Monday, November 30, 2009
Why Do You Serve?
My elementary school site absolutely loves Generations Incorporated. I generally get stopped in the hall about 20 times a day by children asking me to take them to read. If it is a child that I know we serve regularly, I tell them that they will need to wait their turn to see their reading coach. If it is a child that I don’t recognize, I usually ask them who their teacher is and tell them that they need permission from them before they can read with us. Today, just like any other day, I was stopped by a child on her way to the restroom with the question “Can you take me to read, please?” So, as usual I told her to ask her teacher. After she used the restroom, the first grader approached me a second time.
“Excuse me, do you take kids who don’t know how to read good?” she asked.
“No, we are coaches who help kids read the best that they can,” I replied.
“Oh okay. I really want to read with you because my parents can’t read with me at home,” she said, “my daddy works all day and night and my mommy is blind so she can’t help me.”
It took everything that I had to not show this child the internal struggle that was brewing, because anyone who knows me knows that I cry at just about anything that is remotely heartfelt. All of the training in the world could not have prepared me for this sobering encounter with a six year old. It was about the equivalent of watching an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and an SPCA commercial with Sarah Mclachlan belting out the song “Angel.” It was enough to melt the heart of Cruella Deville. After speaking to her teacher, I learned that the child is already receiving outside help for a large portion of the week. Since the child took such initiative to be a part of our program, her teacher was happy to find a spot in her schedule to allow the girl to read with us twice a week.
It is difficult to put into words the effect that these kids have on me. They tend to put everything into perspective, making this experience more meaningful and important than I could have ever imagined. Each day brings on new surprises, challenges, and rewards. Experiences like the one with this child today are sure to stick with me for life.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
When Violence Rocks A School
The John Marshall School is located in the Bowdoin-Geneva section of Dorchester. The community suffers from the pangs of poverty: low employment, high drug use, related gang violence, and a severe lack of community resources. Hundreds of families struggle to make it through the day. Many send their children to the John Marshall School.
Last week, a young man was shot inside the school’s gym at 6:30 PM. He was chased outside where he was shot two more times. The victim survived. The shooter got away.
A week earlier, within a stone’s throw of the school, a man was killed execution-style at noontime. Last spring, teachers found a man shot to death in the school’s parking lot.
The Superintendent, members of the School Committee, police officials, and others visited the school last week, meeting with families and teachers, offering comfort and a commitment of resources. The John Marshall School needs more help because children cannot learn and teachers cannot teach when a school resembles a war zone. There is too much trauma.
The City is working hard to address these problems and some days it must seem like the hill is very, very steep.
While the officials were walking through the school, they came upon a large group of senior citizens, quietly working with individual students who struggle with reading. These are Experience Corps members, 25 in number, and trained as literacy tutors. Last year, they volunteered more than 7,500 hours to the Marshall School. These seniors are real heavy lifters.
They have been coming to the John Marshall School for seven years, day after day. The principal, Theresa Harvey-Jackson, knows each by name and by his or her own personal story. There’s Manny and Hertisene, Ricki, and George, and 20 others who are of the community, ranging in age from 50 to 90. Many walk to the school, some take a bus or use the RIDE. A few need a cane to get around, and they have ailments that would slow down most people half their age.
But they show up, ready to move the proficiency needle forward. They show up when it’s cold, in the rain, when there is ice on the sidewalk. They show up when violence erupts, which for most people would be a legitimate reason to stay home. But it would never, ever occur to them to stay home. They love the school, the teachers, the principal, and mostly, the kids. They live in the community and are examples of the hope that resides in every neighborhood. They want the children to succeed and believe that they can. Nothing keeps them away.
This is very good news at a time when we could all use some.
Thank you, Manny, Ricki, Hertisene and George, and all of your teammates: You make the very steep hill in our city a little easier to climb.
Happy Thanksgiving.
To learn more, please visit www.generationsinc.org.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Introducing the 09/10 Generations Incorporated AmeriCorps Members
For our first AmeriCorps 2009/2010 blog entry, we wrote a song to the tune of Camp Grenada (Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda). This song introduces all of the new 9 AmeriCorps Members and gives a small window into our first month of orientation with Generations Incorporated. We hope you enjoy…keep an eye out for the video blog entry at a later date.
-Molly Dutter and Maddie Kiuttu
Goodbye Mother, Goodbye Father
I am off to, serve some others
Red Sox fans are, very vocal
I will have to drop my R’s so I sound local
On the first day, of orientation
We became members, of Generations
Got in groups to, scavenge Boston
Turns out that this East Coast city is quite awesome!
Got through one whole, month of training
Canceled hiking, cause it was raining
No one told us, about our cluster
Julie knew and said that we just had to trust her
Take me home to Coolidge Corner
There are five States to discover
Don’t touch Jason’s tortellini
Elvia is a Twitter Queenie
If you want to, see Zach cryin’
Watch a chick flick, with Meg Ryan
Lisa’s laugh is, quite contagious
Molly cut 2000 meatballs, how outrageous!
Oh but wait there’s, four more Staties
One’s a gent and, three are ladies
One is Amy, she’s a sweet one
One is Karleigh and when you’re with her you’ll have great fun!
Who’s got overalls, and a beard?
Look its Joe out, in Revere!
Then there’s Maddie, she’s a great chick
When you have a bad day she’s there for you real quick
What a great bunch, of new Staties
They were all born, in the eighties!
So glad they joined, the team this year
Hope our singing was too not bad and hurt your ear!
