Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Reinventing the Future for American Children and Their Families

This evening, I read (and watched the video for) “The Power of Partnerships” (http://www.edutopia.org/php/article.php?id=Art_1005&key=189# ) on the Edutopia site, and it blew me away. The article tells of one of the ten schools in New York City that are taking steps to reinvent what it means to go school-- allowing kids who could easily fall through the cracks of our public school systems to have a chance to thrive.

The partnership that drives the program is between the New York City Board of Education and the Children’s Aid Society. Together, they've implemented an in-school health program that provides dental, general, and mental health care for the students at the school. After school programs allow students to participate in everything from programs that help them achieve better in reading and math to programs that allow them to build their own bicycles, or learn to play a stringed instrument. The program is available to children, and to their parents (who can even attend evening classes themselves) six days a week, from seven in the morning to nine at night, all year round.

This article is inspiring to me. Having grown up in an urban area, I saw too many of my childhood friends (some of whom were exceedingly more intelligent than myself) fail to graduate high school, because they didn't have a healthy learning, home, or after school environment. We’re all asking the question, how do we reach these communities, and stop the cycle that is costing our medical schools and teacher’s colleges some of the brightest minds in our nation? How do we address the health problems that many of these children face? How do we expose the brilliance that we know many of these at risk children have in them? Of any of the programs I've seen that have been created to address these issues, the program at IS 218 is by far the most innovative, thoughtful, and inspiring. I would love to have the opportunity to work in this kind of atmosphere—one where teachers are actually given the resources they need to help their children succeed. Anyone interested in teaching in urban schools should take a look at this video.