Minnie Howard School, just outside Washington, D.C., caters exclusively to 14-year olds. Started seven years ago to relieve enrollment pressures, the school protects its 747 9th graders from typical high-school pressures and has reduced suspension and truancy, enrolled more kids in honors classes, and enticed privately educated students back to…

Describes a modest afterschool rites-of-passage program for District of Columbia ninth graders that provides doses of African culture, practical skills, adult guidance, and community service opportunities. The program is reinforced by a cross-cultural junior high curriculum drawing from traditional African wisdom and modern pragmatism. (MLH)