Dr. Boyce Spotlight: The West End School in Louisville Seeks to Protect Black Boys
by Dr. Boyce Watkins
Part of the reason I participated in the Janks Morton film, “Hoodwinked,” is because I believe that black men have been cheated out of our destiny. The media portrays us to be less than human, our educational system makes us less than intellectual, and the music we hear on the radio teaches us to become weed-smoking, gun-totting, perpetual baby-daddies with little to offer society.
But there are places like the West End School in my hometown of Louisville, KY that are seeking to change that. Starting with a core of accountability, the school is seeking to raise black boys with the foundation necessary to achieve success in a world that is designed to destroy them. This is my kind of institution.
1) What is your name and what do you do?
My name is Benjamin Payne. My wife, 15-month-old daughter and I live in the dormitory. My wife is the school nurse. I teach, coach, and handle whatever administrative tasks the heads of the school send my way, from community outreach to admissions; recruiting employees and volunteers to monitoring study hall. We all take on many roles to keep the school running.
2) What led you to create the West End School, and what needs are being met by the school’s existence?
Statistically, African-American male students in Jefferson County are more likely to end up in prison than to graduate high school. West End School serves to fight such a trend by offering a safe, structured school environment with high expectations. Some students enter the school two to three grade levels behind in Reading, Writing and Math. All of our graduates have placed at or above grade level in all categories. Our eleven graduates have received more than $2 million in scholarship offers from some of the state’s top private schools.
The school’s unofficial motto is, “To Be A Man Is To Be Responsible.” Our primary focus is to teach our students to be men of strong character. By teaching a young man integrity and accountability, he then has the tools to succeed in the classroom and in life.
Robert & Debbie Blair started the school in 2004 with a mission to provide a top education to students who would otherwise not be able to afford one. After a long career in traditional private & boarding schools and observing Louisville’s socio-economic landscape, the Blairs decided to establish West End School with just three-students, two classrooms in a former elementary school and a small house as residence. In its eighth year, West End School now has more than 50 students operating in the better part of the 74,000 square-foot building that formerly housed the Virginia Avenue Colored School (est. 1923) and Carter Elementary School (Schools that produced the likes of Muhammad Ali, Darrell Griffith, and many other prominent Louisvillians).
3) How long has your school been in existence and how have things been going so far?
West End School is in its eighth year. We could not be happier, or feel more blessed, to be in our current situation. We are on pace to have nearly 150 students in six years. Each year we are involving the community more, improving our methods, recruiting exceptional faculty members and providing a better educational experience for the young men we serve.
4) What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered to this point?
We do not have enough staff to properly promote the school. Despite coverage on TV and in newspapers, the distribution of fliers and radio advertising, much of our community still does not know about the School. We have begun working with local community organizations to spread the word and hope to be a well-known entity in our own community soon.
5) What are the goals for the future of the West End School?
Our primary goal is to provide each West End School student with all the tools necessary to achieve in life.
To that end, we plan on building a new gymnasium on campus, expand our dormitory and provide a boarding house for our alumni to support them through high school. We also hope to represent a small portion of the abundant excellence in our community which is continually overlooked and obscured by the media’s coverage of the isolated instances of violence that plague our streets.
6) Is there anything else you’d like for us to know?
West End School welcomes anyone interested to call or email to schedule a visit to the school. The students enrolled carry tremendous responsibility on their shoulders, and have more required of them than most of their peers, regardless of race or socioeconomic status. They not only accept these burdens, but they embrace them in order to better themselves and give their families better futures. As a community, we must encourage our young men to excel, nurture strong character, be examples of integrity, and support them in becoming responsible agents of change.
West End School
3628 Virginia Avenue
Louisville, KY 40211
502-776-5236
info@westendschool.org
43 Responses to Dr. Boyce Spotlight: The West End School in Louisville Seeks to Protect Black Boys
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Finally, something POSITIVE to say about our youth!
Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn: THE EDUCATED SLAVE
“One of the most miscalculated assumptions is that when a person receives a college degree, whether undergraduate or graduate, that individual is now educated. It is true that individual is qualified to apply for various positions or professions where a particular degree is required.
