A Learning Experience for Troubled Kids

Ann was just 14 when she wound up at Northpoint School in September.

She had spent time in a psychiatric hospital after cutting herself and starting fires, one of which was at her high school.

But eight months later, with the help of Northpoint’s learning lab, Ann (not her real name) is now a budding poet who may have some of her work published along with that of her classmates.

Students will receive awards for their poetry June 25 at the school’s year-end performance. Teacher Jo Hill said that at the event children of different grade levels, wearing hand-sewn costumes, will perform skits with a time-travel theme in front of painted backdrops of various historical periods.

The students, ages 5 to 18, are required to spend two hours a week in the lab. There they fashion costumes representative of the clothes worn in the historical period they’re studying, conduct science experiments and work on creative writing. While some students are frustrated in traditional classrooms, teachers say they act out less in the learning lab because it is less structured and they can work at their own pace.

“The learning lab is where the curriculum comes to light for them,” Hill said, “and makes what they’re learning seem more real.”

Officials at Northpoint School, part of the San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic, credit the 2-year-old lab with boosting the self-esteem of many of the school’s 70 students.

“Their responses, saying ‘Oh, that’s good,’ that is the measure of self-esteem,” said Karen Cypers, a learning lab volunteer. “You see them getting more bubbly and feeling better about themselves, and that feels wonderful.”

Founded in 1962, the San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic provides mental health services. About 70% of the students at Northpoint School are referred by the Los Angeles Unified School District, said Rick Hunnewell, the school’s director.