music) (uplifting music) - Hello, welcome to another edition of "10thirtysix" here on Milwaukee PBS.

I'm your host, Portia Young.

in this next half hour.

- I flew all the way up here from Brandon, Mississippi solely for this interview.

This program means a lot to me.

- Find out why a neighborhood basketball program means so much to him and many others and meet the local doctor who drew up the playbook that includes more than hoops.

Plus, we'll hear from more teachers about their struggles and their solutions to lessening their stress while improving student growth.

We begin with the Russia-Ukraine war and in particular the impact the conflict is having on civilians.

"Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" reporter Katelyn Ferral is on assignment in the Ukraine region.

"10thirtysix" producer Scottie Lee Meyers spoke with Katelyn Ferral about what she's seeing firsthand on the Ukraine-Poland border.

- Hi, everyone.

So, I'm here in Chelm.

It's a Polish town on the border between Ukraine and Poland, and it's one town that's on the route between Kyiv and Warsaw, and so I just thought I would give you a look at what it looks like when a train comes in.

(people chatting) (forlorn music) You can see that there's a lot of volunteers here.

We have a medic tent over here.

My name is Katelyn Ferral.

I'm an investigative reporter for the "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel."

I'm on assignment with "USA Today" in Poland covering the refugees coming across the border from Ukraine.

(truck engine rumbling) (forlorn music) So, Poland, according to the UN, I believe, is taking about 50%, a bit more maybe even, 50% of all the refugees going across the border.

I arrived here like the last Saturday in February.

I flew into Krakow from Chicago, and I don't really know how long I'm going to be here.

That depends just on a variety of things.

I first traveled to Ukraine in the summer of 2013 when I was in graduate school.

I had an opportunity to go there and teach English at this English immersion camp at a university near Lviv and didn't have to pay for room and board, and so I went and spent a little over a month there, and after being in Ukraine, I actually completely changed my master's thesis and wrote it all about Victor Yanukovych, their former president, who was ousted and fled to Russia during the 2014 Maidan protests.

And so, obviously, the country had a real effect on me, and I was really struck by the people that I met, and I found them to have such soul and character.

(toddler babbling) (shoes stomping) I'm doing a lot of reporting at train stations, places where people are coming and going.

A lot of these towns have now opened up refugee centers, and so, you see people crying in corners, sitting down in a train station crying.

You see people who just look so tired that it's like they look like the zombies, just this like shell-shocked expression on their faces.

(forlorn piano music) We had interviewed both of them after they had just arrived from Ukraine the night before.

They were in Krakow, and so we met them at a hostel they were staying in, and when we asked Damir what he remembered from the journey, he said, "Bombs, bombs, bombs."

(forlorn music) We see lots of mostly women and children without men with them because, right now, Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are barred from leaving the country.

And so, we see single mothers who are alone and talk about their husbands who have stayed behind either to fight or volunteer or for a variety of reasons.

Everyone, it seems, has left someone and a piece of their heart back in Ukraine.

As far as the men that I've talked to who are returning to Ukraine to volunteer and fight, yes, they love Ukraine, and many of the men who are returning to fight are Ukrainians, and so they feel a soul-tie to their country.

I met a man from Turkmenistan, a former Soviet country, and I've talked to him and other folks I've talked to who are not Ukrainian, but are from other places in Europe, truly feel that their countries will be next, that Putin will not just stop at the end of Ukraine, and that what his crusade is about and what he is fighting for transcends the border of Ukraine and that they're really fighting for democracy in the region as a whole.

(bright violin music) This is a scene from a train traveling from Lviv, Ukraine to Krakow in Poland.

It was just filled to the brim, people shoving to get on these trains.

As you can see, there is a woman playing the violin, serenading her fellow passengers who stood there for 19 hours.

(bright violin music) This kind of reporting is more exhausting than I think I anticipated.

There's just a lot of dimensions to the trauma that folks are going through.

It's an interesting balance for me to be in those places and find ways to approach people compassionately.

How can I convey what's happening here in a way that has more staying power and that presents the nuance and complexity of it rather than just the flash that sometimes can come when people rush into a conflict or a war zone like this?

(crowd chanting) It's just important.

I think it's important for people in Wisconsin and people just in general to read about what's going on in the world, and one small kind-of nice thing, I think about what's going on is just that people know a lot more about Ukraine and just the wonderful people and culture that they are more than ever before.

(forlorn piano music) - You can follow Katelyn's reporting in the "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" as well as on Twitter at @katelynferral.

