Centennial School: A New Beginning

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - 10:15am

A few seconds. That's all it takes for his contagious smile to bring a smirk to your face. Carlos was thinking back to when he got to play some football a few days ago. "Took out some aggression," the 18-year old says.

He has been at Centennial for seven years. During that time, Carlos has learned to control the anger that was his ticket out of his community middle school. With a quieter temper, other opportunities start falling into place. "The teachers are trying to help me learn masonry," Carlos says.

Reinvigorated by his new trade, Carlos will likely graduate next year and get a job. But his Centennial experience offers so much more. Carlos is developing tools he'll need to handle a search for steady employment and life on his own. "I enjoy coming here," he says. "At my old school, I always had to look over my shoulder, in case somebody wanted to fight me."

There is little, if any, violence at Centennial. Students learn in non-traditional classroom settings and with curricula designed to maximize each student's capabilities. "We match the instructional level with the students ability," says Carly Graber, a fifth-grade teacher. "We tell them they can succeed no matter what."

"We have different beliefs on how we approach our students," adds Michael George, Centennial's director. "We don't look at the as psychological problems but as spirited kids who can learn and accomplish great things."

Under the direction of Michael George, Centennial has become a haven for students without other options. They have been disruptive in classroom settings, unable to learn at the pace or even remedial programs or fighting emotional problems too complicated - or distasteful - for traditional schools to handle. Some head to Centennial in place of a juvenile institution or even jail. Others need the kind of individual instruction that Centennial's faculty and staff, who are either students in Lehigh's College of Education its graduates, provide. The goal with each students is the same: find a way for him or her to maximize educational potential. That may mean learning a trade. Or developing life skills. Or returning to public school someday.

That's the course for Cameron, who re-entered Catasauqua Area School District (PA) last December after five years at Centennial. He started slowly, with just one class, but by April, he was fully integrated. "It has gone really, really well," says his Mom, Kelly. The behavioral issues that had led teachers to ignore him and remove him from his first-grade class are gone, replaced by a desire to keep up with his peers.

"What he learned at Centennial gave him the ability to learn in the classroom," Kelly says.

The fall, Cameron will join his friends in seventh grade. He'll look back at Centennial as a school of last resort.

And one of new beginnings.

Research Focus: 
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Field of Expertise: 
Atypical intellectual functions and development