Page Six THE MICHIGAN DAILY Soturdoy, May 22, 1976 The Clemente 'family New concepts in alternative ed By JAY LEVIN . [lIM IS 13 YEARS OLD, a soft spoken boy with delicate features and long, blond hair hanging over his blue eyes. He used to attend the Scarlet School in Ann Arbor, but was expelled for a variety of reasons, including possession of dope and carrying a knife to class. "The teachers-they hated me. I'd nev- er come to their classes," says Tim with a laugh. Tim still carris the knife-for protec- tion, he claims - but not anywhere near his pew school, the Roberto Clemente Stu- dent Development Center, one of the many so-called alternative schools popping up on the educational scene. Despite the fact he still occasionally takes a toke on a joint, Tim's attitude toward learning has gone through a metamorphosis after only a few months at Clemente, and with it, he, himself, has mellowed. NAMED FOR THE LATE, great Pitts- burgh Pirate baseball' player, the Clemente school, now in its third year is housed in an unassuming, low-slung building amid the grassy rural reaches of Ypsilanti. It deals primarily with those students who are disenchanted with, or facing problems in the traditional Ann Arbor schools. "I'm doing a lot better all around," says Tim. "This school is a helluva lot better. At Scarlet, I never went to my math class. My math teacher here, Mark, he's learned me a lot since I've been here. I feel bet- ter about myself," he continues. "I used to hate my mom. I'm starting to like her now. Tim's story tells only part of the reason why Clemente has effectively helped teens and pre-teens who are disenchanted with the traditional educational system, change according to their own needs - not the school's. The predominantly young staff of fourteen, makes ample use of a set of philosophies stressing peer pressure, the student-teacher relationship and such con- cepts as "belonging," "understaA "communication," "family" and "ht to wipe away the alienation most s were forced to bear in their old s "We more or less meet individual here," says Joseph Dulin, 40, Cles effervescent principal, and nationally black educator with 18 years expe "A teacher can't come in and sa to page 350' when a lot of the k not ready to turn to 350," he eQ "Some are ready for page 25, th ten." I -JULIN, A PLUMP, bearded m sports a blue windbreaker, stantly absent from his cubicle-si fice, wandering the halls of the sr school and playfully mugging and with the kids. In fact, he has bs such a rapport with the school's students that he takes on the rot surrogate father, welcoming calls them at all hours of the day and "Some parents say to me 'why tell you they're pregnant before ste, Dulin, "I say 'they have to tell some Leon, a vocal 17 year old, call "the type of principal you can de; Most principals hide behind their but Joe tells us what he expects and we tell Joe what we expect of Walking through the halls, one car the unique air of openness betwe dent, teacher and principal. The firs: basis is a cardinal rule, and greet the staff with good natured Words commonly thought of as tory, such as "honkie" and "ugli sprayed around in playful manner, this openness, displayed also in r, sions and informal chats, comes found honesty. One of the school's of mottos is "verbal confrontation with, sical abuse." There is more to Clemente, h than communication. Dulin and the ers have instilled in the students a knit sense of family, "The Clemente ly," as it is commonly called, wh' 'NIGHTMARE SEASON': The Chargers' 'ups' and 'downs' TfIE NIGHTMARE SEASON, by Arnold J. Mandell, M.D. New York: Random House, 216 pps., $7.95. By GORDON ATCHESON FOTBALL is just a game. It was created as recreation-albeit a bone-crunching, head snapping variety. But recreation, none- theless. To make it into more than that, is to spoil the product. Arnold Mandell has seen football at its biggest, most expensive worst. And The Nightmare Season is his account of the hapless San Diego Chargers of the National Football League. During the 1973 season, Mandell, a psychiatrist, served as the Chargers "psychological" coach. His job was to try to motivate the players to greater heights of physical achievement by psyching them up. Unfortunately, Mandell wasn't particularly good at that job - the Chargers ended the season with a dis- couraging last place finish, after being hearlded as the up and coming team. IHE BOOK IS less the story of the au- thor than of the deterioration of the players - all of whom are drilled to want victory more than anything else - as they realize the season will just be one loss after another. The man who suffers most is Charger Coach Harland Svare. He sees his job slowly slip away with each defeat and appears powerless to change what seems to be fate. Of course, the end of the season brings the inevitable for Svare - a little pink slip telling him that he's through as coach. With him goes Mandell - who represents just one of many noble experiments that didn't pan out. Unfortunately, Mand'ell is not by trade a writer and it shows in some parts of the book., Too often the descriptions are wooden and cliched: he presents Duane Thomas as "the' eccentric but incredibly great running back." That kind of language is second-rate sports reporting. Not the stuff of full-length books. Mandell, however, is sensitive enough to keep the structure simple. He doesn't try to wow the reader with his large vocabu- lary or his ability to construct flowery yet vapid sentences. So in general, the book is crisp and tight, if not spectacularly well-written. The reader is drawn into the rising tensions, as it becomes more and more obvious that Svare is headed for unemployment. UNDERLYING THIS HUMAN drama are several tangental issues that have more to do with pro football in general than the ineptness of the San Diego Charg- ers. Drug use among athletes and the de- humanization of football players, as they prepare for their weekly gladitorial con- tests, are two of the thorniest issues broached. Here, Mandell's book really shines. He was out of his element trying to recon- struct diologue and setting, but research and participant observer studies constitute the man's home turf. In part, Mandell came to the Chargers to counsel the players on drug use and abuse - a rampant problem among pro football teams. These guys take uppers before the games, downers afterwards, and pain-killers just about all the time. Often the drugs are gotten illegally or une A GAIN, UNFORTUNATELY f1 Chargers and Mandell, the Hv cided to investigate the San Dieg as a sacrificial lamb to the peopl ing for a crack-down on drugs. N recounts how he was called before t missioner and ultimately was banned the sport forever because he wrotel prescriptions for amphetimenes for who had been using illegal, subst and even dangerous substitutes. di cause he tried to counsel the playe estly about the prosy and cons of dt AS HE SAYS in concluding, "I to teach, do research, and see at the university. Ross (his son) have season tickets to the Charget watch them religiously on televisi it will never be the same." Gordon Atcheson is a former co in-chief of the Daily and currently. porter for the Ypsilanti Press.