CAPS #2 Sarah Nelson

Looking at a single history to define an individual or group is like baking a cake with flour as the only ingredient. One must look at the many histories that swirl together and shed light on groups and their identity. Further, assessing many histories gains insight into understanding an individual because a person’s past greatly impacts their perception of themselves and others, (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). Boys Town, located in Omaha, Nebraska, is notorious for taking in and fixing troubled and at-risk youth.  As an education major, I decided to look into the histories of a school-based culture that has an unfamiliar dynamic to me and to highlight an event that has helped shape Boys Town and the youth by acknowledging the histories of each student and implementing the contact hypothesis.

Boys Town. Image from boystown.org

In 1917, a priest named Father Flanagan founded a home for boys in Omaha. It quickly grew, and after moving locations and establishing dormitories, administration buildings, and a school, it became an official village in Nebraska (Lynch, n.d.).  Msgr. Robert P. Hupp became the Executive Director of Boys Town in 1973, and one of the major changes he made was changing the living arrangements from dormitories to suburban-style houses where a husband and wife, called “family-teachers,” live with up to ten youth (Martin, 2014). “Many youth arrive at Boys Town never having had a positive environment to work, play and grow in, but after experiencing the Boys Town community and family lifestyle, they are able to grasp a new outlook on life,” (“A Natural Progression,” n.d. para. 5,). Vivid, fresh events and childhood experiences are two parts of personal histories that come into play when communicating, (Martin & Nakayama, 2013).  Many of the students who come to Boys Town are coming from broken families, difficult childhoods, or recent, terrible events. These would all influence their histories and the suburban-style housing helps address this in a more personal manner.  Also, each youth has a socio-economic and racial history that could be classified as a nonmainstream history, and “family-teachers” assist in working through understanding their histories and how their past relates to their destructive behavior.  Finally, some may even have a diasopric history of sorts, by fleeing a disparaging home or familial relationships. All of these factors influence the histories of a student at Boys Town, and the familial setting of the housing Msgr. Hupp implemented helped the students recognize how to communicate productively while also recognizing their histories.

A school-based culture of this nature warrants a certain caliber of care to help the students gain a new perspective of their lives. The “family-teacher” setting allows the contact hypothesis to utilized because students from many different backgrounds are exposed to institutional support in a variety of contexts as well as working with each other in a positive setting (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). The example of Boys Town also shows how youth interact and communicate when many of their histories do not yield positive results before coming to Boys Town. To combat this, the married couples seek to help them work through their histories and to improve upon their situations. This example shows how teachers and mentors can help youth evaluate their histories. Further, it shows how educators need to work by “cooking” with all the ingredients of their student’s histories, not just one.

References

A Natural Progression: Boys Town Careers. Retrieved from http://www.boystown.org/careers/a-day-in-the-life/family-teacher/the-pattens-story.

“Boys Town Hall of History.” [video].  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KHzer5-8IWo.

Lynch, T. Humble Beginnings: Boys Town: About Us.  Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/.

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Martin, D.  (7 September 2003). Msgr. Robert P. Hupp, 88, Reformer of Boys Town, Dies.  The New York Times. Retrieved from  http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07/us/msgr-robert-p-hupp-88-reformer-of-boys-town-dies.html.