The Other Half

I found, in the months since I left St. Louis, that I missed kids and I missed volunteering. I also have Mondays off, and only so many of them can be filled "taking care of life" -- running errands, paying bills, cleaning the house, etc. After many failed attempts to find a place to spend my Mondays, I ended up with a group that tutors at local elementary and middle schools. Sadly, none of the middle schools had Monday slots, so I am now tutoring 4th graders at Romeo Elementary.

I'm assigned to Mrs. Smith's room. (Each tutor is with one teacher.) The last time I went, I worked with one student on long division. I noticed that Mrs. Smith wore an electronic device around her neck. I have a friend with a hearing aide and it looked like the device that he hands to professors to help with the sound. I assumed that one of the students had a similar difficulty, although I couldn't identify the particular student.

Today, I stayed in the classroom for instructional time. During it, I noticed the amazing acoustics of the classroom -- Mrs. Smith was not speaking loudly, but her voice was on math : comparing fractions. I learned a "fail-proof" method of comparing fractions.

Then things got fun. She handed out egg cartons, plastic tokens, and string to pairs of kids and explained how to make fractions out of them. They divided the carton with strings. The number of holes became the denominator. Then they filled the holes with chips for the numerator. So maybe 3 of 6 holes had chips in them.

It was all very confusing, and I settled in with two boys and helped them figure it out. As I sat on the floor, Mrs. Smith kept talking. It dawned on me that I couldn't figure out where her voice was coming from. That's when I realized that she had a projection system in the classroom -- essential, she had a microphone!

I later learned that all the classrooms at Romeo are similarly equipped. They also have document projectors that show full-color images of objects. The President's Day display had legit colonial clothing on it. Both times, someone had left goodies in the office for teachers. It's fairly clear that this school has money. Earlier in the day, I had gone to read with 3rd graders at another school, similarly shiny and high-tech. I spent a few minutes in the library there -- a large, clean room, lined with organized books, bright and shiny with a plethora of tables and chairs. For a moment I saw my library from last year and my kids. I resented the abundance here and the lack there.

So by the time I figured out how loaded Romeo is, I was predisposed to be upset. I am already enjoying the kids and learning their fun personalities, but finding out that each classroom has microphones made me a little sick. How is it that schools across the nations have such disparities? Not only are these schools so much better off than mine last year, but St. Louis public schools are even worse. It's not right, the way some children have the world in their hands while others have so little education. But it's one of those problems in this world that I have no idea how to solve.