Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, Bob Ray Sanders Column: TCU School Teaches Teachers to Fill in the Holes

By Bob Ray Sanders, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Mar. 9–Mention the name M. J. Neeley and folks around these parts are most likely to think of the highly rated school of business at Texas Christian University, named for a man who was a devoted trustee and longtime financial supporter of TCU.

But until recently, I didn’t know that another school on the TCU campus can be traced to Neeley and his wife, Alice.

While the lesser-known academic jewel does not bear his name, the school continues to bear the Neeley mark of excellence, as well as upholding his devotion to young people and his commitment to success, even for those whom many have judged either incapable, or highly unlikely, to succeed.

In Wednesday’s column, I told the story of an 8-year-old boy who had failed the first grade twice, had been diagnosed with several learning problems and had been written off by some educators who had predicted that he would not only drop out of school but would become a criminal.

That boy, Bryan Mark Rigg, went on to graduate from Yale with honors and a triple major. He went on to Cambridge University, became a Marine Corps officer and college professor, and is now a historian, published author and successful investment banker.

Rigg, now 35, credits his success to the year he spent with a very special teacher at the laboratory school founded by Neeley and his wife back in 1966.

In some ways, I’m sure Rigg was like the Neeleys’ grandson who struggled in school until his grandparents discovered a program and a teacher in New York City who could help him.

The Neeleys were so impressed that they brought the woman and her school, Starpoint, to the TCU campus where more than 1,600 children with learning differences have been helped the past four decades.

I visited the school last week as it celebrated its 40th anniversary and was moved by what I saw in the classrooms there.

It is a joy to look on the faces children who are learning, regardless of the setting. But it is exhilarating to see kids who are “learning different” grasp difficult mathematics concepts, create stories and read with comprehension.

Many of the students have dyslexia, attention-deficit disorder or attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

“It’s the Swiss cheese effect,” explained school director Marilyn Tolbert. “They have some knowledge, but they have holes.”

She added, “We take the children where they are, and work to help them grow — fill in the holes.”

“We don’t cure dyslexia,” she said. “We don’t fix them. We help them learn coping strategies to be successful. We’re helping them learn that they are extremely smart, but they have to access their information differently.”

Starpoint, which was designed for 40 children, has 57 students today and is expected to have 70 next year. The students, who range in age from 6 to 12, will stay at the school a minimum of nine months and a maximum of two years, Tolbert said.

One of the Neeleys’ aims, in addition to helping the students who need this kind of structured, individualized education, was to provide a real-life experience where future teachers from TCU’s education department could learn how to teach kids with learning differences.

In one class, for example, I witnessed a young student teacher conduct an exercise in which students identified numbers and then added and subtracted as quickly as the instructor could point.

Youngsters in an upper-level math class talked about how they are able to work in groups and draw on the strengths of their classmates’ special talents (or “differences”) to help them understand certain complicated formulas.

It took only a few minutes for the pupils reading The Diary of Anne Frank to convince me that they had not only a knowledge, but a comprehension of what they had read.

And the poise with which one young lady in a writing class read — in front of a stranger — her Black History Month report on a Texas heroine demonstrated extraordinary self-confidence while, at the same time, showed off her command of the language.

I’m sure Neeley would be proud of this school and its kids, and he would be especially proud of the older students who have created the YES (Young Entrepreneurs of Starpoint) Co., which is working with the business school on its “Star Poppers” enterprise. These kids will run a popcorn business and will use their profits to sponsor a scholarship to help others who might want to come to their unique school.

When you try to get your mind around all the progress being made at Starpoint, just imagine Swiss cheese — without the holes.

Bob Ray Sanders’ column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 817-390-7775 bobray@star-telegram.com

—–

Copyright (c) 2007, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.