Conversation / WITH MELITON LOPEZ : ‘We Can’t Help Children If We Don’t Help Parents’

MELITON LOPEZ, superintendent of the Anaheim City School District, noticed that many children of immigrant parents were at risk of dropping out of school. So Lopez and Harry Norman, dean of the extension program at Cal State Fullerton, designed a stay-in-school program, Universidad De La Familia, aimed not just at students but at their parents as well. He discussed the program with CATHERINE GEWERTZ.

Question: What led you to establish Universidad De La Familia?

Answer: We had children who were bright but who, for a variety of reasons, were at risk of not continuing their education past the seventh or eighth grade. What we were seeing is many of the parents had little education. So they find it hard to understand the importance of finishing 13 years of school. So we said, “What if we begin a program that would help parents understand how to sustain their children in school?”

Q: What kinds of behaviors do you see in students that indicate a risk of dropping out?

A: We see lots of absences and kids falling behind in their studies even though their teachers could see they were bright. There is often a reluctance to participate in extracurricular activities and sometimes a sense of rebellion from not succeeding in school.

Q: What is the typical family profile of a student behaving that way?

A: Many of the at-risk cases we see are in families that are recent immigrants. Most are from low socioeconomic Latin American backgrounds. Often the parents are working and lack the English necessary to help with homework.

While many of the parents value the concept of education, they didn’t have in their life experience what staying in school meant. So once kids learn to read and write they are “educated.” In many families, it is a right and noble thing to leave school and work to support your family. We need to convince these parents that if their kids are going to have something better than they did, they have to stay in school.

Q: How does the program work?

A: We take 20 fifth- and sixth-graders and their parents in each program. It lasts four Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. A school bus picks up the families and brings them to the Cal State Fullerton campus. The kids get tutorials in art and computer literacy with professors, who also talk to them about the importance of going to college and give them a sense of what it might be like. This raises their expectations and makes them think, “Gee, I think I could do this.”

With the parents, we work a lot on parenting skills because the immigrant with little English has some unique problems.

In immigrant families, the kids surpass the parents in learning the language and how to interact with the culture. Then you get a role reversal. The parents become dependent on the kids to interpret everything for them. The adults can begin to lose confidence in the moral fiber that says, “I am the parent in charge and these are the values I want to impart.” So we work on how you interact in a positive way. We do a lot of role playing. If a kid wants to do something and you don’t approve, how do you handle it? How do you encourage him to do his homework?

Q: Do parents have difficulty attending these workshops because they have younger children at home to care for?

A: We provide programs at the home elementary school for any younger sibling who is toilet-trained or older.

Q: What happens when the kids and parents finish their morning programs?

A: They get together for lunch and discuss what they did. And at the fourth session, we have a big graduation ceremony. One surprising outcome of all this has been that the parents seem to develop a deeper understanding of their kids’ lives and their thoughts. It makes a closer bond.

Also, we’ve seen the parents in each program keeping in touch with each other. They have support-group meetings on their own, and many have started neighborhood action programs, like fighting graffiti, drugs and prostitution.

Q: How are kids selected for the program?

A: Their teachers identify them to the principal as at risk of dropping out. The principal then tells the parents that their child has been selected for a very special program, and it involves their participation.

Since we started in January, 1993, we have been using only four of our elementary schools. We take 20 children from each school, so we graduate 80 children each year. We hope to expand it to more schools if we get the funding.

Q: How is it funded?

A: It costs about $50,000 a year, and the Cal State Fullerton extension program foots the bill.

Q: Has Orange County’s bankruptcy filing affected your program?

A: We had been providing bus transportation for the families to the Cal State campus at a cost of about $5,000. We had to eliminate that service due to the bankruptcy, but Cal State Extension will pick it up. So our program will continue unchanged.