Reading is Fundamental

Another great program is in dire financial jeopardy due to federal budget cuts. Everyone needs to read today’s article in the Clarion Ledger about Reading is Fundamental, a federal program that is doing wonderful work in the state of Mississippi by putting books in the hands of under-privileged children. School and public libraries are good and all, but there is nothing that can compare to owning your own books. The Reading is Fundamental actually gives books to children and attempts to initiate an atmosphere of scholarship and curiosity within the child's home. When I was a child, I took it for granted that I lived in a home that made reading a priority. I was even a bit loathsome at Christmas when I would get books. But I eventually got to the point where that is what I would ASK for them.

I am continually amazed by the technological prowess of today’s five to ten year olds when it comes to playing a video game, surfing the internet, or sending a text message. However, when you ask them what they like to read, they draw a blank.

I urge you to visit RIF’s website. Be inspired. Donate a couple of dollars. Or at the very least consider giving a couple of books as Christmas presents----your nieces/nephews/grandchildren will thank you eventually; if not now, when they graduate from college.

Mentoring in Local Schools

I got that warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart when I read this article recently about Senator Tom Harkin (who happens to be the chair of the Senate HELP committee) and Jevon Carter, a 10-yr-old student that Sen. Harkin mentors at a local elementary school. I applaud Sen. Harkin for his dedication to education and his willingness to lead by example when it comes to education reform. I have a special place in my heart for mentors, right next to the teachers, because I know how difficult, yet rewarding, that it can be.

Mentoring is something I kind of fell into. I got involved with Project AIM (achievement involving mentoring) and the Starkville School District as part of a community service requirement for a leadership class I was taking in the spring of 2009. But I fell in love with the program and sort of stuck around. Project AIM’s director Cathy Curtis explains the program by saying,

“The crux of what we do is one-on-one mentoring that complements the student’s participation.” … “The mentors usually spend the first 30 to 40 minutes helping the student with homework, then they spend the rest of their time playing games, talking and just getting to know each other.”

Basically, Project Aim is an hour of your time each week that could make all the difference in the life of a struggling or under-appreciated local student. During my time with Project AIM, I’ve worked with two different girls at Armstrong Middle School. Every student in the program is unique and therefore has unique needs. My first student was loud, needed help with history and science, liked to play Connect 4, and loved to go bowling or to the movies. My second student was much more quiet, had trouble with grades but was determined to do better, liked to play history trivia games, and desperately needed someone to listen to her.

Mrs. Curtis can attest that many students in the program improve their grades or their disciplinary referral record after being involved in the mentoring program. Instead of focusing solely on academic achievement, or behavioral reform--- mentors have a unique ability to approach the student not as an authority figure but as a friend.

On a slightly related note, The Stennis Institute hosted a Bridges Out of Poverty seminar recently, and the keynote speaker addressed the importance of coupling relationships with personal achievement. You can’t just establish programs and tell people what to do if you want to help them get out of their depressed situation. You have to establish relationships with them to help them grow a positive network of individuals who can and want to help them. Although our keynote speaker was talking about poverty, I think this philosophy is directly applicable to struggling students, and I think this is why programs like Project AIM work. Senator Harkin doesn’t just tell Jevon that he has to get better grades in reading if he wants to go to college and make more money; Senator Harkin gives up a lunch date with a lobbyist to go to Jevon’s school to read with him.

After two years and two students with the Project AIM, I will admit that not every day was easy, but I was always left with the feeling that I had drawn more from the experience than they had. So this is my heartfelt plea to all of you who think your life is hard, to all of you who think you have no time, to all of you who complain about chemistry homework that keeps you awake at night---there is some student in this community who can show you how to be a better and more thankful version of yourself.

To those of you Starkville-ians that read the paper more religiously than I do, you know that Project AIM has been running a recent plug in the SDN. If you overlooked or dismissed it, I ask you to reconsider. Mrs. Curtis is in the process of recruiting mentors for the fall semester, and would love to talk to you about a commitment. Her number is 418-4021. Mentor training will begin the first week of August.

