Extra! Extra! Nickelbee does something great!!

I'd like to begin this second installment about N.C.L.B (apparently called "Nickelbee" by insiders) with some corrections. This act was indeed submitted by G.W. Bush, but it was authored and supported by a bipartisan group including George Miller and Ted Kennedy. It follows in a long line of standards-based education reform bills, but there are some nuances to this one. Schools that receive "Title 1" funding, meaning they get extra money from the Fed because half the kids come from "low income" families, have to improve their test scores each year in order to receive that extra cash. If they don't improve each year compared to the last, they are labeled "failing" and three things happen:
1) The Title 1 funding is cut
2) Parents have the option of moving their kids to a different school
3) The school must offer special tutoring for the students

This seems like an awful situation. The school's funding is cut, it must allocate its dwindling funds to additional programing, and students with more resources or more active parents will flee the school, leaving a more apathetic student body and a general feeling of failure.

HOWEVER, specifically because of this whole rigmarole, I have the awesome opportunity to go to East New York five days a week and hang out with kids. In a 1-on-1 context, I work with five kids on their homework, or work through math or English worksheets that I bring, or we Google things and look at maps. Earlier in the fall, we did some nature activities outside, and of course I often end up talking about ecology or earth systems.

Miguel told his mom that "le encanta el tutor." (that means me!)

Antonio cried the first day of class, but now he gives me sweet high-fives.

Liz is a brilliant kindergartner, and when I leave on Tuesday she waves saying, "Hasta el Friday!"

I'm involved in a powerful thing. I'm a white kid going every day into a world that is seldom seen by white eyes. And it's not only racial. These are immigrant families, now undeniably American, who find themselves in the Babelian Library of Brooklyn, an endless honeycomb of hexagonal parlors and tight corridors. These schools fail to meet standards and probably don't prepare many kids for college. But perhaps I get to touch a few kids, and make an impact. Maybe I can get them to think about college, and beyond.

They have certainly touched me, impacted me, and helped me to see another reality of mi patria. There must be a way to bring a community like East New York together with Steamboat and Minneapolis and Vernal. And Avellaneda and Shanghai and Lyon, for that matter.