Flanagan's island

Policy Review, Summer 1994 by Jendryka, Brian

The family-teachers, along with an assistant, work around the clock doing just what their titles imply--teaching the kids at Boys Town how a healthy, traditional family should work. Since 75 percent of the children are from single-parent families, they have little experience with the genuine article. "There's no question that single parenthood is a factor associated with these kids' problems," says Daniel Daly, director of program planning, research, and evaluation at Boys Town. "People who operate programs like Boys Town have known that for 40 years."

EIGHT IS ENOUGH

The family model at Boys Town is highly structured and closely monitored. These are families with 6:30 a.m. wake-up calls, daily chores, family meals, study hours, and weekend family outings. Add to that the trials and tribulations of having seven brothers or sisters and you have a powerful learning environment.

"You have eight guys in a house, and probably 90 percent of them have been through similar experiences, similar stresses on their lives," says Chris Gillespie, who graduated from Boys Town in May. "There's a bond there. It's not hard to make friends."

Even a little time spent in one of the homes bears this out. The kids admit--if pressed--that they are not just roommates and housemates, but friends and brothers. Many children at Boys Town have blood relatives there as well, and the family setting seems to repair and strengthen those relationships. Before coming to Boys Town, for example, Monica did not get along with her sister and would not even speak to her brother. After sharing a room with her sister at Boys Town, that relationship has improved and she is now closer to her brother than to anyone else on or off campus.

A tour of a home reveals clean rooms with football and basketball posters, radios and tape players, and pictures of friends and families. Even David's country music coexists peacefully with Montez's rap music in the U-shaped, two-person bedrooms. The house has video games, a Ping-Pong table, and a basketball hoop. Though the kids' lives are very structured, this is no military camp--family teachers make sure there is time to play.

"Many of these kids have not had an opportunity to be kids," says Carolyn Novicoff. "Part of what we do is give them those opportunities." It's another notion borrowed from Flanagan: "Some of the finest people in the world go through life under a handicap because they never learned how to play when they were children."

Another Flanaganism--"idleness is the principal cause of delinquency"--has prompted Boys Town to keep its kids constantly busy. Family-teachers encourage children to participate in sports, work part-time jobs, and take on after-school activities. The Lentz home, for example, nurtures a wide array of interests and activities. David, who will be attending Wayne State University next fall, works on the school paper and serves as a Boys Town tour guide. Bill, who will be entering the Navy in August, manages the track team and works off-campus at Burger King. Lazaro likes to lift weights, Jacob runs cross-country, and Demond and Montez play football. Brad spends his time working on campus at the plumbing shop, and Isaac works as a fire cadet.