Making the grade

Anthony Brown

Anthony Brown, 17, admits to skipping quite a few classes at St. Louis Park High School, and his grades showed it. Thanks to the district’s Ninth Grade Project, he has kept that behavior to a minimum, is pulling passing grades and looks forward to graduating in June.

Anthony, a natural at socializing, says, “Ninth grade was hard. Junior high didn’t emphasize enough how serious it was to get good grades in high school. “It was hard, and I was a procrastinator and disorganized.” He also had older friends with licenses.

But, he saw those older friends not graduate and the disappointment in people’s eyes when he got failing grades. Teachers told him, “If you want to do better, then we’ll help you.” He wanted to do better.

Anthony hopes to be a football coach someday

He now enjoys school a lot more. “I feel more prepared; ready,” he says. And, he found something he loves. Football.

“Telling a 14-year-old to do better just doesn’t work. They think they know what they’re doing,” Anthony says. Instead, he suggests finding something they don’t want to lose. Playing D-tackle and someday coaching requires good grades and post-secondary education. If he fails academically, he can’t play football, and if he is tardy too many times, he loses a credit.

 “Teachers don’t want you to slack off. They’ll ask, ‘Why didn’t you get that assignment in?’ “If they weren’t there for me, I wouldn’t have made it,” says Anthony, an extremely likable teenager, who occasionally backslides.

When he’s not studying or playing football or hanging with friends, he plays video games for hours. He also likes movies. “Barbershop Two wasn’t that great,” but older movie favorites were Forest Gump and Shawshank Redemption.

Mentoring respect

He also played a leadership role during the school district’s annual Respect Retreat for incoming ninth graders. “The retreat opened my eyes,” he recalls. “It’s one day full of activities where all the kids can be friends, and not fight over some little thing.” 

While 9th-grade boys joked this year about probably having the dumbest activities, like pat-a-cake, at the retreat, Anthony, who planned the scavenger hunt, just said, ‘Check it out. See how it is.” They all agreed it was fun.

After the games, music and minisessions were over, a five-minute quiet time gave people a chance to apologize to someone, or tell them something that hadn’t been said before. This year, Anthony chose to tell Ms. Miller, his junior high dean. “You were the first one to tell me to get serious about school – that it will shape the rest of my life. Thank you.”