while taking the cards the boys' study behavior increased almost 90 per cent and in most cases their grades improved one letter grade.
"The boys who come here are on the fringes of serious trouble," said Phillips. "They come here to take a look at themselves and to understand their problems. They are taught self control while systematically decreasing dependence on the point system and increasing dependence on natural reinforcements."
Once a boy demonstrates his ability to exercise self control, to take responsibility for his own behavior and to work productively in the home and in school, he is ready to be returned to his own home or to a permanent foster family.
When a boy is ready to go home he enters the Homeward Bound program. It seeks to maintain the social, academic, and self-help skills he has learned by providing for a two- to six-month transition period in which personnel from the Achievement Place maintain close contact with the parents of a homeward bound boy.
Initially the boy goes home for week-ends and continues to live at Achievement Place during the week. The boy learns to avoid the problems that caused him to be placed in Achievement Place and his parents learn to use the techniques employed at Achievement Place so that they can maintain their son's newly learned skills.
During the next phase of the program, the boys lives at home full time while Achievement
Moscow long distance to call for small talk about weather
Many students think of faculty as "dry, square people who have buried themselves in books so long that they don't have any idea of what's going on in the world." But some of them, believe it or not, have done a lot of things besides academic work.
radio station KWFT in Wichita Falls, Tex. The staff thought an interview with Khrushchev to get his comment on the Sputnik launch would make good publicity for the station.
David Dary, teaching assistant in the radio department of the School of Journalism, for instance, has tried to talk with Nikita S. Khrushchev on the phone. That was in 1957 after the Russians had launched Sputnik 1, and Khrushchev was Russian premier. Dary was working for
They did not get to talk to Krushhrie, however. Darya said
"The call was transferred to the English department of Radio Moscow which is the propaganda department, and I talked with one Mr. Boristov," said Dary.
Place personnel still maintain close contact with the boy and his parents. Eventually, the parents assume full responsibility for their son's behavior.
"I asked for comments on the launch, but he wouldn't tell me anything. Finally, the only question I could come up with was about the Moscow weather."
In the event of a reoccurrence of some delinquent behavior the boy could be placed back into Achievement Place for further training.
Griff's KU Relays Special The GIANT Hamburger Only 44c
This Saturday and Sunday Griff's is offering all of the many people who have come to enjoy the KU Relays the opportunity to enjoy Griff's GIANT Hamburger for only 44¢ (With Cheese Only 49¢). Griff's put a giant hunk of ground beef, fresh lettuce, tomato, and onion on a toasted bun to create the giant of a meal, the GiANT Hamburger. Come in for a GiANT meal this weekend.
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