Several months ago, Afghan refugees fled their country after the Taliban seized the capital of Kabul.

Maryam Durani was one of those refugees evacuated to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

She has since moved to Milwaukee.

March is Women's History Month, and Maryam Durani is someone you should know in part because of her role in women's rights in Afghanistan and what she's doing now here in Milwaukee.

"10thirtysix" producer Mariano Avila brings us the story.

- [Mariano] Milwaukee's now home to nearly 400 refugees from Afghanistan, resettled by the State Department with help from nonprofits like Hanan Refugee Relief Center.

- These families are actually coming off the bases in a really big amount.

We've helped close to 250 people so far from Afghanistan, and they came pretty quickly, so it's not the normal refugee process.

- [Mariano] Many of the refugees are U.S. allies and high-profile individuals like Maryam Durani whose work has been honored around the world.

- I'm focused for the girls and women because the women stay in Afghanistan and womens that come from other country, they are refugee, they are needed more help in the community because the Taliban start or born for this city, and the mind of people about the women is not good.

They all have a bad idea for about the women.

- Like what?

- They are thinking women more time need to stay in the home.

Don't need you go outside the home or find the work or other things.

- [Mariano] Durani was one of "Time" magazine's 100 most influential people and received the Courageous Women Award from the U.S. State Department for pioneering work centering women.

- I have a big organization.

This organization have like five or six part.

The one part is the organization is radio station.

This radio station name is "Women."

In my language, in Pashto language, is merman, and this radio station more focused about the women rights and advocacy for women and give new mind and new idea about the women in the society.

- [Mariano] "Merman" was the first and only women-owned, women-centered radio station in Afghanistan, but in a society where women seldom leave their home, she started the only gym for women and sports and academic competitions for women and girls.

- After 15 years, more men is coming and say to me, "I want my daughter same like you."

I thinking me like role model this time in my city.

- [Mariano] But not everyone embraced Durani's work, and she survived two attempts on her life.

- I have sometimes threat to me and my family, and I lost my best friend, not just one, more my best friend killed in the city, my city.

They are women or men, but every time I'm just thinking about it's no important you go and continue your way because I just, I want my country have a peace for new generation.

- [Mariano] Now, Maryam is helping at Hanan here in Milwaukee.

- She's actually been helping us with translation, and she's been meeting families, and she's been seeing- She wants to work with her people.

This is amazing to see, someone here that just came here and what she went through and really wanting to really help, and it's just amazing.

I'm really honored to have met her.

- [Mariano] What do you want folks to know in Milwaukee about our Afghan neighbors coming in?

- They're just ordinary people.

They're people that wanna live in freedom, that wanna send their kids to school and want to work.

They're just ordinary people.

(gentle music) - We wanna follow up now on the teacher shortage across the country.

Last month, we brought you the story of Julie Rhine Holderbaum, a high school English teacher in Ohio, whose blog went viral.

It revolved around 113 questions that teachers deal with on a daily basis.

She admitted to editing the blog in half, so imagine that number doubled!

The questions range from teaching methods to dealing with students and distractions like cell phones to societal pressures, all factors involved in the current crisis facing the teaching profession.

We wanted to hear from teachers, any grade level, public, private, parochial about what their days are like and what solutions they have to improve learning in the classroom for both the teachers and the students.

Here are a few of your comments.

This is from a third grade teacher in Kenosha.

"Teachers are getting pressure from all angles.

"We must perform and are constantly asked "to shift our methods, what we are teaching, and how.

"We are dealing with the emotional things "our students go through every night "and that they carry into the classroom.

"We are dealing with a high variety of extreme behaviors "without any parent support, "and we just have to deal with it."

A ninth grade teacher in Grand Rapids, Michigan writes, "I am held responsible for my students' success "even if they don't attend my class, "don't pay attention, come unprepared, "are watching videos on their phone during class, "if they stay up all night and then sleep in class."

"Many of my students come to class "less than 60% of the time."

Teachers have also voiced ideas to ease some of the stress.

The same Grand Rapids teacher says, "Smaller class sizes, more support staff, "especially mental health professionals "trained to work in schools, "better ideas for teaching in the age of cell phones.

"Parents have yelled at me for confiscating student phones, "so I stopped.

"Parents should make sure their children "are getting enough sleep at night.

"Most of my high school students "get less than five hours of sleep, "and we are not assigning homework, "so schoolwork is not keeping them up late."

We want to continue to hear from teachers, so if you're a teacher out there, please go to milwaukeepbs.org/teachersincrisis and leave us your story.

