Each class has a name, like Berber, Wolof and Shona. Computers are part of the routine. Transcendental meditation is a morning and afternoon ritual. It helps them focus. At the front of their classroom, teacher Susan Morawski, her blond hair wrapped in a ponytail, sits at a projector that casts onto a screen a paragraph of correctly and incorrectly spelled words.
Hands eagerly extend upward to point out the next error to be corrected.
Most of the children are engaged. One sleepy boy rests his head on crossed arms atop his desk. There have been some changes at Nataki Talibah since it became a charter school. N'Namdi can't mandate parental involvement. Students have to take the state tests.