Department of Unmentioned Do-Gooders
by Harold Bendicsen
Robert McClory's article "Back to School" (May 15) presented an excellent overview of a very successful and innovative alternative high school program for former dropouts. It also helped dispel some common assumptions about the lack of academic potential of these young people.
Unfortunately, the article made no mention of Scholarship and Guidance Association, the agency from which comes Louis Krupa, the "compassionate counselor" quoted and pictured in the article. Scholarship and Guidance Association is a subcontractor to the dropout program and provides an array of clinical services, one of which is the clinical social worker -- Louis Krupa. In the forefront of dropout prevention counseling for over 75 years, Scholarship and Guidance has helped thousands of troubled teens untangle the problems and sort out the intrapsychic and interpersonal issues that had been interfering with successful school performance.
Since the opening of Truman Middle College and its counterpart on the south side, Olive-Harvey Middle College, Scholarship and Guidance Association's clinical social workers have provided full-time on-site individual and group clinical counseling, helped teachers and other staff to better understand adolescent behavior, worked with staff to build a teamwork approach and provided administrative consultation in the implementation of this "last-chance" academic program.
The success of the program is shown through the individual stories of these young people who have returned to school. A few will not make it -- even with the encouragement and support of this integrated program. But the great number who do will be able to cope more successfully with their personal problems and will have stronger skills with which to meet the challenges in their futures.
Harold Bendicsen
Scholarship and Guidance Association