Power Monday Meeting Case Study

The principal began by establishing Power Mondays. Every Monday, all male students were required to report to school in professional business attire. This meant shirt, tie, slacks, shoes, and a belt. Now that the students looked professional, they wanted them to feel professional as well. Each Monday morning, right after the morning announcements, the principal would take the entire 6-8 grade level of male students to the cafeteria, where they participated in a presentation and discussion led by one or more male staff members, and men from the community whom they had recruited to be a part of the program. Incidentally, school staff participants do not have to be teachers; some of the strongest presenters were custodial and security staff members. At the Power Monday meetings, they discussed a wide range of topics that were vitally important to the black male students’ growth and development; entrepreneurship,
goal setting, leadership, oratory, parenting, relationships, community development, and more. They discussed many topics not only from the vantage point of the present, but also from the vantage point of 10 to 20 years in the future.
Far too many inner-city black males say they cannot see themselves living beyond the age of 21. The principal wanted to change that kind of thinking and to help the students develop a vision for their lives. When they discussed parenting, for example the men encouraged the students to start thinking about their own future roles as parents, even though they were only in middle school. They were planting seeds for the future.
The principal was also building on the past, as he introduced the black male students to the history of their people.
This was vital because so many of the students were unaware that they were the descendants of greatness. Professor Maulana Karenga (1982), the creator of Kwanzaa, wrote “History gives blacks an understanding of themselves by suggesting possibilities of future national and world achievement based on what they have achieved in the past” (p. 49). Power Monday meetings were stimulating, and the students looked forward to them every week. They particularly liked the diversity of speakers that was brought to the meetings. They brought in men from all walks of life—from professional men to those recently released from prison. Each one had a story to tell that could empower the students. The men who were successful shared what they did to get to where they were, including mistakes they had made and overcome; the men coming out of prison shared how their failure to take education seriously put them on a path of poor decision making and
incarceration.
Another effective aspect of Power Monday meetings was having the black male students address topics and questions from the lectern, thus helping them learn how to speak publicly and think on their feet. Typically, each grade level would meet once a month. Periodically, the principal would convene a Power Monday meeting of the school's entire male population, in which the older students would often take the lead by offering advice and suggestions to their younger peers. This not only enabled the younger students to learn from their older peers, but also built in accountability for the older students, who felt obligated to practice what they preached because the younger students were watching.
Finally, from time to time, the principal would take about 25 of the older students to elementary and middle schools where they would be the guest speakers. These younger students looked up to the older students, and the younger students enjoyed the messages the older students brought. The principal remembered one visit to a school in Newark, where each of the 25 young men spoke to a captivated audience of about 300 6th–8th graders. The younger students were transfixed, and at the end of the presentation many of the boys asked the principal if they could attend Newark Tech High School one day. They said that they wanted to be just like those students.
What were the results of our program? Right before our eyes, they were witnessing growth and change. The black male students were evolving. They were transforming. They were maturing. They were conducting themselves differently. Fewer of them were being sent to the office for disciplinary reasons—but more important, they saw a heightened sense of purpose in the classroom. School wide, achievement improved so much that the school gained national recognition.