However, if one were to evaluate being educated by the first requirement passed down from the ancient Nile Valley temples in northeast Afrika, the educational center for the world during its golden era, most would not be considered educated. In ancient Kemet (Egypt), on the portals of several temples was the saying ‘Know Thyself.’ The Greeks attributed this statement to the philosopher Socrates, without ever mentioning that Socrates was trained in Afrika, in the same temples previously mentioned.
If the principle of “Know Thyself” alone was applied to today’s college graduates, most would be considered illiterate, especially those of Afrikan descent.”
THE FIRST SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES WERE BUILT AND TAUGHT BY BLACK AFRIKANS IN ANCIENT KEMET! WE TAUGHT THE geeks, I mean greeks EVERYTHING!!!
I’M BEHIND THIS SCHOOL AND I WILL BE CALLING TO CONTRIBUTE!!!
I agree that this is a great effort. Thank God for our black heroes.
However, I have never believed in private schools. Black Public schools, even before integration and even in the South, were more than good enough for my generation to the point I graduated trade school, and then obtained a 4 year degree from a prestigious White college,at the top of my class.
My son did well enough in public schools to graduate from a 4 year White university.
We pay enormous amount of taxes for good PUBLIC schools. I refuse to pay more. It is a disgrace that White public schools in predominantly White communities are doing well, and that black tax payers get nothing for their tax dollars. It puts another burden on the black family.
We must demand that predominantly black schools perform. Black teachers in those schools are highly paid to do WHAT???? We used to have great black teachers. What is the black tax payer getting for its tax dollars Mr. President Obama????
Why do black parents have to pay for education when it is their RIGHT to receive it from federal govt dollars????
@joyce:
I repeat this over and over…these caucasoid fe-male teachers are dumbing down and flunking our children! This was the plan of the government! Remember, they didn’t want us to read during our FORCED enslavment, and they are using 2012 tactics to keep our children from reading, today!
These caucasoids are some sly, slick and wicked demon/devils, who are not going to change…NEVER! As long as our children are running with a football, in their hands, and dunking a basketball; we are no threat to these caucasoids. But, put a book, pencil and piece of paper in their hands; they fear them!
Our children are becoming drug addicts in this public school system. These caucasoid fe-males give them Ritalin to mess up their minds, and to keep them in this slave-like condition.
A lot of people don’t OVERstand how this racist school system can take our children away, if parents refuse to let their children take Ritalin. The government will come get their children!!! This is True stuff. They will tell the parent, that their child is a threat in school, and if they don’t give them Ritalin; they’ll take them away!!!
THESE CAUCASOID TEACHER CLAIM THEY ARE SCARED OF OUR YOUNG MALES IN SCHOOL, BUT YET, THEY CONTINUE TO RAPE THEM AND HAVE s*x WITH THEM, EVEN GIVING THEM WEED!!!
This happened with a caucasoid fe-male at her school. These were Black children, who were in her class! They were football players!!! This site has not posted this story!!!
CHECK: ‘Texas High School Teacher Filmed Having s*x With Four Students’
LOOK THIS TRUTH UP FOR YOURSELF. These caucasoid’s think 30-50 years ahead of the game. Right now, they are plotting to make money off of space travel. They are going to charge $200,000 for a round trip ticket to Mars!!! AIN’T THAT A b***h? Our tax dollars are going toward space travel…not our schools!!!
They were thinking ahead of the game to BRAINWASH our children, also, and they are succeeding, while negroids continue to worry about dying and going to ‘heaven.’
THE ONLY WAY OUR CHILDREN WILL PERFORM IT WILL BE UP TO US. IT’S TIME FOR THESE entertainment centers (church) to open up their doors 7 days a week, so they can be taught their True OURstory and learn some Black Theology and the Blackness of the Messiah! BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY IS THE ONLY WAY!
We pay taxes for our children’s education, but where is the money going…to caucasoid schools! This is why these schools have NEW books, computers, swimming pools, volleyball courts, tennis courts; while our schools are DEPLETED with only basketball courts and football stadiums, and outdated books!
THEY DON’T WANT OUR CHILDREN COMPETING WITH THEIR KIDS, ESPECIALLY WITH THE WAY THE ECONOMY IS TURNING, SO THEY DUMB THEM DOWN!!!
