Fifth Post

So I've been really bad about posting of late, but here is fifth response:

Working at the charter school has allowed me to see first hand the topics we discuss in class. You can hear "a high percentage of DCPS students are far below grade level and many drop-out" but it does not have the same affect as watching a 19 year old student struggle reading a 5th grade level book, or seeing an 18 year old student be confused with adding negative numbers. It's hard to really grasp the reality of the problem without seeing the people who have become the statistics.
Most of my experience tutoring and teaching has been children who are either new to the country or catholic school over-achievers. I had never before worked with students who the system had completely left behind. Even when I was tutoring spanish-speaking low-income children, they program I worked at was in place to keep those children at grade level, and keep them from becoming like the children at the Next Step.
I plan to teach someday, probably as a second or third career (studies show that our generation will have something like four careers), and working at the Next Step helped me to see how important it is to be able to be flexible about teaching technique, and how important it is to be able to work with students individually. Also, how important it is to teach to a student in his/her native language. I know the constitution has never upheld it, but I really believe that for at their first year in the school system, students should learn the curriculum in their native language and take classes in English. I know it's extremely expensive and with some languages, really not pheasible, but if it keeps a child from dropping out and eventually being homeless, is it not worth it?