Living and Serving in Capitol View

The past several weeks, I’ve been sharing the stories of our Dwell House participants. DOOR Atlanta’s Dwell program seeds intentional Christian communities where young adults can put their faith into practice by living together, serving the neighborhood in which they live and creating a routine of spiritual disciplines. The majority of our Dwellers are local folks who are either working or are in school and are creating the space in their lives for exploring their faith, developing deep relationships and being a neighbor as described in the Bible.

Sharon, another one of our Capitol View Dwell house residents, is serving in the Americorp program of Hands on Atlanta this year. Her program places volunteer teams in schools across the City of Atlanta to help with tutoring and other activities for the students in the school. Sharon’s school placement is in Sylvan Hills Middle School, which is the middle school that serves the neighborhood of Capitol View. Below are some of her reflections on living in the same neighborhood as the school she works.

~Jannan Thomas, DOOR Atlanta City Director

“It’s intense living in the same neighborhood where I serve the school. It’s intense because the reality of my students situation does not go away at the end of the day. However, it is also a benefit because I have access to the community where we live in a way that lets me learn more about our neighbors way of life. By “way of life” I mean everything from language to learning styles to religion to emotional needs. Neglect is a really big thing that I see around the school. Especially the attention that a child needs from their parents. When I interact with the community outside of school, I am aware that folks can be part of the extended family of these children. GED tutoring shows me another side of people who didn’t make it through the school system. It helps to gives me perspective on both sides.

Working at Sylvan Hills Middle School is tiring. I frequently lament the emotional pain and the generational violence that seems to plague our community. I am grieved and not able to escape many times the heavy weight of struggles of the community and with my colleagues’ interaction with the community. My housemates have been a great support system as I work in this intense environment. The fact that they do not work in the community helps to get me in a different mindset when I am with them. They have a different experience working in a different part of Atlanta. The community has also been an outlet for me to discuss issues with which I am faced at school and walking on the street.

Despite the struggles, I also see signs of hope in the school through the teachers. They are very patient and have mastered the art of teaching in this community. Teachers in a school like Sylvan Hills Middle School go through a period of having to adjust. Teachers that have adjusted are able to say: “The problem is greater than me, I cannot save everyone, but I have found my niche.” Good teachers enforce discipline but they do it fairly and are able to give positive affirmation. They are able to have a professional demeanor. When the teachers have the students respect it becomes much easier to teach them and they are also better able to discipline them once they earn this respect.

The Principle of Sylvan Hills Middle School, Ms. Atkins, brings in a lot of excellence. Sylvan Hills Middle School has single gender classrooms. Students wear uniforms: Black, white, and gold depending on grade level. The students walk in single file line to class. Many students are eager to learn and I see a lot of hope in the students’ eagnerness to learn. I tutor math, and even though my students are way behind in Math, there resilience in them and I see positive growth in their desire to learn. Even when the resources are limited, they continue to come back and keep trying.

Violence is a way of life in the school. There are a lot of problems with fighting in the school. Students want to be in gangs, they idolize gang members. Teachers have an opportunity to interrupt that cycle. But I’ve learned that gang culture is complicated. Gangs can be a way to survive for some, but gangs can be more and more violent. Guys have to fight their way into a gang. Girls have to have sex to get in. There are always a couple of girls that are pregnant in 8th grade. I always see students who lack guidance and hope, but there are also always teachers who care and want to care for students in a wholistic way.

At first the violence in disciplining students in the school was difficult for me to see. But the longer I am in the school I recognize that some kids need structure and guidance. That kind of structure and discipline seems to work. It is surprising to me that violence is effective, but there is research that supports that kids in poverty responding to more violent types of discipline. I think my surprise around this issue comes from a class difference. At first I was offended by violence because I came from a white, upperclass seminary and we like non-violence practices. But working in a school like this you need to find your inner backbone. You have to be so on top of your game. You have to be an expert in structure. An expert in lesson plans. An expert in getting students from point A to point B. An expert in order to be effective. As a white teacher in an all black school, I needed to find my strengths. My strengths are goofiness, and silliness, but I still need to learn to switch into very strict mode quickly. Teachers that have learned how to do this are most effective.

~Sharon, Capitol View Dwell House Resident