Peace & Truth
@ Derrick
I just finished Undergrad May 2012, and am now a brand new Grad Student Fall 2012 and I have a BA Degree and will soon have an MSW, which will later turn into an LMSW and I am NOT illiterate and I do not feel I should be penalized or marginalized, just because I am educated. The same people who invalidate higher education, are the same people who do not have one. I understand the direction you come from in terms of people who have Degree’s not knowing why they have one, but the rest irritates me to the core. To make a point, just because you graduate, does not mean you stop matriculating. You will matriculate for the remainder of your life. I graduated from an HBCU, but the down side of attending an HBCU is you hear black black all day. We live in a post racial society, despite the few ignorant souls out here, who do things to others based on race, so I implore you to not be a reverse racists, because every white person is NOT bad. I am African American Irish American and Native American = African Irish Native American and I have white family and friends and they are wonderful people. Yes wrong was done to us in the PAST and SOMETIMES in the present, but we cannot blame the entire universe for the educational problems that plague a community of people. I blame the parents for scrupulous and wrongful upbringing. Parents don’t care about education anymore and unfortunately, I am living proof of that. School was and is my only ticket out of the ghetto in Detroit into a better neighborhood, better choices, better circles of people and provisions of better opportunities.
Dude, don’t take it personal!
A degree without G.O.D. (Good Old Downhomesense) ain’t worth a D.A.M.N. without J.E.S.U.S. (Justice Equality Spirituality Understanding Salvation)!!!
READ THE ARTICLE ENTITLED “THE EDUCATED SLAVE”
My son will be graduating from college next May with a degree in computer science; and I will be gradutating after him with a degree in communications; therefore, I am not knocking your educational goals, BUT just because a person has a piece of paper on their walls or desks; doesn’t mean they have Good Old Downhomesense!!!
LIFE IS AN EXPERIMENT; THE MORE YOU EXPERIMENT, THE MORE YOU DISCOVER!!!
When you experiment with something that is more relevant than receiving a piece of paper because you are getting EXPERIENCE!!!
“I am African American Irish American and Native American = African Irish Native American and I have white family and friends and they are wonderful people…”
For your information the Irish have Black blood running through their veins!!! As a matter of Truth, Ireland was once ruled by a Black King by the name of Emperor King Gormund! He ruled during the Anglo-Saxon period. The freckles and curly nappy red hair is a dead give-away of their Blackness. My professor is from Ireland, and she co-signs this Truth!
The Native amerikkkans were ORIGINALLY Black people. My father’s Aunt was a member of the Black Washitaw Nation, who were Black Indians!!! As a matter of Truth, the ORIGINAL inhabitants of amerikkka were BLACK AFRIKAN OLMECS, who were in amerikkka over 300,000 years old AND WERE NOT SLAVES, but owners of land (which the euroPEEans came and stole from them).
These usurpers were the so-called ‘pilgrims’ who were nothing, but a bunch of murderers, theives and robbers, that england wanted to get rid of…i.e. these are the thieves y’all celebrate on thankstaking, aka thanksgiving. THEY ‘took’ the land from these Black Olmecs, and the rest is OURstory.
The ORIGINAL europeans were the Grimaldi people, who were the ancient people, that inhabited ancient eu(rope)!!! Yes, they were BLACK! By the way, eu(rope) is named after a Black Queen by the name of Queen Europa!!! Notice the only difference is the letter (a).
THEREFORE, YOU ARE BLACK!!!
I AIN’T MAD AT YA!!
It is sad how ignorant you sound. Even if what you are saying does hold truth, it is no excuse for people not to be educated and succeed.
Joyce, Black teachers are some of the best teachers in America. I had some great ones! But I have come to believe that a good education begins at home with the Black child’s parents’ expectations and participation. Even poorly financed public schools are good schools, if the parents of their students monitor the curriculum and instruction and have their hands on the pulse of the affairs of their child’s school.
As a parent, I have always thought that the purpose of my children’s schools was to help US educate our children. Each of our children graduated high school with honors and went on to our state university. One child has a doctorate now and the other hopes to earn one in the future.
God gives fathers [and parents in general] the charge to “train up a child in the way that he should go”. This applies to secular education, too. And thsi applies to Black parents as well.
