San Francisco's school of last resort:
"With a convicted bank robber and a former methamphetamine user in charge, John Muir Charter School on Treasure Island is not your typical public school."
But the typical public school experience didn't work for the 105 students at John Muir.
Among them are former robbers and thieves. Some are teenage parents. All were academic failures elsewhere and, at one point or another, on the state's long list of high school dropouts.
Each one wants another chance.
This school gives them that as well as health care, bus passes, individual support, construction job training, and a capitalistic reason to show up: a paycheck.
John Muir offers its students a fast track to the elusive diploma and the option of vocational job training in various construction fields. Getting a paycheck with benefits gives them one more reason to go to class.
"We're taking the kids our school system can't handle," said Garry Grady, the former bank robber, as he sat in his musty administrator's office watching students head back to class to solve algebraic equations, complete a plant biology worksheet and finish a lesson on Adolf Hitler.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/11/29/MNRG1A9R7G.DTL#ixzz0YGMGlEMi
"With a convicted bank robber and a former methamphetamine user in charge, John Muir Charter School on Treasure Island is not your typical public school."
But the typical public school experience didn't work for the 105 students at John Muir.
Among them are former robbers and thieves. Some are teenage parents. All were academic failures elsewhere and, at one point or another, on the state's long list of high school dropouts.
Each one wants another chance.
This school gives them that as well as health care, bus passes, individual support, construction job training, and a capitalistic reason to show up: a paycheck.
John Muir offers its students a fast track to the elusive diploma and the option of vocational job training in various construction fields. Getting a paycheck with benefits gives them one more reason to go to class.
"We're taking the kids our school system can't handle," said Garry Grady, the former bank robber, as he sat in his musty administrator's office watching students head back to class to solve algebraic equations, complete a plant biology worksheet and finish a lesson on Adolf Hitler.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/11/29/MNRG1A9R7G.DTL#ixzz0YGMGlEMi