Do not think the youth has no force … none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”
The first year of the Gentleman’s Club, a young men’s mentoring program at Carnahan High School, 10 high school boys read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance” together. And every year since then, they have read something new to inspire them in the leadership roles they now claim.
Now a senior, Michael Boyd can say, “It’s an empowerment.”
Every Wednesday, Charlie Bean, the school’s attendance officer, and Tony Thompson, founder and CEO of Kwame Building Group, meet with the now 35 club members to help them realize their potential.
“I’ve never seen Mr. Bean or Tony Thompson step outside of what we call gentleman-like ways,” Boyd said. “They’re not just telling us, they’re showing us the ways.”
And when Boyd goes home or talks to others who aren’t in the club, he tries to embody what he’s learned.
“That’s how you know you’ve learned something – when you can relate it in real-life situations and show other people a better way,” Boyd said.
Tony Thompson has been meeting with Boyd and other gentlemen at Carnahan for four years. Now Woodword Elementary has asked if he will start a mentoring program there as well. This year, Thompson also became a board member at Herzog Elementary, a pilot school with St. Louis Public School District.
Besides the recent additions to his activism, he has been active with Teach for America for the past five years. His company has also committed $1 million to local universities and colleges for scholarships, and they are half way to meeting the goal.
Thompson started out his education activism in St. Louis by making speeches at schools for Black History Month. But he soon found that what the children needed was consistency, not spot visits.
His work keeps building every year because he keeps seeing results: improved grades and attendance and a new vision for the future.
“Education has always been the equalizer,” he said.
One of his favorite quotes is: the best deterrent to racism is excellence.
“We know there are a lot of obstacles out there that are facing young African-American men, and we don’t need to give additional reasons for them to not succeed,” Thompson said.
Reading books together is one way that Bean and Thompson encourage the young men to be knowledgeable by being resourceful. They tell the group to never look down, never look back. Just focus on the positive.
“It’d be great to have a nice father and mother at home, and when you came home your mom is waiting at the door with pearls like Leave it to Beaver,” Thompson said.
“But that ain’t real in the black community, and that ain’t real in the white community. We’re trying to make them understand that it’s not realistic to expect those things.”
Thompson tells them that there are obstacles, but it’s how the boys deal with them that decides their fate and future.
As an engineer, Thompson is a big proponent of teaching math and science, especially at the elementary level. But that’s not what the teens focus on in the Gentleman’s Club discussions.
“We don’t sit here and talk about Calculus,” Thompson said. “We’re changing the way they think, and the rest will take care of itself.”
‘I’ve got a future’
Rashaad Witherspoon, a Carnahan junior, said a lifestyle change made all the difference in his academic career.
In middle school, he was constantly in fights with poor grades, but he realized that he needed to study when a new principal came to the school. At his eighth grade graduation, he was shocked when he received the Principal’s Cup award.
“I started to realize that I’ve got a future, so when Mr. Bean asked me if I wanted to be part of the club it was no hesitation,” Witherspoon said.
“I know in my heart that I’m already a gentleman, and they just bring it out.”
Witherspoon said the club members are leaders at their school because of the way they wear their attire. They don’t sag their pants. They are respectful to their elders and to their community.
If it hadn’t been for the club and Bean’s guidance, Isiah Hudson (a Carnahan senior) said, he would still be doing the “bad things” that he did in middle school. But, Thompson and Bean helped him through an anger problem and health issues.
“Mr. Bean’s always supported me and put me on top,” Hudson said. “It’s all because of them – Mr. Bean and Tony Thompson.”
Thompson brings a community spirit to the schools, Bean said.
“The kids love him,” he said. “They love his employees, and they love going to spend time at his company.”
Thompson said, “The kids know we love them. See, young people are smart. They can relate when someone’s sincere. We’ve all been real with each other since the beginning.”
Besides the mentors, the club has created a sustainable network of positive young men that support each other.
“I’m glad I have friends who are in the Gentleman’s Club and we don’t have to talk about fights,” Witherspoon said. “We don’t have fights in the school anymore.”
‘Principals are the leaders’
Thompson’s activism started with Jackson Elementary. He and Kwame Building Group adopted the school and helped with parental programs. He said the school shows how a good principal can make all the difference. When the school changed the way it dealt with disciplinary problems, the test scores improved.
“The principals are the leaders of the school,” he said. “All they need is some help from the business community to implement their plan.”
When Deirdre Jackson, Herzog Elementary’s principal, saw the difference Thompson had made in other schools, she approached him about being on the school’s board. She didn’t have to go far to find him. They’re neighbors.
“Our families go back at least two generations,” Jackson said. “It was nice to know he has become an active person in education. What better person could I approach?”
Herzog is a literacy-focused pilot school with the St. Louis Public School District. Thompson believes that literacy helps tie all other concepts together. His hope: that every kid who graduates from St. Louis Public Schools goes onto a four-year institution of higher learning.
“We have to change the paradigm to pre-K to 18,” he said. “Graduating high school shouldn’t be the end of the rainbow.”
For Thompson, higher education addresses the most important disparities – which are not racial disparities within America, in his view.
“The real disparity is between America and the rest of the world,” he said.
Other countries provide public education that is aiding them to pass America by. Thompson is a big supporter of the public education system, but he acknowledges the place for charter schools.
“Unlike the mayor, I think there’s only one reason to have charter schools – to have programs that you can’t put in place in the public schools system,” Thompson said, drawing a distinction between his position and that of Mayor Francis G. Slay.
Slay is heavily funded by charter school and school choice interests and an active promoter of charter schools and school choice.
Thompson serves on the advisory board for KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program charter schools, which offers longer school days – something that the SLPS district would not allow right now. It’s a different model, founded by Teach for America alumni.
“I’m for any kind of innovation to help our kids move to the next level,” Thompson said.
Back at Carnahan, Thompson’s fellow mentor is confident the work they are doing will be repaid in kind.
“I guarantee you every last one of the young men in this group are going to give back,” Bean said. “This is our future. They are stepping up as leaders.”
