These volunteers read, talk, and do artwork with low-income children, most of them 3 to 5 years old. When you go to work with these children, it gives you a lot of perspective. Sometimes I think I'm learning more from the children than they're learning from me. Normally, the employer pays 40 percent of a student's paycheck and the federal government foots the balance. To encourage college students to join a national network of reading tutors, President Clinton changed the rules so that 100 percent of a tutor's wages can come from the federal government.
College students love to work with kids, and kids love to learn from college students.