Retired Professors Hope to Keep Children in School

A dozen retired Columbia University faculty members are serving as volunteers at Junior High School 118 in the Bronx in an effort to keep teen-agers from dropping out of school.

The Brookdale Institute for Aging and Adult Human Development, part of Columbia’s School of Social Work, organized the project in which the educators spend at least three hours at the school every week.

“Having the presence of these distinguished professors gives our students an added perspective on life,” said the school’s principal, Gerald Friedlander. “Believe me, they are moved that these people care about them and take their time to come here.”

Roughly 80% of the students at the school come from families on welfare.

“Many of these youngsters are very bright and capable,” said Columbia’s project coordinator Helen R. Hamlin. “Because the social and emotional problems they face are so enormous and complicated, they are not always free to develop their potential.”

Among those in the program are Regina Kohn, a retired social work professor who spends Thursdays counseling and advising students; Eugene Raskin, 78, a playwright, songwriter and retired architecture professor who teaches a theater class, complete with student improvisations, and Lloyd Motz, 77, noted astronomer who, by refurbishing an old planetarium at the school, helps students look to the stars.

The retired professors are working with about 150 students as well as teachers, administrators and, in some cases, parents.

“Our teachers have access to a tremendous amount of knowledge by consulting with these professors,” Friedlander said. “They are buoyed by interacting with such experts.”

“First of all, I’m different,” Kohn said of her relationship with the students. “I’m a little old lady, I’m not part of the system, and I’m not here to pass judgment. So the students can say things to me that they can’t say even to the best teacher in the world.”

Raskin added: “The way to combat the (dropout) problem is to make the kids want to come to school, to make it so delightful for them that they would rather go to school than do anything else.”

Besides offering a three-part “journey through the solar system for students,” Motz gives a seminar for science teachers, “Using the Planetarium as a Teaching Tool.”