Joyce: The McKay Scholarship and Student First fundings exist to make “private” education free and very possible. Coincidentally, the FTE-Full Time Equivallent dollars will follow the child to whatever school they attend; $6000+ plus. So in essence, the education remains free.
If you think that an education is expensive; what will ignorance cost? Joyce, that’s where they want us-bottom. Please read “Kill Them Before They Grow” Michael Porter and “Savage Inequalities”-Jonathan Kozol (1991). Be informed. Dr. Northern-www.AVETSCARE.org.
I read the article about y our school and I think It’s a wonderful idea and i wish you much success.
I think its sad that many people who are able to give like the Jayzee, Beyounce, Oprah, and other prestigious minorities have not opened their wallets.
I know people can put their money were they please but take care of home first.
Awesome ….
Peaches you are so right. The affirmative action programs that made these entertainers millionaires/billionaires should have took care of the entire American black community. The intent of the programs was to give only 12% of our black people jobs/resources, and they in turn were to create jobs that would stop us from being totally dependent upon white america. I think they did this instead of reparations.
THERE ARE ONLY 14 MILLION BLACK AMERICANS. IF THESE BLACK ENTERTAINERS WITH BILLIONS WOULD GIVE EACH BLACK AMERICAN A $1 MILLION DOLLAR REPARATION PAYMENT IT WOULDN’T EVEN HURT A BILLIONAIRES POCKETBOOKS, AND WE WOULD HAVE THE RESOURCES TO SUPPORT THEIR CDS, MOVIES, ETC.
WHY AREN’T THEY SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT???
WE HAVE SO MANY GREAT BLACK UNKNOWN AUTHORS BUT THEY NEVER GET THE EXPOSURE THAT OPRAH GAVE TO WHITE UNKNOWN AUTHORS AND MADE THEM MILLIONAIRES.
I’M STARTING MY OWN PROTEST. I’M NOT GOING TO A BLACK MOVIE, NO BLACK CDS, NOTHING. IF THEY DONT GIVE A SH8T ABOUT THEIR OWN PEOPLE WE SHOULD ALL BOYCOTT.
I certainly know that the school knows that nurturing the body is as important as the mind for these boys to grow up HAPPY AND healthy. I know they are giving these boy children time to play, frolick and enjoy their childhood.
THERE ARE ONLY 14 MILLION BLACK AMERICANS. IF THESE BLACK ENTERTAINERS WITH BILLIONS WOULD GIVE EACH BLACK AMERICAN A $1 MILLION DOLLAR REPARATION PAYMENT IT WOULDN’T EVEN HURT A BILLIONAIRES POCKETBOOK, AND WE WOULD HAVE THE RESOURCES TO SUPPORT THEIR CDS, MOVIES, ETC.
WHY AREN’T THEY SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT???
WE HAVE SO MANY GREAT BLACK UNKNOWN AUTHORS BUT THEY NEVER GET THE EXPOSURE THAT OPRAH GAVE TO WHITE UNKNOWN AUTHORS AND MADE THEM MILLIONAIRES.
I’M STARTING MY OWN PROTEST. I’M NOT GOING TO A BLACK MOVIE, NO BLACK CDS, NOTHING. IF THEY DONT GIVE A SH8T ABOUT THEIR OWN PEOPLE WE SHOULD ALL BOYCOTT.
THE FOREIGN NEGROES THAT BRAINWASH THEM INTO ABANDONING THEIR HOME CHARITIES IN FAVOR OF FEEDING THEIR PEOPLE, WONT GIVE THEM A GLASS OF WATER IN THE DESERT.
INVEST IN YOUR OWN BLACK AMERICAN COMMUNITY, AND YOU WONT HAVE TO RUN AROUND CRYING ABOUT NO ONE BOUGHT MY CDS, OR WENT TO MY MOVIES.
INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF YOUR PEOPLE, INSTEAD OF FOREIGN BLACKS WHO DONT GIVE A d**n ABOUT YOU, UNLESS YOU’RE A MEMBER OF THEIR UNCIVILIZED TRIBE.
A warm and inspiring article, Dr. Watkins. Thanks for highlighting the great work being done by dedicated, committed, intelligent and compassionate Black men and women in our communities.
