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Nancy Taylor Rosenberg has started something she hopes will
become a trend. Together, with her temple, she is working to
instill a sense of community and a love of literacy among
students at one inner-city school.
Rosenberg became involved with the Willard
Middle School in Santa Ana, California, through her rabbi's
wife, Barbara King, who is a teacher at the school. When
Rosenberg visited the school, she was appalled by what she saw.
The front doors were secured with heavy steel chains, teachers
were so fearful for their safety that they locked themselves in
their classrooms during breaks, even going so far as to recruit
some of their favorite students to act as bodyguards. Security
guards with walkie talkies patrolled the corridors. It was not
exactly the school atmosphere Rosenberg remembered from her own
childhood. "There were fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade
students who were toting guns to school," She said,
"children who, without intervention, would end up behind
bars. After raising five children of my own, I simply had to do
something."
With Barbara King's encouragement, Temple
Sher Ha'Malot adopted the Willard Middle School. Temple members
worked with families, including the children in their own family
and temple activities. Temple members shared their expertise,
giving lessons in piano and voice, tutoring in math and science.
During the holidays, families from the temple took sacks filled
with wrapped presents to the homes of their adopted families.
In addition to adopting a family and
working with them on a regular basis, Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
spoke to students about her career as a writer, how she had been
abused as a child, and how she later used that pain to fuel her
writing. The students were particularly impressed with her
pending film project and two-part television series.
Rosenberg's first book, Mitigating
Circumstances was sold to Tri-Star Pictures, and Jonathan
Demme is slated to direct, and her second novel, Interest of
Justice, has been licensed to citadel Entertainment for a
four-hour, two-part television series. "After spending an
entire day speaking to various classes, I no longer saw the
students as gang members or criminals. They were just kids.
That's when I came up with the idea to conduct a short-story
contest offering cash prizes and told the kids that grammar
didn't matter, that they could use their own language, and that
they could tell their own story. What I wanted was to show them
that they could express themselves and that at least I would
listen. I told them that they could kill people in fiction and
not go to jail. They liked that concept a lot." Rosenberg
offered cash prizes and also awarded the first-prize winner her
assistance as a mentor for life. "I wanted them to know
that this was a commitment on my part. As long as they continued
to write, I would continue to advise them. When they were ready,
I would help them get an agent and get published." She
added, "There were seventy-five entries. I read and
evaluated each of them and was swept off my feet by the writing,
the openness, and by the shocking world the kids saw around
them." ?'he students wrote about parental abuse, poverty,
homelessness, gangs, teenage suicide, and AIDS.
Recently Nancy Taylor Rosenberg awarded
the prizes at a school assembly. In addition to the three cash
prizes, fourteen students received Honorable Mentions. Rosenberg
wrote personal letters to each student about his or her work,
addressing the issues they raised and gave Certificates of
Participation to everyone. "The first-prize winner, to
everyone's surprise, was a student named David, considered a
trouble maker by his teachers. No one had recognized his talent.
His teachers and parents didn't even know David could write. The
second-prize winner was a tiny Vietnamese girl named Hga. Her
story was entitled, 'A Picture of My Family.' On the cover was a
drawing of a lovely little house, but inside the pages was a
real-life horror story of relentless child abuse that brought
tears to my eyes. The third-prize winner, Carlos, wrote a story
of a young Hispanic boy who came to Los Angeles from Mexico,
found himself involved in a gang, ended up a murderer, and
eventually was shot and paralyzed. All of the winning entries
were well written, well organized and made dramatic statements
about life in the inner city." Rosenberg has promised to
conduct similar contests every year, and she explains,
"This was the first time these children had received any
kind of recognition. Their faces were beaming, their parents
were there, their classmates were applauding. 'Someone is
listening,' they seemed to be saying. A good dusting of hope
fell on all of us. It was a great feeling."
Temple Sher Ha'Malot can not
single-handedly save all the schools and all the children, but
they can save one. "I'd like to see other authors
contribute their time in this fashion, teaching inner-city
school children about the wonder of books, the thrill of
creating another world through writing. Everyone realizes all
too quickly that there are problems in the schools when they are
robbed or shot, victimized in some way, but no one admits that
they can effect change. Corporations and other organizations
should also be encouraged to adopt schools and get involved. If
you sincerely want to change things, this is a way to do
it."
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