Groves Set To Grow Lincoln
Mar 25, 2004
<b>Dr Don Groves<b> dodged guerrillas in Colombia, dealt with mudslides in Honduras and brought rigour to a school in Ghana. Now he is in Uganda. The Colorado-born educationalist talked to <b>Cathy Watson</b>. Below are the excerpts:
QUESTION: What is your new job?
ANSWER: From June I’ll be the new director of Lincoln International School at Lubowa. We have just renamed it the International School of Uganda (ISU). I’m excited.
What are your roots?
I was born in Colorado and got my bachelors, masters and doctorate there. My wife Jan, who is a biology teacher, is from Wyoming. Big and empty spaces, that’s where we’re from.
And socially?
My background is typical blue collar working class American. My dad worked on the railways. My mom was a nurses aid. From my mother and grandmother, I learnt that you can do anything you set your mind on. They were very positive thinkers.
Was life a struggle?
Well, we didn’t have much money. So in high school, I worked after school, and on weekends in what they called then a “dairy shopâ€, handing out ice creams. Then I had a job in a bottling and canning factory. But working like that was normal in our neighbourhood. Nobody felt bad about it. I was also on the track and field team, and we skied in the Denver City parks.
What about college?
Well, I went to my state university. The professors were fantastic. I studied social sciences. And I also worked all through university in the men’s clothing section of a big store. Then I started work as a teacher.
Where was your first post?
It was a school in a very poor industrial area of Chicago. I was given a junior school class of 12 to 14-year-olds, African American and Puerto Rican children. These were kids who had been in foster-care or orphanages. Drugs were not so much in those days. But they came from poor and broken families.
That was in 1967, a tumultuous time in the US?
Yes, we had the riots after the killing of Martin Luther King. There was a curfew. I remember the flames. They were real tough times of tension. Yet those kids were great. My job was to keep them in school. They didn’t want to be there. I can’t look you in the eye and say we had big successes. But at least they all went on to high school.
Maybe you wanted something quieter after that!
Well, yes and no. But I remember standing in my mother’s kitchen and looking out at the mountains. She said: “You miss them, don’t you?†So I went back to Colorado and worked for six years as a guidance counsellor in primary and secondary school.
More human drama?
Yes, kids who weren’t learning, abuse… My first child-abuse case was before there were even any child abuse laws. I went to the police. The parent tried to sue the school nurse and me. She failed.
Did you feel you were helping?
Yes, but I also realised it was ‘bandaid’ counselling. So I started a programme to train all the teachers to build healthy self-concepts in kids and create better learners. I covered six schools. That helped more.
You’ve been a school head for a long time now.
Well, I moved into being a high school principal in a Colorado school with 2,000 kids. Then I wanted to travel. So Jan and I moved to Colombia to a big old famous school with 80% Colombians. The students were very wealthy and pretty naughty. After that, I became head of the American School in Honduras.
How were those kids?
(Laughing) Well, the school had produced three presidents. These kids were used to both affluence and influence. Their parents were used to getting their way and it wasn’t a good role model for the kids. But you do not have to be impressed by those things. All children need to learn and grow as people and we focused on that. Everyone needs academic excellence.
Then you had Hurricane Mitch…
Yes, I was at a board meeting when the rain and wind started. It rained an inch an hour for four days. Jan and I took in six teachers whose houses were destroyed. But I am really happy to say that our students rose to the challenge. Our senior girls set up a soup kitchen and for days prepared food for the displaced people in the shanty town by the river.
And what took you from Honduras?
I was offered the head of the Lincoln Community School in Ghana. When we got there, morale was very low with labour problems. But everything is solvable. We kept the fantastic teachers and brought in more. It was teamwork. In four years we increased enrolment from 311 to touching 500 and introduced the International Baccalaureate programme.
What about results?
This year, we have a graduating class of 36, many going to good universities. We’ve got a Sri Lankan student going on a full scholarship to Purdue University. A student from an American missionary family won one of the world’s three Margaret Sanders scholarships. We have a Lebanese student going on full scholarship to Emory University. I am really pleased.
So your next challenge is Uganda?
Yes, I interviewed at five schools in Europe, India and Africa. We could have gone elsewhere. But we fell in love with Uganda.
Within four years we’ll make ISU a complete International Baccalaureate school from primary one to 12th grade, the year before university.
We’ll also offer IGCSE, the US Advanced Placement tests and first rate sports.
