They go on a field trip to a work site. They take their paychecks to the bank and set up accounts. It's a mixture of job, fun, and academics. When school starts in the fall, she adds, these kids also have an important leg up on school procedures. Given the enormous scale of public school systems, little wonder that these fragile phenomena disappear so easily under the weight of bureaucracy.
Principals bounce from school to school without regard to the continuity of their programs.
Districts or states institute new tests, regulations, or programs. In order for teachers to do better with children who have long fallen through the cracks, they need not just the support of families and community, but the sustained support of policy makers as well. But they never got to you. Whether they will reach their goals may now depend not only on the efforts of these students, but on the belief, the courage, and the sheer persistence of the adults who teach and guide them. CJ, The Journal of the Annenberg Challenge, is published three times yearly at Brown University and made available at no charge as part of the Annenberg Challenge.