Darryl Crompton '74 Profiled in Series of Articles
Darryl Crompton '74 was profiled in a series of articles about his educational journey in the Baltimore Times.
Darryl Crompton, JD, MPH: Education Opens Doors to the World
by Jayne Matthews
Baltimore Times
posted 9/15/2006
In the two years that I have been writing "Education Matters", I've had the good fortune to interview some of our community's most influential educators: dedicated men and women whose daily lives and work speaks to their sincere commitment to improve educational opportunities for underserved and minority students. Many of the people I have spoken with have shared with me remarkable insights that chronicle their own academic challenges and achievements.
However, this week "Education Matters" presents perhaps its most intriguing account of an educational expedition meticulously planned to prepare a student for a lifelong commitment to educational excellence for the greater good. I am pleased to introduce Darryl Crompton, who is a graduate of Yale University and UCLA, an attorney specializing in healthcare and health disparities and a former faculty person teaching healthcare law and ethics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Darryl's unique academic journey begins at a Catholic school in Los Angeles, moves around the globe to a parched desert classroom in Northern Africa, and then shifts to instruction at a cloistered academy in Denmarkall before the age of 13. His story goes back two generations. It is filled with examples of Education Matters' mission and offers a vivid illustration of the important role parents play in shaping their children's academic future.
His awareness that a good education opens doors to the world can be traced directly to the lessons his parents were taught by their parents. Three of Crompton's four grandparents were Jamaicans who came to the United States in the 1920s. His family's quest for education as a way to a better life mirrors the aspirations of many native born blacks who migrated to northern cities from the south during the 1930s and 40s.
Darryl's mother, who grew up in an immigrant household during the depression was taught to place a high value on education. His father proposed to her at the age of 17, but she told her future husband in no uncertain terms that she would not marry him until after she finished her schooling. A graduate of New York's Music and Arts High School (the school featured in the movie Fame), she chose higher education over marriage at a time when few women, white or black attended college.
After earning her degree in music from Manhattan's Hunter College, she married Darryl's father and moved to California. His dad worked for the Post Office during the day and went to school at night to become an architect.
Upon completing his education, Darryl's father secured a job as a designer and began his mother teaching music in Los Angeles public schools. Settled into their careers, they started a family. Once Darryl and his younger sister entered elementary school in South Central Los Angeles, his parents began making very innovative educational plans for their children.
These plans included offering Darryl and his sister the opportunity to experience multi-cultural learning. When he was in the 6th grade at the age of eleven, Darryl attended a Moroccan school in Northern Africa. This is where he first saw dramatic health disparities compared to his experiences in Los Angeles.
His new experiences included living in a population with all people of color, many of them living in squalid conditions-mud huts and homes made out of sticks-women squatting over outdoor charcoal pits preparing food for their families, Arabic language, French, and people riding around on camels in the heat of the desert.
The next year his parents decided their children should have a totally different learning experience; they chose a school in an austere Scandinavian country. Darryl's father got a job working for a Danish architectural firm, bought a Volkswagen in Germany and drove his family 3,000 miles from Morocco to Denmark.
For the 7th grade he was enrolled in a parochial school where he was expected to master advance courses in biology, chemistry and physics. The first semester Darryl failed most of his classes because he could neither speak nor write Danish, which is a very difficult, Germanic language. His grades improved after his mother arranged for tutoring in language and math.
As the school's only foreign boy of color, he had to make significant social adjustments as well as meet stringent academic standards. Darryl recalls the fear he felt going to school each day not knowing the language. He describes this as a very scary experience. However, today he says that the fear made him much more sensitive to the language issues and barriers faced by immigrant children coming to the United States and trying to do well in American classrooms.
In Denmark, children go to school six days a weekanother unique experience for Darryl. In Los Angeles, he had always been driven to school by his mother, father, or grandparents, but there in Copenhagen, he rode a bicycle to school along with other Danish children through the snow and the very cold winter that lasted from September to April.
That year also included joining the Danish sea scouts where he, along with five other Danish twelve-year-olds sailed alone 75 miles to Sweden and back. Sailing and nautical terms are a challenge to master in English. Not surprisingly, they were very difficult to understand in Danish, especially for a kid from South Central Los Angeles who had never sailed before.
