CORE | Coalition for Residential Education

Dr. Herbert M. Turner, III

My life journey really began when my father decided to leave our home in West Philadelphia in 1970. His leaving had an indelible impact on my psyche, and left an emotional void that took me more than a decade to fill. It left my mother in dire straits financially. Moreover, at that time, the streets of West Philadelphia were controlled by gangs which made it a very perilous place to grow up as a young boy.

Still, I remember that day—as if it were yesterday—in 1971 when, as a fourth grader, I was playing outside (a group of thugs had stopped me a few weeks before and gave me the option of either giving them my watch or taking a beating) and my mother asked me, “Would you like to go to Scotland School?” I said “yes.” I also remember the day when, at the half way point of the 180 mile drive to Scotland School for Veterans’ Children (SSVC), the car we were riding in broke down. As the tow truck came, I asked my mother, “Are we still going to SSVC?”

At SSVC, there were lots of rules with consequences attached. There were about 300 students from different backgrounds. From fifth to eighth grade, I shared a cottage with twelve other boys. From ninth to twelfth grade, I shared a dormitory with 90 other boys. The school building was no more than three city blocks from any cottage or dormitory so you rarely missed school – not even in twelve inches of snow! The teachers, staff, and administration seemed so demanding – they were always asking more from me. They were rarely ever satisfied, it seemed.

When it came to school work, teachers would say, “You can do better than that.” When it came to general conduct in the cottage or dormitory, staff would say, “You can do better than that.” But above all, there were those five bedrock principles SSVC has espoused since 1896: Honesty, Duty, Respect, Charity, and Excellence.

I graduated from SSVC in 1979 and after spending eight years of my life there, I thought I would never look back – I was sure of it. Ironically, however, I find myself always looking back to SSVC.

Educationally, I recently completed my doctorate in Education on the prestigious Fontaine Fellowship at an Ivy League School – the University of Pennsylvania (PENN). Professionally, I am the Scientific Research Project Director for the International Campbell Collaboration, which endeavors to ascertain what sociological, psychological, educational, and criminological interventions work through the rigorous quantitative synthesis of the existing research base. Through the Campbell Collaboration, I have developed an international network of brilliant colleagues along with the opportunity to travel internationally. I am also a graduate level instructor of research methods at PENN. I own a home in Bucks County, have been married for seven years to the love of my life, Annette Turner, and I have two sons, ages 6 and 8. Spiritually, I teach Bible study on Wednesday evenings and attend church with my family on Sunday on a regular basis, just as I was taught at SSVC.

In sum, I am living my dream because of what I learned at SSVC. Residential education is intimate, personal, and at times a very intense interaction among students, teachers, and staff. As a student, it is a home away from home. Residential education students, teachers, and staff are like family in many ways. Students learn as much from their peers as they do from teachers and staff. Students live, study, argue, laugh, and cry together.

I find it hard to believe that my life course and outcomes would have been the same if I had remained in West Philadelphia with what the preeminent social scientist, Elijah Anderson, calls the “Code of the Street” calling for me to fall into its unforgiving trap. When I reflect on my life and the course it could have taken as a result of not attending SSVC, the first part of a poem by Langston Hughes comes to mind:

“What Ever Happened to a Dream Deferred? 
Does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun?…”

Indeed, I suspect that if I had not attended SSVC, the opportunity to live my dream would have dried up like a raisin in the sun. At moments like this, the poignant image in my mind is that of the picture that hangs in the Scotland Administration building. The almost life size picture shows a Scotland Graduate who was appointed captain of the University of Delaware football team and is standing, in his football uniform with his helmet off, beside the legendary coach Tubby Raymond. That graduate, Larry McSeed, signed the almost life-size picture, and the spirit of his words certainly speaks to my experience, and I suspect the experience of the hundreds of others who have had graduated from SSVC and programs like it:

“At SSVC, dreams do come true.” Mine certainly did.

April 2009