With the last two posts detailing the bleak realities of the dropout crisis, I thought I’d share my slightly more optimistic experience as a new tutor at Graham Hill Elementary. The idea to become a tutor came to me after a Communities in Schools (CIS) newsletter came across my desk. Lately, it has been easy for me to bemoan the “failing education system” – dropout rates soaring, inequalities rampant, test scores low, a diploma that doesn’t effectively prepare students – with each issue compounding on itself, I get more and more disillusioned. It has been less appealing and quite overwhelming to actually get my hands dirty and DO something, until now….

Last Tuesday, I met Petrina Fisher, executive director of CIS of Seattle, in the gym of Graham Hill Elementary. As we sat on the narrow bench of a lunchroom table, she told me that CIS connects members of the community to schools in their neighborhood in order to help build a network of support for students. Graham Hill is just one of the many schools in Seattle that is supported by CIS. Petrina asked if I would be up for the challenge of tutoring 2nd and 3rd grade math students once a week after school. Absolutely!

I learned that I will be joining a teacher, a group of fellow tutors and 8-12 students after school to work on homework and practice math concepts. Students are invited to join the program once teachers see that they need extra help and support. In addition to the academic support, tutors offer the student a relationship with a caring adult in their community. When considering that about 40 percent of eventual dropouts can be identified in the 6th grade (from my previous post), I can’t help but think that supporting struggling 2nd and 3rd graders will help to deter potential dropouts. My first day as a math tutor is next week! I will keep you posted on how it goes.

Now, I know that I am not going to singlehandedly improve the education system and I am certainly not the first person to contribute their time and effort to help students succeed, but I think spending a couple hours a week with a student is much more productive than simply griping about the problem and taking no action at all. I would love to hear your inspiring stories about the action you take. How are you contributing to the solution?