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Show I Tti Daihr Utafe Ckrwicli Mtn.Barcfc7.1tM All The r- - 3 f I ........ At the Salt Lake:&Mutiirr .vV'''. I- - 5 a H ssJhol ; uuu i , '"J :Syr f Ill . p I'r t J I : . - a. I J three R's inTSIhe schoolroom overflows with books II toys, games and is even complete JL d albino bunnv named with a Sandy. The students there, like all other elementary-age kids, fight against counting on their fingers during math and run around, happy and rampant during recess. Yet these children are not like most elethey are all homeless mentary students and are often from dysfunctional families. lop-eare- The School With No Name is attended by preschool through sixth grade level students living in the Salt Lake Community Shelter. Only the temporary residents of the shelter are allowed to attend the program run by the Salt Lake City school district. Most stay in the school only three months. Though a part of the district, the School With No Name is very dif- ferent from "normal" public schools, according to the school's teacher Stacey director and ar Bess. "We literally act as nurse and counselor; we have a classroom of emotionally distraught children," Bess said. "In a typical school setting you may, if life is really hard, get two or three in the class who are really disturbed. All of our kids are going through the loss process. All of our kids are angry." The number of students in the school averages about 25. When the program began 10 years ago there were only an average of nine homeless students. Now with four teachers and a handful of volunteers, shelter children are taught to deal with their emotions and above all else. "Lack of education is probably the main reason they're in the shel self-estee- m ter," teacher Faye Winkelkotter is said. "Giving them the answer. I really don't think of them as homeless, I think of them as children. I find worth in every one of them and I tell them that." A daily journal is kept for students in kindergarten up. Teachers and volunteers act as scribes for those unable to write. Through writing exercises, feelings can be to according expressed, Bear book helps children e from families "With one boy, it the journal entry was always about his mom and dad arguing and fighting and how they'd make up," she said. Although the boy would never speak about the altercations directly, Winkelkotter knew what the entries were about. The teachers, unable by law to were involved in every step of the process from writing letters to publishers and asking them for donation of services to deciding where the profits will go. After having little luck with finding publishers to donate self-estee- m Winkelkotter. tell social workers about chil- dren's family matters, feel knowing the family side of students helps them better understand the kids and create a safe haven for them. "If teachers would just dive in a little bit and get to know them, they would have so much more success. I know just about everything and by law I can't tell the social workers," Bess said. see "school" on page ten low-incom- "What if a bear were homeless?" Stephanie Burnett, a Salt Lake Community shelter volunteer from the Bennion Center, asked a group of homeless and kids in the Peer Support Alliance after school group. A year and a half later, the group of homeless and poverty stricken kids became authors of The Homeless Hibernating Bear. Printed in December, the at-ri- children's book shows the problems and feelings shared by homeless children through the story of a bear lost alone in downtown Salt Lake City. "Some of the kids had a need to express what it was like for them to be homeless," Burnett said of the book, which will hopefully educate children and adults about homelessness. Ideas and suggestions for the story were exchanged in the group while Burnett took notes. "Really it's their story they did it. I think a lot of things the kids experience are so similar," she said. the children were not simply responsible for the story and illustrations. They Yet services, the ABC television show "The Crusaders" set out to find publishers. The young authors decided Aspen Book of Gold Leaf Press should publish the books. The publisher taught the group about the publishing process and even provided illustrators to teach the kids to make characters appear consistent throughout the booit, according to Burnett. "The best part was when it was getting done," Curtis Dorsey said about the process. "They taught us a lot about how books get pub- lished." Dorsey, who one day would like to be an architect, primarily contributed illustra- tions of downtown buildings to the book. Seven thousand copies of the book were originally printed, see "bear book" on page eleven |