COURSE TEACHES PARENTS TO PUSH KIDS TO ACHIEVE ACADEMY ENCOURAGES COLLEGE EMPHASIS.Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer SUN VALLEY - Hoping to create a community where parents prize education and children are on the college track, Fernangeles Elementary School elementary school: see school. teamed up with Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. nonprofit A corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive. Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law. One-LA to offer parents a four-week crash course in academic achievement. Early Saturday morning, while the neighborhood around Fernangeles was still asleep, some 20 parents gathered in the school's auditorium auditorium Portion of a theater or hall where an audience sits, as distinct from the stage. The auditorium originated in the theaters of ancient Greece, as a semicircular seating area cut into a hillside. over coffee, pastries and cut vegetables for the achievement academy's second session. What's the difference between desire and expectation, academy leader Joaquin Sanchez asked the parents. It's action. And that's one of the key lessons of the academy, school officials said. ``The parents want their child to do well, they want their child to go to college, but they think it's like winning the lottery,'' said Maria Sesma Sooy, an outreach consultant with Fernangeles. ``We're trying to get more parents in the know with the relationships and skills it takes to get a child to college.'' Fernangeles is the first school in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. to hold an Achievement Academy, but One-LA and the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. offered the workshop to parents at 11 Boyle Heights Schools last year. The project enlists parents to help raise student performance, cut the drop-out rate and increase the number of students from low-income, minority communities who go to college. The reality now is grim: Of 30 children in a typical Fernangeles class, 14 will drop out before high school graduation Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony. The date of event is often called degree day. The event itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation. . Four will go to college and only one will graduate from college. The son of immigrant parents, Sanchez graduated from University of California at Berkeley (body, education) University of California at Berkeley - (UCB) See also Berzerkley, BSD. http://berkeley.edu/. Note to British and Commonwealth readers: that's /berk'lee/, not /bark'lee/ as in British Received Pronunciation. , and he attributes his success to high expectations. His parents owned a piano-refurbishing shop and from a young age they introduced every customer to their son, Joaquin, who was going to college. Soon, folks were always asking him about his plans for the future. ``Expectations occur when a lot of adults ask you about your education, and I realized that was missing in a lot of places in Los Angeles,'' Sanchez said. The parents' homework for the week was to talk to nine adults - three relatives, three neighbors and three fellow parents - and encourage them to ask the parents' children about their education, their favorite subject and what they want to study in college. Marisela Soto said she found the academy helpful as she prepares her five children for the future. ``I want the best for my children. We can do this together. I want them to decide for themselves what they want and I can support them.'' Rita Sanchez has lived in Sun Valley for 45 years and she believes the community would improve if parents put a higher priority on education. Inspired by the Achievement Academy, the grandmother has begun talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to her fourth-grade granddaughter about what she's learning in school. ``We try to encourage her. She knows she has to continue her education to go where she wants to go.'' Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com |
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