This nationally recognized Detroit educator never stops fighting for his students
Since he was 10 years old, Michael Craig has loved tennis. The Allen Park native first embraced playing the sport alongside his younger brother James on Detroit courts at Palmer Park, under the tutelage of his grandfather Ted Dragonajtys.
And like a tennis player who must decide to either rush the net or remain on the baseline at a crucial moment of a match, Craig had an important decision to make 12 years ago when he was offered an opportunity to lead a new horticulture program at the Charles R. Drew Transition Center, a "pre-vocational center" within the Detroit Public Schools Community District that addresses the needs of special education young adult learners from ages 18 to 26.
Accepting the offer made by Drew's Principal Robert Avedisian to literally plant seeds at the former Drew Middle School on Detroit's west side, 9600 Wyoming Ave., meant that Craig would be a primary driver of an effort that was originally intended to combat early-onset diabetes and child obesity through growing healthy food.
For Craig, who had previously taught algebra to students with special needs at Detroit's Pershing High School, the job offer came at a time when he was frantically distributing his resume because he was one of more than 5,400 Detroit Federation of Teachers members who received a layoff notice in April 2011. Given Craig's circumstances, a chance to not only secure employment but also work a job tied to the outdoors and healthy living was simply an offer he could not refuse. However, to ensure that he would actually be able to do a job he had no real familiarity with — outside of observing his father's backyard tomato and zucchini garden as a kid — Craig needed to come in with a simple, functional approach.
"I read the instructions on the back of seed packets, and Google was my friend whenever I had questions," the now 58-year-old Craig recalled last Saturday as he described the crash course in gardening he put himself through around the start of the 2011-12 school year. In his upbeat tone, Craig also painted a picture of scouring "Craig's List," and sometimes even alleys, for free items that could somehow contribute to the unique learning space he was creating, which includes a converted gymnasium with rows of hydroponic growing tables; and hoop houses, where an observant eye can spot all of the natural wonders taking place, including the growing of peppers directly inside bags of Miracle-Gro garden soil.
From humble beginnings on the corner of West Chicago and Wyoming, Craig, who bolstered his knowledge on the job by completing a 15-week master gardener course offered at a Michigan State University extension, has grown the Drew Horticulture Program to such a lofty level that even gardening experts from around the country are taking notice. Craig received the 2023 Great American Gardeners' Jane L. Taylor Award from the American Horticultural Society in March. The award is given to an individual, organization or program that has inspired and nurtured future horticulturists through efforts in children's and youth gardening.
"It was a top-of-the-mountain feeling because it's the highest honor I can get in horticulture — kind of like the Holy Grail," Craig said when asked to describe his initial reaction to learning that he won the award. "It validates what we have been doing the past 12 years. It's really about the program. We've been doing everything the right way and things have fallen into place."
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A commitment to "doing everything the right way" means that Craig has had to be open to changing the way he does things. This includes adjusting the direction of the program if he discovers more effective means to help his students become "functionally independent" and employed on a full- or part-time basis. For example, Craig's program is now "laser-focused" on growing five types of lettuce: red butterhead, green butterhead, mizuna, arugula and bok choy for Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails and Freya restaurants in Detroit. And the taste buds of Detroit Salsa Company customers also have been touched by Craig's students, as they grow Roma tomatoes, serrano peppers and cilantro for the fourth-generation, family-run business. Any food grown by Craig's students that is left over after deliveries are made to clients is donated to community food pantries.
"We're trying to help special needs adults become active members of their society, and as long as I'm here, we're not going away and we're trying to do some good," said Craig, who routinely teaches and works with 50-60 students in a day and approximately 70 different students over the course of a year, including summer. "We enjoy being a part of the restaurant collaboration and we enjoy being a part of the urban farming community. That vibe is really cool because all of the growers know each other. We all tie in together in some way, shape or form to kind of make the community work."
In addition to explaining his program's collaborations with local restaurants between morning classes on Tuesday, Craig, during a walk around the Drew grounds — indoor and outdoor — revealed that his ongoing quest to connect his students with additional resources and opportunities has driven him to further expand his skill set since coming to the school. From listening to Craig, it was clear that along with being a gardener, farmer, electrician and plumber at school, that he also must specialize in grant writing, marketing and community relations during much of his time away from school to continue to advance the Drew Horticulture Program.
And to execute all of his extra responsibilities, Craig goes back to his tennis training.
"If you're any kind of a serious athlete at a certain level, you pretty much have to dial in everything about you to get ready for a performance — what you eat, how you work out, how you wake up, how you conduct yourself in public — it all comes into play," said Craig, who was a scholarship tennis player at the University of Detroit during the 1980s. "And I think you can translate that to what I'm doing here because I have to deal with people in the community; people in the Mayor's Office and at the school district level; and students. So, it's a lot about how you carry yourself and how you project yourself."
While Craig is able to compare what he is doing now to his tennis days in terms of the needed preparation and consistency, on Wednesday, he also noted one major difference: In referring to the University of Detroit tennis team he played for, Craig said all of the scholarship players were equal. But for the students he teaches and works with at Drew, Craig says "equal" treatment from society is elusive. At one point during the tour he provided of the school grounds, the normally affable Craig, who also is a proud husband and father to Susan and Andrew, turned somber for a spell and described special needs adults as being "tossed away by society."
But moments later, Craig explained how he uses that sentiment as motivation.
"I have a pretty good group of (students) now, and I think more than anything they understand that I'm trying to fight for their future," Craig said. "I'm always telling them that once I teach you this, here's your next step; and when you leave Drew, here's what I want for you. But you have to do your part.
"Outside of parents, who else is going to fight for them if it doesn't come from our teachers here at Drew, who have a vested interest in helping these students. As long as they are willing to work hard, I'm willing to work hard in order to give them some kind of future. Otherwise, they may end up spending 30 years in front of a television when they age out of our program at 26, and who wants that?"
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and lifelong lover of Detroit culture in all of its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at: stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit teacher fights for students' futures at Drew Transition Center
