I had sat with Betty Xiong at lunch here one day in second grade, and she had shyly whispered that Hmong girls couldn't be teachers. Her friends had told her so. This confused her because she wanted to be a teacher. Past the lunchroom I came to the computer lab that was equipped with 30 iMacs. In 1988 the most high-tech instrument in Chapman's class was the overhead projector.
Technology is now a class and a grade.
But the demographics, the new technology and the school's new approaches aren't the only changes I've observed. As I've watched this class grow into young adults, I've married and had a child of my own. One important thing I've learned is to get involved early in my child's education. I can see that in my negatives from the first grade open house in September 1988. Children whose parents attended that evening, who rifled through their kid's desks, checked out their crayon boxes, examined their child's art on the classroom walls and met the teacher, are now confident, collegebound and thriving.