Teacher Tapping Into Creative Side Of Tulsa Boys Home

The Tulsa Boys Home is looking for some creativity, and they're confident they'll find it among the boys who live and learn there.

One of the teachers heading up a new program began at the Boys Home in the fall and meets with the students every Friday. She said the students are all excited about the new way to learn.

Just before bedtime on a school night you'll find 13-year-old Boston playing basketball in the rec center. He and 63 other boys at the Tulsa Boys Home are part of a new program being taught by Dr. Kathy Goff.

"This is an opportunity for us to work with a challenging population on how they can take control of their lives and how they can find what they do well,” Goff said. “And when they can do that, then they internalize it. It builds their self-esteem; it takes it from being the victim to being someone.”

Goff is teaching the 'Beyonder's Curriculum' to the boys who've bounced around from a dozen foster homes or are seeking drug abuse treatment.

She said some of the student's just can't thrive in a normal classroom and that's curbed their ability to learn and be creative.

"I think that's happened to a lot of the boys that are here, is that school wasn't exciting enough because they didn't fit, and if you don't fit then our solution is remediation, which basically means we're going to make you do it over and over and over again, something you don't do well and you don't like," Goff said.

Tulsa Boys Home Executive Director Gregg Conway set up the space for the weekly classes that seek to tap into the student's creativity.

"These boys are survivors and their ability to be creative, I think, is part of what allows them to survive," Conway said.

Boston said he looks forward to the class.

"It makes you think. It really gets your mind going a lot and I like that a lot. That's what I really like about this class," he said.

The class has him thinking about his future.

"If you're as young as me it makes you think about your career more,” he said. "I want to be a biologist to be honest."

Goff tested the students earlier this school year. She hopes to test them at the end of the school year with hopes of seeing tremendous progress.