November 2023 Newsletter
South Redford Eagle Scholars Program
New faces of The Eagle Scholars!
Timothy Dew (class of 2024) published a book!
<<INFO AND UPDATES>>
HIGH SCHOOL
Seniors:
- MSU Onsite Admissions is on December 1st. Check with me or your counselor to claim your interview slot.
- FAFSA opens on December 1st. Be ready to submit ASAP to see what kind of funding you qualify for! Check out this video for more info.
- Check out the scholarships page to look for free money for college!
- Join me every Friday during Seminar for a College Application and Scholarship workshop
Juniors:
- Mark your calendar for college visits to Kalamazoo College (11/15) and U of M Ann Arbor (11/30)
- Check out this planning sheet for college prep
- Sign up for a 1-on-1 meeting with me ASAP.
- Join me for the Eagle Scholars Study Lounge every Wednesday during Seminar in the cafeteria. Snacks provided!
Freshmen and Sophomores
- Check out this planning sheet for college prep
- Program requirements
- Join me for the Eagle Scholars Study Lounge every Wednesday during Seminar in the cafeteria. Snacks provided!
Ryan, Jalen, and Trey crushing pizza during a cram session for the Nov. 1 Early Action college app deadline
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Homework Clinic
There is a homework clinic specially designed for ESP students to attend. It is on Mondays and Thursdays from 3:10 to 4:10 in the nutrition room. If you choose to attend you must stay the entire time. There is a late bus provided for students who ride the bus. If you are on probation you are required to attend at least once per week. This is overall a great opportunity for students to work on classwork.--Lilly Wood, Eagle Scholars Student Leader
ESP Halloween!
6th graders working on a mapping project in Social Studies
<<DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE>>
When TV Mattered
I proposed an idea a few years ago that is gaining traction in my circle: What if you could set your television to only show programs made within a certain time period?
With this in mind, I grabbed the remote the other night, determined to watch something all of us would enjoy and that actually had some substance.
But I needed a hook. Despite Sam's (8) and James' (6), eclectic tastes, A-Team is too violent, Full House lacks the slapstick humor to keep their attention, and Golden Girls is at least a decade out.
I needed a goofy, cartoon-ish character who could reel them in.
Enter Steve Urkel.
I flipped on HBO Max and went straight to Episode 1 of Family Matters, convinced that everyone's favorite 90s nerd would close the deal.
But unfortunately, Steve didn't show up in the pilot. Well, this certainly wasn't going to work. Deflated, I reached for the remote.
Then a funny thing happened. My kids were transfixed. They didn't budge for a full 24 minutes. They laughed, they furrowed their brows, and they looked at me and Andrea for affirmation. They had that giddiness of a kid who was having fun and learning something.
Whether it was Harriet's good-natured ribbing of Carl for eating too many donuts, Mama Winslow's cheeky humor, or Laura picking on Eddie for his lack of common sense, this was what they call "good clean family fun". Here we were, a white suburban family in 2023 watching a black family in 1996 Chicago and it felt more familiar to me than today's shows and, more importantly, today's reality.
Underneath the humor are poignant messages about family, doing the right thing, managing your money, and the importance of hard work--everything we preach to our kids and our students.
In Episode 5 Carl holds his annual report card ceremony where he awards each child five dollars for every A. Eddie gets straight As but later finds out his friend sent a fraudulent report card to the house, but not before Carl buys him a computer and brings over a recruiter from Yale.. After expressing his disappointment in his son, Carl apologizes and acknowledges that his real report card (Bs and Cs) is actually the best he's ever received. This one in particular hit home considering my professional role.
We're up to Episode 14 (the one where the family bakes 12,000 of Carl's signature tarts and only profits $24) and with every episode the show becomes more ingenious. It teaches lessons, it's innocent, it teaches kids what is funny (the laugh track), what is emotional (the "Awwwww" track), and how to behave in a family.
There was a time when families sat down and watched the same show at the same time on the same night every week. These days they're strewn about the house, eyes glazed over on their own device - consider the phrase "left to our own devices" - consuming content that has been curated by an algorithm to suit their specific demographics, tastes, and spending habits.
If we can agree that inputs impact outputs, consider that our students average five hours a day on social media. What if just one of those hours were spent with the Winslow family? Or some other proxy from the '80s or '90s?
Someday someone will invent the TV filter I mentioned earlier, and maybe we'll all be better as a result. In the meantime, I'm taking "matters" into my own hands, one episode at a time.
If you were wondering, Urkel is now an integral part of the show. And the boys cannot stop laughing.
Rory
"Where you stumble and fall, there you find pure gold." - C.G. Jung
FAQ
A diverse community of leaders engaged in rigorous coursework and broad-based enrichment
The South Redford Eagle Scholars Program
Phone: 313-444-2590
Email: rory.hughes@southredford.org
Website: eaglescholars.southredford.org