The series continues:
Darryl Cromptons Academic Journey Continues: The 1960s, 70s, Jayne Mathews, Baltimore Times, 9/22/2006
Darryl Crompton: Teaching Others to Live an Extraordinary Life, Jayne Mathews, Baltimore Times, 9/29/2006
Darryl Crompton, JD, MPH: Education Opens Doors to the World
by Jayne Matthews
Baltimore Times
posted 9/15/2006
In the two years that I have been writing "Education Matters", I've had the good fortune to interview some of our community's most influential educators: dedicated men and women whose daily lives and work speaks to their sincere commitment to improve educational opportunities for underserved and minority students. Many of the people I have spoken with have shared with me remarkable insights that chronicle their own academic challenges and achievements.
However, this week "Education Matters" presents perhaps its most intriguing account of an educational expedition meticulously planned to prepare a student for a lifelong commitment to educational excellence for the greater good. I am pleased to introduce Darryl Crompton, who is a graduate of Yale University and UCLA, an attorney specializing in healthcare and health disparities and a former faculty person teaching healthcare law and ethics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Darryl's unique academic journey begins at a Catholic school in Los Angeles, moves around the globe to a parched desert classroom in Northern Africa, and then shifts to instruction at a cloistered academy in Denmarkall before the age of 13. His story goes back two generations. It is filled with examples of Education Matters' mission and offers a vivid illustration of the important role parents play in shaping their children's academic future.
His awareness that a good education opens doors to the world can be traced directly to the lessons his parents were taught by their parents. Three of Crompton's four grandparents were Jamaicans who came to the United States in the 1920s. His family's quest for education as a way to a better life mirrors the aspirations of many native born blacks who migrated to northern cities from the south during the 1930s and 40s.
Darryl's mother, who grew up in an immigrant household during the depression was taught to place a high value on education. His father proposed to her at the age of 17, but she told her future husband in no uncertain terms that she would not marry him until after she finished her schooling. A graduate of New York's Music and Arts High School (the school featured in the movie Fame), she chose higher education over marriage at a time when few women, white or black attended college.
After earning her degree in music from Manhattan's Hunter College, she married Darryl's father and moved to California. His dad worked for the Post Office during the day and went to school at night to become an architect.
Upon completing his education, Darryl's father secured a job as a designer and began his mother teaching music in Los Angeles public schools. Settled into their careers, they started a family. Once Darryl and his younger sister entered elementary school in South Central Los Angeles, his parents began making very innovative educational plans for their children.
These plans included offering Darryl and his sister the opportunity to experience multi-cultural learning. When he was in the 6th grade at the age of eleven, Darryl attended a Moroccan school in Northern Africa. This is where he first saw dramatic health disparities compared to his experiences in Los Angeles.
His new experiences included living in a population with all people of color, many of them living in squalid conditions-mud huts and homes made out of sticks-women squatting over outdoor charcoal pits preparing food for their families, Arabic language, French, and people riding around on camels in the heat of the desert.
The next year his parents decided their children should have a totally different learning experience; they chose a school in an austere Scandinavian country. Darryl's father got a job working for a Danish architectural firm, bought a Volkswagen in Germany and drove his family 3,000 miles from Morocco to Denmark.
For the 7th grade he was enrolled in a parochial school where he was expected to master advance courses in biology, chemistry and physics. The first semester Darryl failed most of his classes because he could neither speak nor write Danish, which is a very difficult, Germanic language. His grades improved after his mother arranged for tutoring in language and math.
As the school's only foreign boy of color, he had to make significant social adjustments as well as meet stringent academic standards. Darryl recalls the fear he felt going to school each day not knowing the language. He describes this as a very scary experience. However, today he says that the fear made him much more sensitive to the language issues and barriers faced by immigrant children coming to the United States and trying to do well in American classrooms.
In Denmark, children go to school six days a weekanother unique experience for Darryl. In Los Angeles, he had always been driven to school by his mother, father, or grandparents, but there in Copenhagen, he rode a bicycle to school along with other Danish children through the snow and the very cold winter that lasted from September to April.
That year also included joining the Danish sea scouts where he, along with five other Danish twelve-year-olds sailed alone 75 miles to Sweden and back. Sailing and nautical terms are a challenge to master in English. Not surprisingly, they were very difficult to understand in Danish, especially for a kid from South Central Los Angeles who had never sailed before.
The series continues:
Darryl Cromptons Academic Journey Continues: The 1960s, 70s, Jayne Mathews, Baltimore Times, 9/22/2006
Darryl Crompton: Teaching Others to Live an Extraordinary Life, Jayne Mathews, Baltimore Times, 9/29/2006