In the inner city limits of Newark, New Jersey, stands a school. A school with red brick walls and singing every morning before class. This is St.Benedict's Prep.
Edwin Leahy started the school among the chaos of a recent shutdown in the '60s. After struggles with police brutality, racism and unemployment, the school had shut down for a year. This is when Leahy made the decision to try his hand at running the school with the Boy Scout Handbook to be his guide. What he made was a school that should be serving as the template for all other schools in our country.
Every morning, all 550 students from grades 7-12 start their day with what they call the affirmation. This includes singing and praying with their arms wrapped around the other young men around them. They call one another "brother," not in the ways of the streets, but in a true familial love that they feel for the boys that surround them. They finish their affirmation by turning to the right and left to say "I love you" to their classmates and embrace.
"You can be any good thing you want to be," a teacher calls out over the loud speakers in the gym.
"Go...and...conquer!" Every boy screams in unison with smiles lighting each and every face.
The most fascinating part of this school is that it's run by the students, for the students. They elect a senior group leader to run the school with the assistance of other class leaders. They're the ones who decide what class events will happen throughout the year, and most planning is done at a round table full of only these group leaders. When asked if this would result in absolute chaos, Leahy merely laughed.
"It's a population that never has control," he says full of conviction. He's right. For the inner city boys, it's a life full of instability. One of the boys interviewed said that in the past 10 years of living in his neighborhood in Newark, he'd seen just about everything. With a 9mm bullet shell found on his doorstep, it certainly seems like he's seen it all. No child should have to live a life like that. For the St.Benedict's boys, their lives improve every day that they're enrolled in school. When one is absent from school their parents are contacted and when the parents don't know where their son is, the Benedict boys form a search team to find their missing classmate and bring him back to school.
All incoming freshman are put through a sort of boot camp where they're taught all the songs and chants for the school, along with a rigorous training schedule. With the help of employed military vets, the boys are pushed as hard as they can through grueling physical activities. In this way, they can learn the struggles of schooling and the fact that their brothers are there for support no matter what.
In the new school year underclassmen take part in a 55-mile trek up the Appalachian Mountains with their brothers. They were told that 98 percent completion wouldn't pass them, they'd have to go the whole way. If they do make it to the end, they earn a prestigious black hoodie that most upperclassmen wear. This is a sign of admiration for most students, and it's reminiscent to the black hoods that the Benedictine monks wear.
The Benedictine monks, by the way, took in about six students for the year to house them due to the fact that they were homeless. One boy walked into water polo practice and told the coach that he was living on the streets and failing at his school—that next week, he was living on the church grounds and attending school there.
For him and other students that need emotional support, there's also an on-campus psychologist that's around to listen to the boys' problems. They attend group therapy sessions where they can talk out their feelings and many do attend. The psychologist said that he wouldn't expect boys to learn religion or arithmetic if they're in emotional distress.
And out of every class of boys that comes through St.Benedict's doors, 95 percent of them graduate. Another 85 percent go on to college. These numbers are more than most other schools in the country, and it really shows how amazing this prep school is. They have a great support system and an amazing curriculum for their students that really helps them grow in ways that they never could have anywhere else. I believe that a school like this could be a help to other schools struggling with their students. It could serve as a blueprint to encourage more student-run activities and systems to help those in need. The yearly tuition of $12,000? Over half of the students only pay half of that. The other $6 million needed to fund the school is raised by philanthropies, businesses and charities. If that's not love, I'm not sure what is.
You can watch the interview of St.Benedict's by "60 Minutes" here.
