NAACP’s Saturday School Provides Lessons in Life Too

For Cwanza Pinckney, an eighth-grade honor student at Sequoia Intermediate School in Thousand Oaks, school doesn’t end for the week on Fridays.

Every Saturday morning, the 13-year-old joins about 60 other students from across Ventura County at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks to study in an academic program organized by the county chapter of the NAACP.

The 2-year-old program provides supplemental instruction to students in four academic subjects. It is also designed to help bolster students’ self-esteem, expand their knowledge of black history and link them--and their parents--to a countywide social network.

“I think it’s a good idea,” said Cwanza, who has studied math, black history and Spanish and has taken a Scholastic Aptitude Test workshop through the program. “It helps you out with your studies. And there are things I remember from the SAT workshop that have helped my test-taking skills.”

Saturday School, as the program is called, is a family affair for the Pinckneys. Cwanza’s father, Christopher Pinckney, teaches a computer awareness class in the program, and her mother, Eloise, teaches a self-image workshop.

For Cwanza, and friend Brianna Patterson, 13, the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People program has also provided a means for meeting other students from kindergarten through high school age.

“Since it’s so spread out, it’s nice to meet black people from other parts of the county,” said Brianna, an eighth-grade student at Sinaloa Junior High School in Simi Valley.

Madrinna Burney, who moved to Simi Valley from Madison, Wis., last year, transferred her son Jacob, 8, from a Simi Valley elementary school to an all-black private school in Pacoima last year because he had never had a black teacher or many black classmates. She also signed him up for the NAACP Saturday program.

“He was losing his own culture,” Burney said. “He never saw people of his own kind except in church or at home.”

Now, although Jacob has a black teacher for the first time, he still needs the Saturday program to learn even more about black history, Burney said. “I don’t think you can get too much.”

In a county where neighbors often seem too busy to socialize, the program has given her family a way to meet people, Burney said. The program also draws families from the San Fernando Valley.

In Saturday School, which started last year, students are allowed to choose one elective--either math, computer awareness, Spanish or English. Students also are required to take African-American history, which program organizers say is covered in greater depth than in most public or private schools.

Courses are taught by students from Cal State Northridge, parents and community volunteers who may have an area of expertise, as well as current and retired teachers, said program organizer Greta Vaught of Simi Valley.

Most classes are small, with no more than 10 students, and parents are required to help by serving as classroom assistants or campus monitors.

The program costs $25 for a 10-week semester, plus $10 for each additional child. When school is not in session, the Saturday School students and parents have formed an informal cultural and social network, organizing picnics, skiing excursions, trips to museums and other events throughout the year.

The program has drawn students of various ethnic backgrounds, organizers said. “We want to reach out not only to blacks, we want to reach out to people of all colors,” parent volunteer Carol Dickens said.

Saturday, during a black history course in a lecture room at the university’s Richter Hall, seven students listened attentively as engineer Greg Owens used slides and a textbook of African history he had assembled to discuss Egyptian history.

“Our ancestors represent the best of what mankind can be,” Owens said. “There are three things we’d like to get from you. We’d like you to become confident, competent and conscious.”

After the academic classes, students assemble to hear a guest speaker talk about his or her profession, including what types of classes are needed, the years of study required and the salary potential.

Last week’s speaker was a chemist, and Saturday environmental attorney Brian Saunders, a Simi Valley resident and one of the first attorneys on the scene of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill, addressed the students.

Cal Lutheran provides classroom and lecture space for the program, said Rose Moreno, the university’s director of education equity. Also, Moorpark College and Cal State Northridge offer support by providing volunteer instructors and teaching assistants.

“This complements what I’m trying to do--increase visibility and accessibility to the university,” said Moreno, who oversees recruitment and retention of minority students. The program also helps fulfill an obligation the university has to make minority students aware that the university is in their community, she said.

For parents, the program provides a chance to help decide what their children study.

“Most of the people here feel we are here to do something for our children,” Burney said. “It is making a difference.”