We will use these comments as part of an upcoming special on May 5th at 7:00 pm, "Speaking of... Teachers in Crisis."

There are some important lessons taking place on the hardwood court in a Milwaukee neighborhood, and those Layups and Literacy lessons have stayed with the players long after they leave the program, crediting a local doctor who drew up the playbook.

"10thirtysix" producer Scottie Lee Myers takes us to the Silver Spring Neighborhood Center.

(inspiring music) - [Nicholas] Basketball is more than a game because it teaches you discipline.

It teaches you how to be consistent.

It teaches you to show up even when you don't want to.

- [Donovan] I think it was more than a game for us because we kind of built a family, a familyhood, a brotherhood.

- [Derwin] It gave me an outlet.

I feel like it kept me outta trouble.

- [Scottie] When Derwin Quin heard that we were interviewing former players of the Northcott Hoyas basketball team, he wasn't gonna be left out of the lineup and miss an opportunity to talk about Dr. Charles Waisbren, the physician and coach teaching those life lessons.

- I flew all the way up here from Brandon, Mississippi solely for this interview.

I booked me a ticket, I came today, and I leave tomorrow morning.

This is the only reason I'm here.

This program means a lot to me.

I miss it.

Talk to my kids about it all the time.

(laughs) - Whoa!

- Bro, he said he in Brandon, Mississippi.

- [Scottie] For all three of these players, basketball was more than a game because Waisbren was more than a coach.

- He was always in our corner, and like we respected him as, again, like as a father figure, and so sometimes, it took a lot for him to kinda tame us and keep us under control.

Bunch of key from the inner city, and we was reckless at times.

- Stern for sure, but I think he just requires a lot from his players because he gives a lot to his players, and to whom much is given, much is tested and requested back.

- It just felt like a family, felt like vacation every weekend.

It didn't feel like we were just going for basketball.

Felt like we were just going for fun.

- [Scottie] Waisbren coached his young players to a state championship in 2003, but that's not what he's most proud of.

- Yeah.

- Thanks, guys.

- Sure, coach.

- Thank you.

- [Nicholas] You know you're our favorite.

- [Derwin] I don't get to tell you too often.

This is our guy right here.

- It brought tears to my eyes, what wonderful young men they are.

We had a very, very tight 12 years together.

We did love them, and to have someone in their corner, I think, is really very important.

If you talk to people who've made it out of horrible surroundings, they all talk about how someone in their life believed in them.

- [Scottie] It all started in 1997 with a book.

- All right, here we go.

(whistle tweets) Let's go!

The most influential book for me really was "Hoop Dreams," and it's really started a lot of what I'm doing now because I thought I was so germane to what I see out in society.

If you look at city of Milwaukee kids, everyone's aspiration is to go to the NBA, and the truth is no one's going to the NBA.

I like to tell 'em that "Hoop Dreams" is great, but you need to learn how to read and write and go to school and have a plan B 'cause "Hoop Dreams" is likely a dream.

I want a three-man weave.

I want nice three even lines.

I've been doing this for 24 years, and my model sort of is I like to start it when the kids are, are nine or 10 years old 'cause I feel they're...

I have more ability to influence their life course.

So I'd like to develop a program of fourth or fifth graders and really stay with them until high school.

- [Scottie] Waisbren originally launched the program out of the Northcott Neighborhood House and only recently migrated to the Silver Spring Neighborhood Center as the Layups and Literacy program, putting a stronger emphasis on an educational component.

The center's executive director says it's been a welcome addition to the Westlawn community.

- I think the thing that separated his program is that he came in, number one, he came in knowing basketball.

He knew the game, and he knew what it meant to community and to be competitive.

He knew it on all levels, but he came in with a goal of driving academics, which sometimes doesn't always follow the court, right?

- Okay, we're on chapter four, Straighten Up Patty.

Go ahead, Michael.

- She said this time all the time drove me crazy.

- With Silver Spring All-Stars, I have a formal literacy program an hour before practice, so I think it's very important for them to experience books, and it's a lot more than just teaching literacy though because there's a lot of stuff going on in the classroom, and we talk about anger management, we talk about risk-versus-benefit choices, we talk about conflict resolution.

- We'll see if he got something to say to me, go sit.

- [Scottie] Kendall Morris enjoys reading as much as he likes hitting step-back threes.

(basketballs thudding) - We read a new book almost every month, I will say.

We like to get through our books fast.