Gratitude to Old Teachers

When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake,
We place our feet where they have never been.
We walk upon the unwalked. But we are uneasy.
Who is down there but our old teachers?

Water that once could take no human weight-
We were students then-holds up our feet,
And goes on ahead of us for a mile.
Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness.

-Robert Bly

The Need for Unity in Education Policy

I’m not sure if anyone else does this, but when I watch the State of The Union address, I tend to stand up and clap when I hear something I like, even though I’m sitting alone in my apartment wearing my favorite pair of pajamas and drinking a glass of chocolate milk.

We saw something happen on the floor of the House two nights ago that we’ve never seen before: Republicans and Democrats sitting together, all wearing ribbons honoring Gabrielle Giffords and the victims of the Tuscon massacre. For me, this was a poignant and meaningful moment. President Obama said, “What comes of this moment will be determined not by whether we can sit together tonight, but whether we can work together tomorrow.” The full text of the SOTU can be found here.

As warm and fuzzy inside as this whole ploy was intended to make us feel, The bipartisan SOTU has garnered many critics. The Huffington Post reports that only 19% of Americans thought that the seating arrangement was a good idea.

I for one find it quite surprising that we would be so opposed to the idea of bipartisanship that it's very appearance disgusts us. Yes, it is all one great big facade, but why does this infuriate us so? My theory is that we don’t want to work together. We like partisan politics because it gives us a divisive discourse in which we can take part and at the same time supplies us with a “default” response determined by the national party. We don’t really have to think about it, we just have to disagree with the other guy wearing the other color tie. Incidentally, if I were to wear a tie, it would probably have purple sea-turtles on it, but that is beside the point.

In terms of partisan debate and battle lines, the issue of education has always been problematic, at least from my perspective. You can’t just say, Democrats believe in education and Republicans don’t or vice-versa, although both parties try to make that case when election year rolls around. Since we all believe in education (right?), the trick is figuring out how to provide it. Should we invest in charter schools? How should we pay teachers? Do competitive grants initiate positive reform? Are standardized tests the best gauge of student achievement? Should we support vouchers? Are school boards really the best way to govern? Here's my personal favorite---should we do away with the federal Department of Education entirely? (I don't think so Rand Paul......) Obviously, education policy is a divisive arena, but we all want the same end, it’s just the means which causes the dissension.

A large portion of the President’s speech focused on education, (Education Week has a good article here). Much like the tone of his entire speech, the President's remarks on the subject were largely innocuous. I don’t mean this in a negative way to suggest that his speech was flat or without purpose or passion. I mean that it was exactly what we needed to hear- the President trying to speak to everyone and not just one side of the chamber. When it comes to education, I don’t think we need to be partisans. We have to be able to say that enough is enough, and that all of our bickering isn’t going to change the fact that our children are lagging behind the international community, not to mention that here in Mississippi we would be happy to graduate some seniors that can read. I want to live in a country controlled not by national partisan politics but by conscience.

I have to admit, that one of the times when I stood up to applaud despite the privacy of my own home was when the President said during the SOTU that “Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair.” Now, I don’t always agree with the President, but I can recognize when he is absolutely, 110% correct.

This upcoming year is going to be an interesting one for those of us who are captivated by the ins and outs of education policy. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) which is currently referred to as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is up for re-authorization. Many people don’t realize the distinction between the two bills, or even Race to the Top for that matter. All people want to focus on is how NCLB was a Bush-era fiasco and that RTTT is going to come in and correct everything. This is simply not true. Race to the Top is completely separate from and independent of the ESEA (currently called NCLB) because RTTT is a competitive grant program and the ESEA is a comprehensive funding bill for all states which has been in place since 1965. If we are going to finally get this education thing right, it needs to be in 2011, and it needs to be a concerted effort between American congressmen and women, not a brawl between Democrats and Republicans.

The following cartoon is purely for your amusement.