Anthony's Penikese Graduation Speech

We ask all Penikese students to prepare some departing remarks to share during their graduation ceremony, to let us know who and what they will miss and not miss, and how they see themselves as having changed. On this particular occasion, Anthony played his customary role of Mr. Negative-Just-Get-Me-Out-of-Here by stonewalling the mere mention of a speech right up until the very end when, at the last moment he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket with a deliberate flourish and delivered (in trembling voice) one of the most heartfelt and moving graduation speeches in recent Penikese history:

I would like to say thanks to all the Students and Staff who put up with my crap and helped me through some tough times.

I would especially like to thank Tom Q for telling me when to cut the crap.

Also, Don, Ed, Dan and most important, Pam for sticking by me and helping when I was in need.

During my stay at Penikese there was a lot of emotional change. Some hard things were thrown my way and because of the people here I learned to view things different and also handle them.

My favorite thing about Penikese is Morning Activity and Dinner, Morning Activity with Don (the most competitive guy I know) and Dinner because it brought a closing to the day at the table with everyone.

The thing I disliked the most was the inconsistency of the shifts, But Tom Q told me to get used to it because that is how life is in a lot of ways. And I am now starting to see that.

I learned so much not only in School but in Life Skills, such as how to take pride in my work. And to let people who are trying to teach me a thing or two, not to shut them down. Because I don’t know everything but all I can do is want to learn as much as I can, because knowledge is the most valuable thing in this life.

And about others I learned that I can’t change what they do or say, I can just change how I react to them.

My future has many hard days to come to get to where I want to be, but in the end I believe it will all be worth it.

I the near future I will hopefully be attending Job Corps and graduating high school, which will be a great place to learn and try all the new things I learned at Penikese.

Thank you.

Bad at Being Bad

In the local newspaper, the familiar story begins like this:

“After a routine traffic stop for a broken taillight, the police discovered the driver had a number of outstanding warrants. They searched the vehicle and found a large supply of drugs in the car’s trunk with a street value of …”

Now, wait a minute. Why would anybody driving around with drugs in their car or warrants out for their arrest ever give the police any excuse for pulling them over? What are they thinking? They might as well wear a sign that says Arrest Me! Penikese boys are similarly bad at being bad. In a recent issue of "Penikese Tidings" I wrote of a student who boasted about smuggling drugs back to the island, then (smack forehead here), got caught with marijuana immediately upon returning from his next home pass.

It might not make sense that criminals and misbehaving teens would be so careless about getting caught, but there are reasons, one of which you might be surprised to find is learning disabilities. Once believed only a correlate of antisocial behavior, learning disabilities are now being understood as an underlying cause.

Educator Richard LaVoie has written a wonderful book on this subject titled It’s So Much Work to Be Your Friend. Over 25 years in special education, LaVoie has faced many sobbing, distraught parents, but, he writes, “Not once – not once – were these parents crying because their children were unable to spell, read, or do the times tables.” Their anguish, he says, stemmed from their child’s social isolation and rejection after confronting “daily failure and frustration in both domains of school: academic and social.”

Learning disabilities impact the social realm similar to in the classroom. Those with special needs have difficulty decoding what they see, processing what they hear, organizing information, planning, filtering distractions, inhibiting impulses, keeping on task, and so forth. These aren’t the easiest children to have in class or pal around with, and given the limits of human patience, they suffer much exasperation and negative attention. Bruised and rejected, they tend to fall in with children of similar ilk and – voila! – a negative peer group is born.

Of course there is more to our students’ challenging behavior, trauma and mood disorders to name a few. But LaVoie’s point is that academic education is only half the answer. School lasts about 8 hours, so what about the rest of the day? To LaVoie, all human environments are social, not just school, making intensive social and life skill instruction utterly essential to these children’s success and happiness.

Look at it this way: our students attend classes an ambitious 6 days a week over nine months, but in years to come they won’t remember their MCAS score. Their fondest memories of Penikese will be found among “the other 16 hours” of all the days they spent living, working and playing together, positive experiences to last and serve a lifetime.

