By ERICA J. ELLIS
Staff Writer
 

Such was the experience of Damion Frye, a Bates senior of mixed European and African ancestry, which compelled him to turn to the Urban Education Semester as an alternative to spending the second semester of his sophomore year at Bates. "In an education class here at Bates first semester of my sophomore year a white student couldn't see past my skin color to realize my heritage. It drove me away from Bates college, from this place. It [the Urban Education Semester] was the only program open to sophomores and I already knew that I wanted to be a teacher," said Frye.

Urban Education Semester is a program run by the Venture Consortium based at Brown University. Frye explained that on this program students from liberal arts schools such as Brown, Bates, Vassar and Holy Cross are immersed in "real life and real education" for one semester while teaching full time at least three days a week. They teach primarily at elementary schools in the Harlem area such as the East River Elementary School where Frye taught.

In addition to teaching within the school, participants in this program take graduate level courses in education at Bank Street College with other, full-time teachers. One of the advantages of such a program, said Frye, is that "the program exposes potential teachers to issues of race and class that you usually don't get at upper-class, liberal arts schools."

The group that participated in the program along with Frye was a predominantly white group made up of fourteen students.

When asked about the interaction of a primarily white group of college students with each other and with the majority non-white elementary children whom they were teaching Frye responded, "The group of people I went with was an absolutely amazing, open-minded group of people. But, I've heard horror stories about some groups where some people were so anti-white that it turns the whole group upside down or sometimes you get a white person who pretends to be `color blind.' You can't be `color blind' in a city with such distinct racial and class boundaries."

"Other cities in the U.S. aren't immune to this either. The kids are the judges. They're your biggest judges when it comes to your teaching, your personality. The whole `color blind' thing doesn't fly with them because they see color everyday. They know when someone white is in their classroom and they know that that person sees their color."

Frye feels that students from colleges such as Bates especially benefit from the honesty of the children and the intensity of the program. "I think it's an absolutely wonderful thing [that Bates students attend the program] because of the way I saw people change, the way I saw myself change. People go from being scared and uptight to being open-minded, race-intelligent people. They [college students who participate] don't try to deny their race or their whiteness. You really find out what you're all about there," Frye said.

Another benefit of the program's urban setting which Frye cited is exposure to a progressive teaching style that really works for the students, "Education in cities is far more advanced, far more well thought out and more readily accepts change."

Frye observed first-grade students reading on a third and fourth grade level and sixth-grade students reading on an eighth grade level and comprehending. Comparing his own experiences to the ones typically portrayed in the media Frye said, "The media focuses on a few classrooms that are the worst or have bad teachers. I saw some of the best teaching I've ever seen going on."

Frye, who has also taught in Lewiston public schools stated that the emphasis placed on fostering identity, particularly among young women of color, was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

He also referred to a method of teaching which empowers young students to take control of their education, "The textbooks have Black faces and Latino faces. The kids go and read on their own. The responsibility to read is on the kid. You get one or two kids who can't handle the responsibility, but on the whole they do. It shows the kids that the teacher has faith in them to take responsibility for their own education."

The experience had a profound personal impact on Frye, who aspires to attend Harvard's Graduate School of Education and obtain his masters in elementary school education. His time in New York changed how he saw himself and how he saw himself at Bates.

"My experience here was terrible. I didn't want to be here, but I couldn't get financial aid to any place else until I went on this program," he said. "I found who I was and became comfortable with a sense of self and that led me to feeling comfortable at Bates where there's only a handful of people who have similar interests and come from the same background as me."

Frye spoke on living and working in and around Harlem and contrasted a walk through Harlem with a walk through Bates campus, "I felt more comfortable walking though Harlem than through Bates. I know that what I'm thinking isn't that far off from what those people in Harlem are thinking. I know that when I walk and talk it's basically the same as they walk and talk. In other words these were "my people." What makes me a Bates student is just the degree I'm getting. With few exceptions, I don't have that connection here."

Ever the enthusiastic teacher, Frye commented that the best part of the program was "having the opportunity to be in school and teach four days a week; you really feel like you're making a difference in somebody's life." The worst part, said Frye, was not being able to be even more involved in the children's lives outside of the classroom.

As a present and future public educator, Frye recommends the program "to anybody who is having trouble with their identity or who thinks they're color blind, and perspective teachers of course."