Teaching kids to make better decisions at school and in life
Behavioural teacher Devon Jones receives honourable mention for work with at-risk kids
Devon Jones doesn’t see himself as just an educator — he’s also a life coach.
Working with some of Toronto’s racialized and marginalized students at Brookview Middle School, in the Jane and Finch area, Jones strives to show his students “how to make smart choices, how to be civically engaged (and) how to be part of the larger social fabric.” That’s because he’s been there too. “I can relate to them because I share some of their lived experiences,” said Jones, 42, who grew up in Toronto. “I share some of the reality and I have a willingness to connect, so I have a willingness to try and understand what they’re going through.”
His commitment to young people in an area of Toronto that’s been branded the most dangerous area to be a kid has extended beyond school boundaries and hours and has inspired thousands of young people. Jones was given an honourable mention in the Toronto Star Teacher of the Year awards.
In 2007, Jones, a behavioural teacher, co-founded the Youth Association for Academics, Athletics and Character Education (YAAACE), a community organization to help marginalized and poor youth through “year-round comprehensive programming and activities.” It now helps about 600 kids annually.
The program was founded “primarily to create a viable alternative to guns, drugs and gangs,” said Jones. “I want a young person to know that you don’t have to do that, you don’t have to get involved.”
“In my eyes, Mr. Jones is the godfather of Jane and Finch, and I say that in the most positive way,” said Ardavan Elizadirad, a former participant in the Summer Institute program, part of YAAACE.
The summer program was created in part to address educational attrition during the summer months, which many students experience, while also providing a fun and safe environment. It takes in 300 students from kindergarten to Grade 1 each summer for a relatively affordable $150.
“A lot of people have stopped believing in these kids and they’ve stopped investing in the things in order to make these kids flourish,” said Elizadirad.
Not so for Jones, according to Elizadirad.
“I can tell you he’s impacted thousands of kids in that neighbourhood,” Elizadirad said, citing the creation of YAAACE and other programs like a partnership with the University of Waterloo to test kids’ eyesight and give them free glasses.
Elizadirad, who is also a teacher, counts himself among the many students whose lives have been changed for the better by Jones.
The same summer program that Elizadirad participated in helped Augustine Obeng meet Jones. Obeng, who grew up in the Jane-Finch area, was applying for his first job as a camp counsellor in the Summer Institute program.
“For me, this was like my first real, real, real job where I could depend upon getting a cheque every two weeks and not having to do other things for income, which could be destructive,” said Obeng, 27. “That feeling for me was amazing because I knew you can work, I can be a working guy and get cheques and get paid and do meaningful work and it inspired me to want that.”
Obeng went on to “model (his) life after Mr. Jones.”
He became a teacher and a community leader and is now doing his Master’s at the University of Toronto in social work.
“(Jones’s) specialty is taking at-risk, volatile kids on the margins, and giving them hope, letting them know it’s possible to change lanes,” Obeng said, adding that positive black role models like Jones were hard to come by when he was growing up.
But not every student that Jones has taught has been able to achieve that same success. He has also seen the lives of some of his students end in tragedy.
Jordan Manners, Emmanuel Osae and Kwasi Skene-Peters were his former students.
Manners was shot and killed while at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute when he was 15. It was the first fatal shooting in a Toronto school.
Osae died suddenly after being transferred from the Toronto Jail to Mount Sinai Hospital while on trial for murder.
And Skene-Peters, 21, died in hospital after being shot in a police confrontation. He was wanted on firstdegree murder charges in the deaths of two men.
It’s a cycle of violence that Jones said can be hard to escape for some people in the Jane and Finch area.
“You might be a kid who’s not involved, but based on the fact that you’re a resident of a particular place in Jane and Finch, you’re pretty much immersed in that conflict, as much as you want nothing to do with it.
“Part of my teaching is always to let kids realize that this is a bigger world, this is a bigger space — the world is a lot bigger than the neighbourhood you live in.”
It’s a lesson he’s spent his entire career teaching.
“As Mr. Jones once told me,” recalled Elizadirad, “‘Anybody can teach a well-mannered child who knows how to follow instructions, but it takes courage and patience to teach those that do not conform to the system.’ ”
Despite the challenges, Jones is committed to helping his community in every way he can.
“I’m proud of my job. I think being a teacher, I have one of the best jobs in the world,” he said.
“I’m also a life coach, and I take much pride in being that and in doing my civic duty.”