A Bit Lost

The drive to make the program flexible has raised problems. Without a set program, some teachers feel a bit lost. Many in math are uncertain whether to focus on material directly related to school or to conduct an enrichment program. Since each class ends up learning different things, the program has no continuity from year to year.

Challenge was at its most flexible--and least effective--in the only one of this year's innovations to fail--the advisor program. There are about 30 advisors, each with two or three students. The advisors are supposed to visit students at home, talk to their parents, and take the boys on trips. Once every two weeks advisors are asked to meet with teachers to discuss student problems. But most advisors are less committed to Challenge than the teachers. Some have hardly ever seen their advisees. Attendance at the meeting with Challenge teachers has been poor.

Advisors complain that the boys do not really need their counseling. One says, "With Challenge, school, recreation programs and Boy Scouts, my advise couldn't fit me into his schedule." For the program to work the participants would have to be selected more carefully and better integrated into their regular Challenge classes.

In another effort to reach students at home, Challenge tried to form a parents group. This formal attempt failed largely because Challenge was aiming at a PTA-type group, which has limited appeal to the parents of most Challenge participants. Nevertheless, Challenge held a well-attended meeting for eight grade students and their parents at which a Cambridge school official spoke about the choice between going to Ridge Tech or Cambridge Latin for high school. And last Sunday several mothers ran a profitable bake sale, to raise money for the Challenge library.

Still more innovations are planned for Challenge's first full-time summer school this year. Half of the entering sixth grade class will be girls. Language classes will be offered, since many students have trouble with first year French and Spanish. And to improve contact with students homes, teachers will live in apartments in four neighborhoods--East Cambridge, Donnelly Field, North Cambridge, and Houghton-Riverside. These apartments will have libraries for the pupils, and could also serve as meeting place for parent groups. Challenge hopes that some teachers will remain in these neighborhoods during the regular school year.

By moving into the Cambridge communities this summer, Challenge