Post #2- Perfect Evidence

Both of the schools I worked in while volunteering with TTP had the exact types of environments which I am talking about in my paper. Aiton Elementary, the school I wrote about in my last blog, is 100% black and 94% of the kids qualify for the free or reduced lunch program. In addition, 95% of the kids are from the Lincoln Heights housing projects (I got this info from Aiton’s website through the DC Reads Page). Kenilworth Elementary is 99.7% black and 84.7% economically disadvantaged. I interacted with kids that were obviously facing problems with their home life. Many didn’t want to work because they were hungry, others were too worried about things going on at home to care about the latest adventures of Clifford the big red dog. It was obvious the parents weren’t able to give their kids the time they needed- these kids would do anything for attention. There was also a girl I suspected of being abused- she would cry often and when I put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her she shuttered. It is all of the struggles these children must go through before they even reach school which I wish to highlight in my paper. Additionally, I saw how far behind the children were in their reading skills—I tutored 3^rd graders that struggled to sound out “don’t.” Actually sitting down with the kids and seeing them struggle with every word really puts the statistics into perspective.