Academy for Hard Cases

Sherry Osborne twists, grinds, bumps and shakes two nights a week at the AH Baba Club in Schenectady, N.Y. She is 19, curvy, and makes $100 a week as a go-go dancer. During the day she is a senior at Albany's Philip Schuyler High School. Like 80% of Schuyler's 800 students, Sherry works for a living--which is just how Principal Ben Becker expects it to be.

Schuyler is not an ordinary high school, nor is Becker an ordinary principal. Located in Albany's slum-ridden east side, it is an academy for hard cases--40% are Negro, many of the students come from broken homes, still others are dropouts from other schools. But Ben Becker is a hard case himself. A onetime amateur boxer who was Cassius Clay's manager at the 1960 Olympics, Becker has a broken nose, scar tissue around his eyes--and a brain-jolting jab in his fists. A boy who abuses a teacher will be challenged by his principal to a quiet meeting behind closed doors. The problem is usually solved after Becker flattens the youth with a left cross. For purposes of keeping the girls in line, Becker keeps a paddle, with illustrations on one side of the appropriate place for its application.

No Problem Kids. Backed by the Albany Board of Education, Becker has proved that tough but fair discipline is a remarkable impetus to learning. There are no broken windows at Schuyler High School, and rarely is disrespect shown to teachers. None of the students are permitted to sport Beatle haircuts or far-out clothes. Becker tells them sim ply: "The other students are not in school to look at you. You're here to learn." Schuyler High will even accept potential reform-school candidates. One such student was recommended for enrollment by the Albany police after he had stolen a gun, 800 rounds of ammunition, and had robbed two homes. "Sure we'll take him," said Becker, who promptly sent the boy to work off some of his aggressions under the supervision of the school's janitor, washing windows, shoveling sidewalks, sweeping floors. The youth is now completing his junior year at Schuyler and learning to be an electrician in one of the school's shop courses. "We have no problem kids," says Becker confidently. "We just have kids with problems."

Aware of the fact that for many of his students the problems are financial, Becker helps them to find after-school jobs, adjusts the classroom schedule to fit working hours. Students on a 4-to-12 p.m. work shift, for example, are permitted to come to classes from around 10 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon. They are given the regular amount of classwork but granted exemptions from gym and study periods. Some students are allowed to blend daytime class and work schedules, alternating one week on a job with a week of classes. For those in desperate money trouble, there is a loan fund; students can borrow up to $50 on their signature alone. Rather than lose face with Becker, the vast majority pay their debts.

Place in the Sun. A graduate of the State University College at Cortland, N.Y., Becker was assigned to Schuyler in 1934 as a physical education teacher, eventually became principal in 1962. His working theory is that a slum school must be parent and guardian as well as teacher to its students, a combination that demands tough but unmistakable discipline. His goal, he says, "is to try to give them academics and help them find a place in the sun as valuable members of society who can earn a good living. If we can't do both, we will at least give them one."

Thanks largely to Becker, Schuyler unquestionably does that. About 20% of its graduates go on to college--a high percentage for a slum neighborhood school. Beyond that, Schuyler has proved to be an educational magnet for what Principal Becker calls "drop-ins." One recent graduate was a married and divorced mother of two who returned to finish high school after a 13-year lapse. Still another was a 17-year-old Negro boy who had quit a New York City high school and entered Schuyler four years later after he had been sent to Albany by his parents to live with an aunt. He graduated in two years, now has a steady job with a local medical center. "Schuyler is a nice school," he says. "It seems like I had a better chance there."

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