I hope and pray for the success of the West End School and its founders; the Paynes, who are to be honored and admired for their selfless commitment to empowering our children.
This is the kind of information that should make the 6 o’clock news.
This school is so wonderful,it is exactly what our Young Black Men need.May GOD Bless you all.This school deserves International Attention…We have to keep our Black Children from The Criminal Justice System.
VOTE-VOTE-VOTE-OBAMA-OBAMA OBAMA 2012!!
TRUE! TRUE! TRUE! TRUE! So, what can WE do about it? What are WE doing about it? The problems of Black folk must and will be solved by Black folk. How long are we going to wait for others to solve our problems?
What are three things that Black folk in general can do to help US solve our problems? Have we ever stopped to think of why other ethnic groups in America respect us as a group less? Is it all about our ancestors having been slaves in this country? Do many of us STILL act like slaves? (Don’t own poperty. Don’t get married and give our children homes with both father and mother. Don’t vote. Can’t discern glitter from gold. Going to church but not to God.)
Black folk, WE have become our own enemies as well! We have more fingers pointing back toward us than toward others. Let’s work on removing the stumbling blocks that we put in our own paths, as we continue to challenge the obstacles that others place before us.
Excuse me people most of our kids don’t really care to learn just peek into any prodomanitly black school classroom and most will be busy doing anything else other than work I see it all over my city. The kids don’t demand an education and most parents half a*s complain about it instead of offering to help. Most that doend up cursing out some kid or adult for the slightest infraction when there kids has done loads more on any other day and they know well enough. I demand more from my kids and they produce just like these boys do they produce demand more not with anger or venom in your gains but with pride and dignity. Or s**t if you have none just fake it till he makes it.
I am very proud of my husbands home town. Stop the violence there though. It is important that we teach our boys respect for God and themselves and they wont go wrong. We are all responsible and we should educate their bodies, minds and souls. What is the person above me talking about if you are not part of the solution you are the problem. We both had great black teachers that valued us watch who teaches your children and spend time with your child and at the schools so that you are a part of the solution. Obama 2012
Obviously what’s happening to American blacks, especially men, is very real, and it’s not just unfair it’s a grotesque injustice. I caution everyone who is angry about this issue to avoid overgeneralizing. As an example: “these caucasoid fe-male teachers are dumbing down and flunking our children…” This implies or insinuates that all white female teachers have nothing but bad intentions and aim to keep black males dumb. Anyone who honestly believes that is just as much of a problem as the real people this statement aims to criticize. This statement has no more validity than the statement “All black men are violent.” Over generalizations work to perpetuate hate, racism, and ignorance. Don’t over generalize. Modifiers such as man, most, come exist so that intelligent people don’t have to judge by the croup or class or race.
I went to Hawaii in 2010. I learned that the population never had a governor of Hawaiian origins. In the 70s they had someone from the Philipins and that’s it, never another minority! And we know it is not because they are not smart. The mainstream keep them at the bottom of the society like us. You will find below an excerpt (from the book Why We Want You To Be Rich (p. 167-168) by Donald Trump and Robert T. Kiyosaki) which explains what they do to the Natives over there (it is a narration from Kiyosaki who has hawaiian origins), they use the same tactics in America with Black kids especially Black boys (80% of the kids who are in special education programs are from the Black community!!!):
” My dad was a great man. Even as a child, I looked up to him and respected him. I was proud to be his son, and I wanted him to be proud of me. On the first day of school, teachers would read the class roster and every teacher would stop after calling out my name and say, “Is Ralph Kiyosaki your father?” My dad was the head of education for the state of Hawaii. He was tall for being Japanese, about 6’3, so he stood out in more ways than one. He was known as a brilliant man and an independent thinker. He had graduated at the top of his class as valedictorian and was respected as a great educator in the school system of Hawaii. Just before he passed away, he was recognized as one of the top two educators in Hawaii’s history. I remember him showing me the newspaper article about the award and he was crying. As the article said, he had dedicated his life to education and Hawaii’s children.
