STEPHEN MOORE: Weekend Interview with Jalen Rose: From the Fab Five to the Three Rs
By MB Snow at December 31, 2011 | 2:25 pm | Print
The 40-minute cab ride from the airport to the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy in Northwest Detroit isn’t pleasant. Nearly every other home is boarded up, abandoned, dilapidated, with rusted-out cars in the front lawn on sale for as little as $300. Some of the houses can be snatched up for as little as $5,000, and the main commerce visible are liquor stores, auto-repair shops and seedy bars. “You may have noticed,” says Jalen Rose, “there aren’t any Ritz-Carltons here or five-star restaurants, or even many businesses at all.” Welcome to the land of broken families and bankrupt businesses.
And school reform. Every weekday, 120 high-school freshmen from these neighborhoods attend Mr. Rose’s academy, some arriving after two bus trips and all before 7:30 a.m. Located in a former public school building, the school has spartan facilities—a science lab with almost no equipment, cracked windows—and few modern frills, though every student is given a computer.
As you approach and knock on the front door (the school is always locked to keep troublemakers away), you cross over a blue line. “When you cross that blue line,” explains Mr. Rose, “you have to agree to leave all your troubles behind for the next eight hours.” This is a sanctuary—and “one of the most promising school reform initiatives in the state,” according to Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has also offered praise.
For non-sports fans: Now a regular commentator on ESPN, Jalen Rose was a member of the University of Michigan basketball team’s controversial and multitalented “Fab Five” from 1991-93. He joined four other high-school all-Americans—Juwan Howard, Jimmie King, Ray Jackson and Chris Webber—who became the first major team to start five freshmen. Not only did they start, but they won and won, going to two straight national championship games. In the process they became a cultural sensation with their yellow jerseys, baggy shorts, black socks and brash, trash-talking style of play. Fans either loved or hated them.
After skipping his senior year to enter the pros, Mr. Rose played 13 seasons in the NBA, earning millions in salary and endorsements—and getting his college degree along the way. On this drizzly and cold December afternoon, he could be living the good life in Palm Springs or South Beach.
Instead he’s here building a school, work for which he takes no pay. And he doesn’t just lend his name to the letterhead—he’s often in the building for 20 hours a week, he says.
At 6 feet 8 inches, he towers as we stroll down the halls of his school at midday. “Do you notice that?” he whispers. “Listen to how quiet it is.” He’s right—the school has a serene quiet that suggests kids may actually be learning.
Since the Leadership Academy is a charter school free to set its own schedule, the students spend 20% more time in the classroom than they would in Detroit’s traditional public schools. The school day runs from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. and the school year is 211 days, not 176. Only one student has dropped out since the school opened in August.
via The Weekend Interview with Jalen Rose: From the Fab Five to the Three Rs – WSJ.com.