Author: Richard Roy Benedict

Publisher: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13:

This book describes the lives and life conditions of some of the approximately 30 students who attended one Enterprise High School located in northwestern Macomb County (Michigan) designed to keep potential dropouts in school. All of the events described in the book actually happened although they did not actually happen to any one or two specific students. Consequently, the main characters in the story are fictional proxies for the real students they represent. It is suggested that the success of the students in school and in life is a product of certain learning conditions that Enterprise High School evinces: that teachers genuinely care about students; that the curriculum is life-centered and moves from meaningful activities to the composite pieces of learning called lessons; and that staff and students are provided time for and an opportunity to resolve the problems that emerge in the school. By describing activities and events in the lives of the students, both in and out of school, the book explores why certain education programs and school cultures are accepted or rejected by students and identifies the nonschool influences that cause students to either accept defeat early in life or to face the future with confidence and success. The teachers at Enterprise are depicted as going beyond the curriculum to instill positive values and self-esteem in students who need more than academic credits to progress in life. (NB)