He'll ask us questions from the last time he read the book, and we'll be talking about like how do you feel about what he did or something like that.

- [Scottie] Gerald Robinson enjoys reading as much as he likes a tough drive to the bucket.

(basketballs thudding) (sneakers squeaking) (boy shouting) - I read fairy tales, action books.

I read a lot of books.

- [Scottie] What books are you reading like downstairs right now with the team reading?

- "Patina."

It's about a track team.

There's four books of the track people.

There's Patina, Lou, Sunny, and Ghost.

We already read "Ghost," and that book was just amazing.

- [Scottie] Do you think your reading's gotten better from coming here?

- Mm hmm, a lot.

I'm now just learning that I can read at higher levels.

I didn't know that before until I came here.

- It's just a wonderful thing to be able to continue parenting when your grown kids are outta the nest.

- [Scottie] It was Waisbren's son, Sam, who played on the Northcott team for seven years who revitalized the Layups and Literacy program, a legacy that will live on for a long time.

(forlorn piano music) - Well, obviously, Sam was the light of my life.

He loved being part of the program, and he was just a absolute delight and very funny.

Continuing to do the program reminds me of my son Sam as well.

- Sam is our brother.

- Yeah, man.

- Sam is our coach's son, but he's known with us as a brother.

- Yeah, he shared his dad with us.

He was so humble.

(forlorn piano music) - He died in a horrible elevator accident in New York City, and it was an outpouring of grief, and we started a GoFundMe page to really help fund this program, which has helped.

I've always paid for everything myself, but having the extra funds, I'm able to hire Milwaukee public school teachers to help me with the literacy program.

The teachers were uncomfortable coming in during COVID.

I've sort of self-taught myself how to teach literacy from the teachers.

I think of myself as an essential worker, not only as an internist where I continue to work during COVID, but I think I'm an essential worker as far as these children.

- Hey Dwayne!

- Let's go, Taizere!

Good pass.

- Dr. Waisbren has always been an essential worker even before the pandemic as he helped shape his young players to the men they are today.

For Quin, who now owns his own painting business, that meant bringing in the right mentors.

- One of my favorite parts of this program is he introduced us to three black men who looked like us who were successful, and I'd like to thank him for that, for bringing them in here and letting us see kind of a glimpse of what we could have if we work for it.

- The assistant coaches I had at Northcott were pharmaceutical reps, and it was interesting.

So the kids, when they talked about what they wanted do when they wanted to grow up, they either wanted to be a doctor or pharmaceutical rep.

So, I think the adult mentoring does help.

They didn't say, "Well, I wanna be an NBA player."

They wanted to be a doctor or pharmaceutical rep. - [Scottie] For Robinson who's now a teacher at Riverside University High School, it meant pushing him to go to college.

- I remember one conversation I had with Coach Waisbren, and I was just appalled the fact that he went to college for 12 years because, at the time, I was like school is not it for me.

And so he looked back and he said, "You know, Donovan, the average professional career "is over at about 32, 33," and he said, "Mine is just beginning, "and I can do that up until I'm retired."

I don't think I would've ever went to college or even thought about college if it wasn't for that conversation that I had with the coach.

- [Scottie] And for Craft, who earned an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University and now works with youth at Obama High School, it was about being exposed to everything life has to offer.

- I always say if you have someone trapped inside of a room with no windows, the imagination is usually pretty small, but then you put some windows on that room.

Then you are able to see a little bit more, but when you are able to get out that room, then you're able to see a lot more, and that's what Coach did for us.

- [Scottie] As his current players stand by to hear the alumni talk about everything they've gained from the game, Waisbren hopes they're listening closely and will follow in their footsteps.

- I'd like to duplicate the Northcott experience.

I'd like them to stay in the program and for me to have them in fourth grade and fifth grade and sixth grade and seventh grade and eighth grade, ninth grade, 10th grade.

I'd like them to have learned skills to allow them to graduate high school and learn skills to go on to college.

Come on, Ishy!

Finish it, go hard!

I use basketball as the carrot.

I know basketball is a huge draw, particularly in the City of Milwaukee.

A lot of it is about developing relationships, them developing a relationship with me and me developing a relationship with them.

Good finish, EJ!

Go hard though, go hard!

(coach shouting) (gentle music) - That'll do it for this edition of "10thirtysix."

Remember, check us out anytime at Facebook and at milwaukeepbs.org.

We leave you tonight with a look from above the Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee reminding us to continue holding the people of Ukraine in our thoughts.

See you next time.

(uplifting music)