In Ghana, we have to tell the students to go home at the end of the day. That’s how much they like their school.
We’ll make the International School of Uganda like that too.
Ends
ANSWER: From June I’ll be the new director of Lincoln International School at Lubowa. We have just renamed it the International School of Uganda (ISU). I’m excited.
What are your roots?
I was born in Colorado and got my bachelors, masters and doctorate there. My wife Jan, who is a biology teacher, is from Wyoming. Big and empty spaces, that’s where we’re from.
And socially?
My background is typical blue collar working class American. My dad worked on the railways. My mom was a nurses aid. From my mother and grandmother, I learnt that you can do anything you set your mind on. They were very positive thinkers.
Was life a struggle?
Well, we didn’t have much money. So in high school, I worked after school, and on weekends in what they called then a “dairy shopâ€, handing out ice creams. Then I had a job in a bottling and canning factory. But working like that was normal in our neighbourhood. Nobody felt bad about it. I was also on the track and field team, and we skied in the Denver City parks.
What about college?
Well, I went to my state university. The professors were fantastic. I studied social sciences. And I also worked all through university in the men’s clothing section of a big store. Then I started work as a teacher.
Where was your first post?
It was a school in a very poor industrial area of Chicago. I was given a junior school class of 12 to 14-year-olds, African American and Puerto Rican children. These were kids who had been in foster-care or orphanages. Drugs were not so much in those days. But they came from poor and broken families.
That was in 1967, a tumultuous time in the US?
Yes, we had the riots after the killing of Martin Luther King. There was a curfew. I remember the flames. They were real tough times of tension. Yet those kids were great. My job was to keep them in school. They didn’t want to be there. I can’t look you in the eye and say we had big successes. But at least they all went on to high school.
Maybe you wanted something quieter after that!
Well, yes and no. But I remember standing in my mother’s kitchen and looking out at the mountains. She said: “You miss them, don’t you?†So I went back to Colorado and worked for six years as a guidance counsellor in primary and secondary school.
More human drama?
Yes, kids who weren’t learning, abuse… My first child-abuse case was before there were even any child abuse laws. I went to the police. The parent tried to sue the school nurse and me. She failed.
Did you feel you were helping?
Yes, but I also realised it was ‘bandaid’ counselling. So I started a programme to train all the teachers to build healthy self-concepts in kids and create better learners. I covered six schools. That helped more.
You’ve been a school head for a long time now.
Well, I moved into being a high school principal in a Colorado school with 2,000 kids. Then I wanted to travel. So Jan and I moved to Colombia to a big old famous school with 80% Colombians. The students were very wealthy and pretty naughty. After that, I became head of the American School in Honduras.
How were those kids?
(Laughing) Well, the school had produced three presidents. These kids were used to both affluence and influence. Their parents were used to getting their way and it wasn’t a good role model for the kids. But you do not have to be impressed by those things. All children need to learn and grow as people and we focused on that. Everyone needs academic excellence.
Then you had Hurricane Mitch…
Yes, I was at a board meeting when the rain and wind started. It rained an inch an hour for four days. Jan and I took in six teachers whose houses were destroyed. But I am really happy to say that our students rose to the challenge. Our senior girls set up a soup kitchen and for days prepared food for the displaced people in the shanty town by the river.
And what took you from Honduras?
I was offered the head of the Lincoln Community School in Ghana. When we got there, morale was very low with labour problems. But everything is solvable. We kept the fantastic teachers and brought in more. It was teamwork. In four years we increased enrolment from 311 to touching 500 and introduced the International Baccalaureate programme.
What about results?
This year, we have a graduating class of 36, many going to good universities. We’ve got a Sri Lankan student going on a full scholarship to Purdue University. A student from an American missionary family won one of the world’s three Margaret Sanders scholarships. We have a Lebanese student going on full scholarship to Emory University. I am really pleased.
So your next challenge is Uganda?
Yes, I interviewed at five schools in Europe, India and Africa. We could have gone elsewhere. But we fell in love with Uganda.
Within four years we’ll make ISU a complete International Baccalaureate school from primary one to 12th grade, the year before university.
We’ll also offer IGCSE, the US Advanced Placement tests and first rate sports.
In Ghana, we have to tell the students to go home at the end of the day. That’s how much they like their school.
We’ll make the International School of Uganda like that too.
Ends