Teachers learn how to Capture Kids’ Hearts in Youngstown, OH

Teachers Learn How to Capture Kids’ Hearts

YOUNGSTOWN — Capture a kid’s heart and you’ll have his mind as well.

That’s a key philosophy behind The Flippen Group’s “Capturing Kids’ Hearts” leadership training program, and a group of 33 Youngstown city school parents got a first-hand look Wednesday at how it works.

The school district has put most of its 1,500 employees through the training and has begun reaching out to offer it to parents as a way to encourage parental participation in the school system and their children’s education, said Dr. Wendy Webb, superintendent.

The 33 who attended a four-hour session at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex in Liberty are the first to get their own “Capturing Kids’ Hearts” pin worn by district employees who have been through the program.

This first group was invited from among the parents who attend the district’s Parent Transition, Instructional Tool Kit and Empowerment Luncheon meetings, Webb said.

The plan is to eventually offer it to all parents, running four or five sessions each school year, she said.

The training stresses accountability, not just on the part of the children, but also for administrators, teachers and parents. It also stresses the importance of building relationships.

Flippen teaches that everything in the classroom starts with the relationship between the teacher and the pupil, and everyone has to realize their personal responsibility for helping kids to reach goals, Webb said.

Good response

The training gives parents an opportunity to learn what the teachers have gone through to help the children, said Lisa Scannell of Whitney Avenue, who has had one child graduate from Youngstown and two others who will be in school this fall.

She said she accepted the invitation to the training session because she cares about the education city children are receiving.

Barbara Gilbert of Liberty Road said she’s a grandmother in the school system, rearing a granddaughter who will be a junior this fall. She came to the session to learn how to help her granddaughter be more successful, Gilbert said, adding that she decided she needed to participate more in the educational process to find out what her responsibility should be as a parent.

“Education is the key to anything,” said city Councilman Richard Atkinson, R-3rd, of Redondo Road, another of the trainees.

People look at the schools before they move into a community, and it is everyone’s responsibility to help make a school system better. The way to do that is to take part in the process and work from within, he said, explaining why he accepted the invitation.

He said he’d heard a lot about the Flippen training and now got a chance to experience it. “I think it’s excellent,” he said.

Future

Flippen, based in Texas, has a leadership training component focusing on teenagers, Webb said. She’d like to implemented it in Youngstown, provided she can secure a grant. A core group of high school students would go through the training and take it back to their peers, she said.

Flippen trainers aren’t running the parent participation sessions, so there is no additional cost beyond the salaries of those school officials involved in presenting it. The district paid $650,000 to have its employees go through the training, a cost covered by a federal grant.