Modeling the behavior, attitudes and thoughts of successful people is one way to get students with behavioral problems and substandard academics on the right track.
That has been the case for a music teacher at Waverly Middle School, whose class of mostly unruly music students not only cleaned up their act but went on to take a prize in a band contest at Paramount?s Kings Dominion theme park in Doswell, Va.
David Ifill, a first-year teacher at the east Baltimore school, looks back to the beginning of the school year, sees how much he?s accomplished and smiles brightly.
“It was well worth it,” Ifill said. “But I persevered because I realized that these kids would reflect one day and remember the opportunity they had and the teacher who helped them learn to appreciate music.”
Ifill said many of the school?s students have behavioral problems. Others, he said, often succumb to gang activity.
At first, “my students showed little or no interest in music,” Ifill said. “There were no after-school sports activities, and there had been no music program since the last instructor quit in frustration four years ago,” he said. “Even though there were days when I felt like giving up, I hung in there because I could see they really wanted to learn.”
Ifill, one of two black men among the faculty, said he quickly realized his students needed a role model.
“I could see that many of them were actually very musically talented,” Ifill said of his 22 protégés. “I [knew I] had to get grants and donations to purchase instruments.”
With the support of the school?s administration, parents and community, he raised thousands of dollars in donations.
Finally, Ifill said he got his students “to the point where they really wanted to play instruments.”
Rayvean Richardson, a parent who works at Loyola College, heard the students play and invited them to perform at the college.
“I saw they had great potential, and the more publicity they had, the more they might see that music could be considered as a career,” Richardson said.
Loyola liked their performance so much the college sponsored the students? recent participation in Kings Dominion?s annual Music in the Parks competition. The band won first place.
Ifill?s mother, Barbara Ifill, a former Prince George?s County Public Schools teacher, initially questioned why her son wanted to teach in such a rowdy environment.
“I was very concerned,” she said. “But he said maybe he could make a difference.”
