response to #2

So my CSLP experience has been a little abnormal, because I ended up switching schools since they couldn't use me on the day I could come to Hope Community. So now I go to Potomac Lighthouse, and it's great. I've learned a lot at both schools that can help me in my paper. At Hope Community, I spent one day alphabetizing free and reduced lunch forms for the students at the school. There were almost as many forms as there are students, showing that most of the students at the school live in poverty. My paper is about the parental role in education, especially when the family is poor, minority, or has broken homes. At Potomac Lighthouse, I've been doing a lot of one-on-one tutoring with the children, and so I've gotten to have a lot of personal conversations with them. Last week, I talked to a seven year old boy who lives with his mom, two brothers, and grandmother. He shares a bed with his two brothers, and every once in a while visits his dad in jail. When he goes home from school, he is in charge of his little brothers until his mom comes home from work. I heard similar stories from the other children I've worked with, and it is obvious that these children are growing up with burdens that most of us did not have to carry. I hope to use some of these stories in the second paper, the proposal letter.