September 2008 State of the School Remarks

The following remarks were made by Executive Director Toby Lineaweaver before the Board, Associates, staff and volunteers of the Penikese Island School on the occasion of its 35th  Annual Meeting, September 15, 2008, held in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

The story about 2007 and 2008 at Penikese could very well be titled the "Tale of Two Years," so completely different have these been from each other. FY 2007, as reflected in the recently mailed 2007 Annual Report Graduation, was not a year to trumpet by the numbers. Twelve months ago we were only just beginning to emerge from a business slump caused by a massive reorganization of our main customer, DSS, now known as DCF. For any large bureaucratic beast, reorganization is tantamount to seizure of the works, and as a small private school we, like others, took it on the chin as referrals dropped and stayed low for some time.

As tough as these times were, I believed we used them productively to take a closer look at our business dealings, the market and our marketing. We formed a business task force that essentially forced those of us (mostly myself) set in our Penikese ways to take a fresh look at who we do business with and how, what services we provide, and to consider new ideas. In short, it was an agonizing process. But it made Penikese stronger in ways not the least of which include whenever I get a bit out of line all the Board has to do is whisper “task force “ in my ear and I am instantly brought to heel.

So what are some of the things we accomplished? Web sites are no longer just a pretty business ornaments but invaluable marketing tools through which more and more customers conduct their actual business. So we tore down the old and put up a new one, and in the process rewrote our marketing language to make it more inclusive, reassuring and inviting. We joined the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) and by doing so at the same time began marketing to private pay students and their families while becoming a member of a larger community of providers and purchasers. 

Recognizing that elements of our physical plant and infrastructure needed updating and strengthening, we came up with plan for that, the Major Gift Project which has to date raised over a million dollars for a new more comfortable and speedier vessel, a new dock, and a new two-story multi-use building on the island. And we worked tirelessly to solidify our standing with DSS-DCF as a preferred provider in their network offering some of the best quality work around with some of the most difficult of all kids to deal with, believing that in any business and any market, excellence and results are commodities  always in demand. 

No, 2007 was not a year to trumpet by the numbers, but it was a year that will go down in history of setting the stage for this year, 2008, and years to come. 2008 is when the harvest began to come in, a successful major gifts campaign giving us among other things a new boat, Carnavale, our 35th anniversary event, a fundraising and PR triumph like no other, and perhaps most important, our business bounced back with an island full of kids to keep us busy year ‘round and our reputation among the treatment community at its highest ever.

For this success and all the hard work put into preparing for its manifestation I want to thank you, our community of devoted supporters and believers for all your extraordinary gifts of talent, time and treasure. I thank our volunteers for their hours of unpaid – but hopefully not unrewarding – work, especially our Board of Directors so steady on the helm, and of course our staff who, whether in the office or on the island, carry out the mission and miracle of Penikese every day. Largely unheralded, they deserve the ultimate credit for making Penikese Penikese.

I don’t want to finish without noting the passing of dear and generous friend Shirley McIntire, two term Board member, always a voice of hope, love and civility, a warm hand in mine, a spiritual and compassionate person who rallied the local faith community in support of Penikese and its new director (me) years ago during a difficult time for the school, and also the one who kicked me in the rear end to get aftercare going for real. Though for too brief a time, the world is a richer, better place for Shirley having walked among it and us.

I also want to note the passing of another Penikese legend from an earlier era, Dick Edwards. Dick was there when Penikese first began in 1973, helping to get and keep the school off the ground. He stayed involved over the many years as Board member, friend, supporter and donor, crane operator for offloading crates of pigs, and most recently, Penikese Associate and the only person – Board, Associate or otherwise – known to have proofed the entire by-laws and provided edits.

Dick passed away about year ago, and very shortly after doing so George Cadwalader called to suggest we name our new vessel after Dick, and who am I to argue with the founding director? With the gracious permission of the Nicholas family, donors of our new vessel, we did just that, and the M/V Richard S. Edwards will be steaming into Woods Hole any day now, ready to pick up where the dependable but aging M/V Harold M. Hill leaves off owing us nothing.

Blessings to both of you, Shirley and Dick, and to you gathered here today as well. Thank you.