My dad had originally planned on going to medical school. Our family for generations, had been medical doctors. But when he was in high school, on the island of Maui, he noticed that his classmates were rapidly disappearing from class. As student president of his class, he went to the principal to find out where the kids were going. At first, he got the runaround, but he finally learned the truth. He found out that the sugar plantation that most of the kids’ parents worked for had a standing order that 20 percent of the kids had to be failed, regardless of how they were doing in school. This was to ensure that the sugar plantation had enough uneducated laborers. My father learned that teachers, principals and people at all levels within the education system went along with that. It was then that my father decided against medical school and went to college to become a teacher to try to change the system. In addition, he fought to bring the best education possible to kids whose parents could not afford private schools – kids who had no choice but to depend on the public school system to work for them instead of against them. He fought that battle all his life.
However, our country’s education system is just getting worse. America has one of the worst educational systems in the world, yet it spends more money on education than any other country does. As hard as my dad fought, the state of Hawaii continues to have one of the worst education sytems in America. The May 2006 issue of Honolulu Magazine ran a cover-page article grading public schools in Hawaii. The article stated that the National Education Association (NEA) rated Hawaii as number 43 out of the 50 states – in other words, the seventh lowest in the nation. It issued a D- in standards and accountability, an F for school climate, a D for improving teacher quality and a C in adequacy of school resources”.
We are very naive to think that the descendants of people who didn’t want us to read will grade us fairly and so on!!!
@Pat…Thanks for the information about Hawaii’s schools. Very interesting, especially the part about having enough students to work the cane fields. The same thing was done in the South with Black students: They had to pick the last cotton scraps and harvest the corn.
I empathize with this Island state populated with people of color. Kust as Robert’s father left a more prosperous field of medicine to assist in reparations of public education-I have a de ja vu moment. my wife left when she found out how little teachers get paid for making such a great difference in society.
Please read: “Savage Inequalities”-Jonathan Kozol(1991) and “Kill Them Before They Grow”‘Michael Porter (1997).
The “oppressor” will never allow the oppressed to outperform the elite or the entitled. We must return to self-education if ever!
Thanks for your information Dr. Northern. Malcolm X used to say “Only fools put their kids in the schools of their enemies”
I just wanted to make a note that if this is the same guy I met several months ago, Ben is white. He is such a great guy and he and his family have dedicated their lives to making a difference in these young men. I say that to say you don’t have to be African-American to effect change with young men of color. This man has affected these young men in a way that cannot be fully explained. White, black or brown, young men need positive men in their lives. I applaud the West End School founders and their administrators for identifying a need in the community and walking in faith towards making a change.
Nice article, but what about the broken black girls left behind?
My parents were uneducated and dirt poor yet they decided to sacrifice and send their children to private schools when they realized that a viable education in our neighborhood public school was non-existant.
Their sacrifices were extreme. There was a time when my mother and father shared the same pair of pants and one overcoat between them. We ate sparingly, paid the rent on time and paid for schools. Period. No drinkin’, no druggin’, no parties, no nothing so the three children could learn how to read and write and not be subjected to ghetto mentality and criminality 24/7. It worked. My brother, my sister and myself are educated and even though we don’t make millions, we have always been self supporting and have led crime-free lives. This would lead me to agree with Malcolm X when he says that: “Only fools put their kids in the schools of their enemies”. Although I agree with Joyce when she says that our children should be able to receive decent schooling in public schools, the fact is that, most times they don’t because ghetto schools can only reflect the poverty stricken population they service. And poverty is a social illness with highly contageous symptoms.
The school that Dr Boyce has described is the kind we need for all our children. Unfortunately, one of the symptoms of poverty is a lack of interest or hope for a better life via schooling.
Until we get rid of the poverty only marginal types, like my parents, will have the necessary intelligence and steadfastness to do what must be done to educate their children. Until we have a system that does away with economic injustice where a few have so much and the rest comparitivly little – with us blacks at the bottom of the economic structure – our kids will be subjected to non-schooling. Instead of using our tax dollars to bail out sub prime scammers, bankers and other thieves, we need to spend our tax money on health, education, housing and welfare. In the mean time my parents taught me to not be a fool: my kids go to non-ghetto schools, no matter what the sacrifice.
wow the article is about a school that was created and still is operating to do the job that it was meant to do. the comments should be compliments and think of how we as individuals can help so this school stay true to its plan and grow.